[SOLD] Gerard Deulofeu

Bit of a step down for him, but I guess no one wanted to take a chance with his injury.

 

To be fair, if we are not desperate for anymore money, surely it is outstanding business to keep Deulofeu close and potentially bring him back if we go up?

Playing devils advocate, that’s all.

 

How the **** do you think we are going to go up with the squad we currently have?

If we are not desperate for money, why would we loan / gift our best player by a country mile?

I can understand selling him if the offer is there, but this is utterly scandalous.

We are giving away Geri for nothing and looking to replace him with Atsu....

 

I think the vast majority on here will talk about how it is inevitable business, rather than outstanding business.

 

But why?

No other club in the world would do this, so why is it "inevitable"?

 

I'd much rather have got money for him, but in this current climate, that was always going to be difficult. I hope Udinese are covering his wages (they'll be far more than any of their players including Pereyra, but if he's there for a season it'd be just over £3m if no loan fee which isn't extortionate). Better hope he doesn't prove to be an utter flop there, we go up and he might come back, or if he's really good and doesn't fancy coming back, we can get some wedge for him

 

I would have thought that Deulofeu would have broken Udinese wage cap - we must be picking up a significant portion of that.

Has to be another player coming this way.

 

We don’t know the terms with which we are letting him go though?

And if he’s a high earner who doesn’t want to stay? I’m with you on the majority of things you say - but this just seem overly critical to me. We’ve been told pretty consistently that he was leaving - what were you expecting?

If we go up, there’s a good chance Deulofeu rolls back into town almost like a free signing and people will rightly praise Gino for the business. I’ve been very critical of the club and owner this summer - but I don’t see the point in attacking them for this, seems misplaced to me.

 

Yes, Atsu is heavily rumoured. A more than suitable replacement.

 

The alternative was having him here paying £3m a year for him to recover when he so clearly doesn't fancy a cold night in Rotherham. Other clubs don't have the option to just send him to a sister club, it's not 'good business', but it's (slightly) better than nothing

 

With this one, I don't have a major issue with it, but does depend on the deal. If it's a loan, then it keeps him in the group. If it's a permanent deal, then I trust he'd want to come back to Watford if we go back up.

If he plays well at Udinese then he gets sold for a better price than he would have gone for now. If he signs for Udinese, the Pozzos can extend his contract for longer, so the asset is protected. The fact he's still part of the group makes it easier to switch him back to us.

It's probably a compromise. Clearly Geri doesn't want Championship football on his CV, and to be fair, I don't blame him.

In all reality, we've not had him in our team since the Liverpool match. It's still going to take some time to get up to speed. He probably wouldn't been ready to play until December at the earliest.

For me, the best case scenario would have been to have kept him until January....but he would have gone at that point, no doubt about it. At least now we have the illusion he may come back to us. Not a disastrous outcome by any means.

 

Geri has an injury and wouldn't be playing until at least December and he is probably on about 70 grand a week, no one wanted to take the risk and pay for him, and he probably isnt willing to play in The Championship. Pereyra had given up a long time ago and clearly did not want to be at the club anymore. Was Pusetto one of our top players? We got a good fee for Estupinan who had a one year left on his contract and decent money for Suarez who clearly didn't want to play for us. Got an okay fee for Doucoure who was never staying around for Championship football and had high wage demands. Meanwhile we have allegedly turned down 35 million and put a 50 million pound price tag on Ismaila Sarr. We still have a very good squad for the Championship with some important players to come in. Adding to that we dont really know what the undisclosed fees are.

 

Exactly. People on here genuinely thought someone was going to come along and pay £25M for a player with a busted knee.

Our fan base never fails to amaze me with their lack of critical thinking skills.

 

Guess this move puts him in the shop window for his preferred Milan destination. Can only hope there's an unofficial sell-on clause when he goes there in Jan.

 

I think you overestimate the forum.

 

Very much protecting the group's assets rather than the team. We've clearly got no takers for several of our players so we're not going to try to drop the price too low and would rather keep them happy and send them to Udinese so they can continue to play top flight football.

But... This is inevitably going to have a knock on effect on our ability to pay off any debt as we're effectively getting rid of assets for nothing (ok we'll be saving on wages). Sign of the times I guess, bet the Udinese fans are ******* themselves.

 

We don't need to keep him all year. We are panicking and getting a **** deal on deadline day when the market opens again in 2 months.

 

Yeah, Saturday was disappointing, but come on, top 6 clearly isn't out of our grasp, is it? Besides, on paper he's out best player by a country mile, but he's also crocked, on big wages and doesn't want to be here. We could have kept him and have him in the treatment room for a long time, only to come back and look a shadow of his former self

 

Pozzos looking after their asset.

 

OK, he might have had a handful of games to prove his fitness, but I don't see clubs magically finding that 20 odd mil behind the sofa in January

 

Loan with no option to buy, I will take that all day.

Keeps him in the family for our inevitable return to the Prem next season, so he comes home.

Somehow, if we fail to do that and he has a great season in a top European league, then we will get a crap ton of money for him next summer. It’s a win win.

This also gets him off our wage bill. His wages reportedly £3.1mil-3.3mil a year. Even if we’re picking up 50%, that still reduces our wages by £1.5-1.6mil.

There really is nothing bad about this deal.

 

Honestly think our current squad is mid table quality at best and we are forced to play some of our best players out of position because we can't fund incoming transfers. I don't see how this deal helps with that.

 

Completely agree. When it was made clear he was leaving, this was always the deal I wanted us to try and do if finances allowed.

 

Ryan Gray

@ObserverRyan
·
2m

Deulofeu move to Udinese is a loan rather than a permanent transfer

 

The only bad thing is if he doesn't show his old form, we're not going to get big money for him (although we were clearly struggling to attract a decent fee for him anyway)

 

Guess it was inevitable, he's still injured so not much use to anyone else and clearly doesn't want to be here either.

 

Agreed. It's such a good deal for us, I'm surprised we haven't done it with Sarr.

 

We've got 7 points without our best player in Hughes, and basically without a striker, definitely not time to panic yet

 

Agree likewise. I had 100% accepted he was leaving. The way I'm reading this deal is that our financial situation is such that we weren't desperately trying to flog him off for <£10m to anyone that came knocking, and whilst no one is willing to meet a proper valuation of him, he stays in the family.

 

Hughes is one of my favorite players, but he doesn't score or create goals. He didn't do it for Derby and he hasn't done it for us.

We still don't have any goals in this side and we don't look to bringing in anyone to change that.

We will have the best squad of nice tidy players, while losing games like last weekend's because we can't score goals.

Maybe my reaction is a bit melodramatic, but it just feels like last summer all over again where there is a clear and obvious problem with the squad, and the owners look to be doing absolutely nothing to address it.

 

Give Woodward a call and let him know we’re willing to talk.

 

No other club in the world would do what? Reduce their wage bill after relegation? Loan out or sell players who see Championship football as below them (in some cases rightly)?

This is where I think some folk are losing the plot a bit and seeing a Gino-shaped conspiracy hiding round every corner.

 

Lol some people thought he’d play in the Championship.