What is the point? Might as wellas play with 10 men. Ofcourse our players are not good enough for this league skill wise but at least most try....the about does not sadly apart from the odd occasion here and there. Yet some fans still moan about Mahon! Robbie Savage and his Turkish mate will have a field day on Tuesday if the waster from Wigan plays I hate to say! Give Al another chance...he might not the best on the ball but gets stuck in until Williamson is fully fit.
Of course most of the players under-performed yesterday and Francis isnt good enough for the Premiership but i do feel he is used as a scapegoat on the boards sometimes. Yesterday was not his worst game of the season, he did make a few good touches and for the first 10 mins started to put himself about a bit.
The problem is there's no passion. Most of us wouldn't mind if he put in a poor performance as long as he's trying. just look at Bangura, not the best in the world but he keeps trying and that's what we want. You would think that someone would point out to the guy that this must be last chance for him in the prem now as he's been pony at the last three clubs he's played for. If he's not going to try, kick him out along with the others who are just collecting their inflated wages.
Maybe it is a 'scapegoat' situation but he did cost 1.3 million and came with a decent reputation/ Premiership experience unlike our others players. Do not get me wrong...other players have been poor but I half expected that really. Maybe Aidy should be questioned for buying somebody who is clearly not suited to our style?
Scapegoat? Hahahahahaha no mate! He's a lazy git! If he worked his nuts off but lacked quality (like most the squad) then he'd certainly get no abuse from me! Can't speak for everyone else but that's my personal opinion! He just strolls around the pitch without a care in the world...probably wondering how he can spend his money!
Ok dont get me wrong i didnt say Francis had a good game and has by no means justified the fee we paid for him, but i just think that many other players had worse games than him yesterday namely smith and stewart. Thats just my opinion.
Francis has been an unqualified failiure and to my memory, has put in only two decent performances this whole season (Sputs and Boro at home). He is a lazy passenger who has failed to up his game, even after the gaffer took the desperate step of dropping him for an 18 year old. He should be sent packing in the summer if a buyer can be found. He will never be an asset to our club.
Although I agree that he should be giving more I agree that he is a bit of a scapegoat. He is still much better and more effective than Bangura (IMHO) and he was no worse than anyobody else yesterday and started the game very brightly. Stewart, Smith, Priskin, Mackay, Marriapa are not Premiership quality and you can not afford to carry that many players when you also have others not performing (yesterday - Francis and) Mahon. Its easy to se why we are struggling.
Al Bangura who is 18 has ONE bad game and is now crap,ineffective and useless accoring to some? However Damien Francis who cost a fair bit,is on a good wage and very experience can be crap but he is only a 'scapegoat' who 'cannot cope with our style of game' I do not expect great things from a young player each game but expect some sort of effort and desire for more than 5 minutes at the start of a game from somebody who has played at the top level before. Bangura will improve with age and already has good defensive qualities like Mahon..I cannot see this bloke not doing that or even bothering.
O.K, well let's forget about who cost what, age and everything else. In Lehmans Terms (In My Opinion) Francis is still more effective than Al and I would rather see his name on the teamsheet. Of course its a fair enough comment to state the price he cost and again I too get frustrated with his lack of effort at times, However, if you are judging on "What they bring to the team" I think Francis brings more. It's not just about "1 bad game either" I'm not saying Al is useless but I don't think he will ever be PREM quality. The ideal solution would be to bring somebody in that is!
Its a bit harsh to say that he will never be premiership quality because he is only young and will develop.
If Damian Francis is starting on tuesday when I get to the ground I will not be watching the match, i'll drive home! Bangura as stated above has ONE poor game all season (maybe in his career to date) and people would rather see someone that doesn't run, track back, tackle or have any positional sense in the team!!?? Crazy!
Perhaps he should be paid 11.1% recurring of his salary this week, it could be a new model for future contract negotiations - a sort of `pay as you play` option;D For all his problems kicking straight our opponents are scared by the diminutive Bang Bang! - who can develop into some player.
Al has looked better all round than Francis, who is a pointless selection. He offers nothing at all and should be driven out of Watford at the end of the season, by villagers with flaming torches and pitchforks if neccessary.
I have nothing against BangBang, but I do not think he is ready for the big time yet. He has got potential, but needs to learn to move with the ball or to pass it rather than just kicking it. Francis may be a lazy git, but we look a lot more likely to score when he plays than when he doesn't. Whether that is because we skip the midfield altogether or because he actually contributes something does not really matter. The important thing is that the team is more likely to win. Having a headless chicken running around and looking busy does not necessarily help us. Gavin Mahon does this in spades but his distribution is of limited help to us. He's a tackler trying to knock the ball free in the hope that some other Watford player can do something with it. Having BangBang hoof the ball in some random direction is not the solution. Yes, I am looking forward to Williamson being available to play. Still, I think Francis is an asset for us. More so than Malky. Give me DeMerit and Shittu any day... that is developing into a world class defensive partnership.
Mackays there for the experience i feel.... demerit at times (tho not often) does lack concentration and his positioning (again not often) sometimes lets him down. As for Francis, he's done nothing for me but then here are so many others who have struggled in this league. We need a creative player alongside mahon, bang bang should be back up to mahon but not sat alongside him as it doesnt work. In a way im glad youngs out of the side as he was never a centre forward and hopefully, with the right parnter, hoskins will flourish. Cant wait to see us spend the £15million we now have buring a hole in our pocket.
DeMerit has saved our bacon at least twice this season with goal-line clearances that were nothing short of miraculous... That back-heel flip has to be save of the season ! MacKay is too slow and does not have the co-ordination or the understanding with Shittu that DeMerit has... I worry that he has suddenly returned to the side since getting the Coaching job. Despite what we might like to think, just because someone is good at Teaching does not mean that they can actually Do It. Heck, I have taught loads of people to play Squash and been beaten by every one of them ! Experience only counts if it outweighs your weaknesses (Pat Rice may have been the classic example for us). If your experience does not allow you to be in the right place to snuff out danger, it's not much use. DeMerit may make positional mistakes, but he has the pace to fix them often as not. MacKay does not and I don't think his positional sense is all that great to start with.
Yeah i agree siggy, I wasnt really having a go at Jay... i just think that Aidys got problems with the pair of them. Jay needs someone to learn from, WE SHOULD HAVE BROKEN THE BANK AND SIGNED SOL CAMPBELL Oops, actually we wouldnt have broken the bank.... we just werent ambitious enough.
Also why would Sol Campbell come here? Not only that but if you offer someone 60k a week how do you think that will go down with the rest of the squad!? Oh and there is no way we'll spend £15,000,000 in transfers...get with the real world fella! Oh and isn't it interesting to hear Aidy say he'll have all £8,000,000 to spend from Young's deal?! After all the moaning you did KJ about the club not allowing him to have it I hope you'll give the board abit of credit! I doubt this very much though
I havent said that i dont think the board will give Aidy the money bubble. Lets face it, they'd be hung drawn and quartered if they didnt. What i am expecting though, is Ash's money PLUS the budgeted transfer money to be kept available in one big pot (which i work out could be as much as £15million) I DO agree that the right players need to be brought in (in time) but this needs to have happened by end of Jan 2008. Just one thing bubble.... i expected the club to put in a bogger effort to stay up than they have. Ever since the end of May, every month thats past has been a dissappointment. Right up to the beginning of Jan, people were excited and wondering who we'd bring in.... instead we've lost Ash and spent F*** ALL so far. People keep saying give him time but we didnt bring anyone in, in the summer so what were our scouts doing in September and october and november and december. Since May we've had 7 months to find a player or two capable enough.... yet Aidys trialling tons of nobodies in the hope we'll pick up a bargain. Utter booloox! I think its disgraceful and no amount of "spin" and politics is going paper over the cracks in this doomed ship. bubble, I admire your will to stay positive but im bloody furious with the clubs efforts and their lack of ambition. Ive said this previously but i'll say it again, this isnt negative drivel from me.... its criticism and I, like everyone else, am entitled to criticise. I personally still think that with the right signings, we could still stay up. Just one other thing, a reporter at todays press conference highlighted Portsmouths escape from relegation last season and cited the number of players they broight in during the window as their reason for escape. Aidy went... It worked for them but there is a big difference in that Portsmouth are a bigger club than we are and had a sugar daddy at that time," Boothroyd said. "It was a gamble that paid off for them but we have got to be a lot more sensible and take more calculated risks in what we do." Hmmmmm can anyone remember how much they spent to get out of the "zone". Not quite as much as Ashley Young. ]
They spent about what Ash costs on three Tottenham players! Sean Davies, Pedro Mendes and Noe Paramot! These players were not needed by Spurs and the wages and transfer fee's were paid by Gydamak! It would be too much of a risk to do the same thing! i think we're too far adrift to spend now! Aidy made a great point earlier on SSN! He said 'clubs will try to get more money out of us because they know we've got it'! So we'll be signing players for more than their value! We need alot of re-shaping done to our squad and the best time to do this is in the summer...not in 9 days! We need to shift alot of dead wood and bring in 7-8 players in the summer with the money from Ash's sale and whatever else is available to spend! I say we have to write off this season as a learning curve (sadly) and look to strengthen in the summer for a promotion push, keeping the spine of the side that took us up last season! (Foster? Demerit, Mahon, King and Henderson...aswell as Shittu)!
fair points bubble, i just wont give up the hope thats all (plus i'll be losing a fair bit of money to all those that took the bets) Im going to bed..... will attempt to sleep on this one!
I also stand to lose a few quid because I thought we'd finish about 15th! Nevermind! A young squad and a young manager, i'm sure this will stand us in a good position for the future! Lessons will be learnt, and next time we come up i'm sure Aidy will look to add more quality (he needs to, because the gulf in quality between fizzy pop and prem is HUGE)! We really lack an experienced centre back to partner Danny (don't think Jay is up to it)...we lack a creative midfielder (Koumas, Dunn) and a goal poacher!
Kingjames, you have criticised the CLUB, which is wrong as i'm pretty certain that they made the money available to Boothroyd and gave him their full support in what he did with it. Now you should blame AB because he hasn't done enough with it. He underestimated the gulf in ability between the CCC and the prem and at the end of the day it has cost us, he thought we could manage with a squad which consisted mainly of last years team which to be quite frank was foolish and you don't need to be an experienced manager to see that !
it does not suit you are now branded as someone who only talks about chavs maybe deep down you wish you were one i doubt it
