Current Squad - Cowards

Not quite right GD. The advancement of the club on the pitch will be a priority whenever it coincides with the owners’ ability to make money.

But then that’s the same as nearly every club in the land except those owned by a fan or a country.

 

If there is a silver lining at the moment, it's that we do have some quality in the squad that at the moment aren't even necessarily getting on the bench. If Quique has the guts to make a few changes, dropping a few of the usual suspects, it might just freshen things up and give the team some impetus/confidence.

The problem right now (apart from the lack of quality in defence) is the team spirit and confidence levels. That is what needs to change for us to start playing well again.

So bring in the likes of Quina, Sarr, Janmaat, Masina, Chalobah to the starting XI, and just maybe their motivation to take their chance could spark something in the team as a whole.

 

Been going since 1982, I've seen some very good Watford teams and some very bad Watford teams. I honestly can not remember a Watford team as gutless as this one.

 

Hold up fella, the happy clappers will be on to pour scorn on you soon. There is a boy in another thread absolutely frothing at the moment.

I do agree with you though.

Gutless is this team.

 

All this information would be available in the annual statements - i’ll have a dig later.

 

I had a look through at the time and seem to remember thinking the interest rates were high - a point touched on by Swiss Ramble on Twitter.

I to shall have a look.

 

I don't have a problem if Gino is taking money out of the club through clever accounting. It's his money. He took an ailing club, with debt, heading towards administration and a very bleak future. He's turned it around into a viable Premier League club.

He deserves to make as much money as he can from the venture. We've improved as a club on and off the field and that's all anyone should really care about.

 

I guess i'm a happy clapper, but this thread is ridiculously over the top. The team obviously has no confidence at the moment; not surprising given the dreadful run.

What exactly do think you are going to achieve with this bile? Release 12 players from their contracts? Yes, we were **** yesterday. We are **** against the very top sides. Maybe it's a mental thing. This is not going to help except to give voice to some internalised age and entitlement.

 

You probably didn’t agree that Baz could take money out you hypocrite. A bit of cladding and some mercenary signings from abroad and there you are spreading yourself for Gino.

You have just stated that you are happy for Gino to take whatever he wants.

 

When you’re a football fan it can be so frustrating as there is very little you can do about any scenario. So it’s no wonder people call for big changes and get over emotional at the bad times.

I don’t know if the whole squad can be labelled as cowards, but they put in an embarrassingly poor performance yesterday (not the first time against the top 2) and as a group they’ve not covered themselves in glory with their after game interviews, and that includes the manager.

 

I thought most EPL teams employed sports psychologists? I guess Watford don't?

 

Nothing over the top - even if we'd won our previous 5 yesterday would be beyond pathetic.

5-0 after 18 minutes, look at the ******* goals, it's literally people just not trying nothing to do with ability. Femenia, Holebas, Mariappa and Foster should never play for this club again.

Foster laughing after the game and asking for Aguero's shirt is downright disgusting.

 

Could the problem be with the so-called 'leadership group'? To start with I have to say I'm not completely sure who they are but I believe Deeney, Foster, Dawson, Gomes and Marriapa are among them. Their 'leadership' is influential with the younger members of the team and may also act as a bit of a self-interested union influencing the coach, possibly even Gino. Last year at a fans forum there was a discussion about the best way to qualify for Europe; if we had the choice was it best to attain 7th place or win the FA Cup? Naturally, most fans wanted to win the FA Cup but Deeney said 7th place "because we might get all the way to the final and then get spanked by City!" That tells you his mindset and I believe the way our senior players were (and still are) thinking!

 

If you are anything other than absolutely livid and completely inconsolable after an 8-0 loss as a professional footballer then you are a ****ing disgrace.

Every one of those spineless t*ssers should be furious, ashamed, embarrassed and devastated.

 

What yesterday proved is that we could get ****ed 10-0 by Luton, the team could come over after the game and urinate over the Watford support before celebrating in the Luton dressing room with them afterwards and even then, some would still find an excuse for them on here.

 

Yes agreed.

Look at the recruitment team that signed them. One of the major facets of making a signing in this day and age is the personality of the player.

Clearly those checks by and large weren't very thorough.

 

Correct, this is the same thing I have quoted else where (by and large). If you don’t play the party line of “Watford and all those associated with it can do no bad” then you get shouted down.

This lack of respect and balls from the players comes from the fact they know the lilly livered, soft, cuckold supporters will never hold them to account.

 

It merits a thread per player imho.

 

In my time four relegations and the death of GT are far worse than yesterday.
He is in to for the money which means we have to be reasonably successful on the pitch to achieve this. Can he take us to the next level? Financially probably not but who would want to. We’re a very small club that I can’t imagine is attractive to billionaires but do we want that? The entitlement of some people on here now makes me wish we were back in the days where we really did have something to complain about.

 

He hasn’t deficated on you as you so politely put it. He has actually given the club its most successful era for 30 years and second most successful ever!
Unfortunately what it produces is spoilt brat syndrome.
He may not splash the cash but maybe he’s looking at the bigger picture and that he wants to leave us in a healthy position unlike the Bolton owners and a few others.
Personally I would rather he did that than gamble with the clubs future. Having said that, I would spent the Sarr money on different players, defensive ones which is disappointing.

 

Once again. It is NOT “entitled” to be disappointed about being 5-0 down after 18 minutes. You really won’t tolerate any criticism of the club will you?

 

I have been talking about Pozzo out discussion. I’ve said in many posts what dreadful day yesterday was but I will stand by the fact there have been worse days. If you had read the post you replied to you would have seen that.
I will happily criticise yesterday, not remotely acceptable

 

Is there a charity for clowns with no backbone?

 

I just want to know where the team from the second half against Arsenal went? It was ******* shambolic from start to finish. Individuals being unable or not wanting to do their jobs properly. OK where not as skillful as Man City. But at least match them or better off beat them with passion, fight and dignity. Working harder than the opposition cost nothing. It honestly looked liked some of them didn't care and that's the scariest thing for me.

 

Agreed, I don’t think they care one jot, it really is appalling.

Don’t worry though, a healthy section of the support base think it’s fine so, please, don’t worry.

 

Is utterly insane when you think about it. I've played in matches against teams several leagues above us and yes, been thrashed, but never ever been 5 down in 18 minutes.

When it was boys v girls at primary school I don't recall we thrashed them to that degree.

It's just absolutely mental and quite frankly the most humiliating 18 minutes there's ever been in professional sport.

 

The bright side of a defeat like yesterday’s is that the forum is very much more entertaining than in the aftermath of a routine 2-0 win.

 

For a start Flores dropped half of them.

 

LOL

 

I have to disagree with this actually.

You say that "I am not talking ability here. I am talking about guts, passion and personal pride. We have had far far less technically / talented players but what they have lacked in ability they make up for in work rate."

However, our current squad is still fundamentally the exact same one that for the season up until the Wolves semi-final were making up in work rate what they lacked in ability. With the same players we went from 7th and on the verge of Europe, to dropping like a stone and finishing the season 11th (with some shocking performances and numerous mistakes along the way), and that decline has continued in to this season.

Our team over the last few seasons, including most of last, has tended to be hard-working, physically tough, and practically thuggish at times (our dreadful disciplinary record is testament to that). The likes of Holebas, Cathcart, Mariappa, Capoue, Doucoure, Hughes and Gray have generally worked their socks off over the years.

There are clearly a number of factors at play as to why the team has declined so dramatically since the Wolves game, just saying lack of work rate is too simplistic. It wasn't lack of work rate that saw Doucoure already scoring a poor own goal and giving away a cheap penalty this season. It wasn't a lack of work rate that made Cathcart gift the ball to Shane Long after 10 seconds at the end of last. It's not been lack of work rate that has made Foster continuously make terrible judgements in rushing off his line to try and collect balls he's never going to make. It's not a lack of work rate that makes Dawson an utter donkey.

It could well be that since the exertions of the Wolves game the team has effectively peaked/over-exerted itself and never recovered. We do have a lot of players past their prime years and it could have suddenly caught up with them. The players could have also maybe lost their focus after reaching the cup final, and never regained it. There could be some confidence issues. There could be something else more fundamentally problematic at the club which we don't know about.

All these things are also before we consider the obvious fact that our defence has been poor for a long time (even before our players started getting ancient), and also overlooking the lack of new goalscorer we've been crying out for since Ighalo stopped scoring.

Sure the players could be trying harder, but a lot of them are the same players that tried hard and used to be sharper/more switched-on in the past, so there has to be much more to it than that. And if complacency has crept in, the question needs to be asked as to why it is there now, when it wasn't there less than 6 months ago amongst the same group of players?

 

The other bright side is that finally, I no longer look on our cup final defeat as the most humiliating thing I've seen our club endure.

 

And it only took 4 months!

 

Kicking a football about?

 

Did you ever concede 5 in 18 minutes?

 

Did you not get the memo?

EVERYTHING IS FINE