Gino Pozzo - Owner

I am glad I'm not the only one who doesn't think that Arsenal in the cup has been our only good performance of 2016, but even so I think you're being a tad generous.

Spurs was not a good performance by any stretch of the imagination other than the goalkeeping which remarkably kept the scoreline down to 1-0, and the last three were pretty average. West Ham we looked quite good in the middle of the park, for once passing the ball about with purpose, but were let down by once again few clear cut chances and for once woeful defensive mistakes the other end.

From your list, I'd keep the first five, but swap Spurs away with Chelsea at home and ditch the last three.

Waiting for it to return, you mean? I wouldn't have said that spell when we won six out of eight games and scored 15 goals (including 20 shots against West Ham) showed a "lack of offensive ambition".

Our lack of goals since the New Year is more due to Ighalo's goals drying up and having little to no other attacking options than an attempt to stop teams Pulis-style, and also a drop of form and confidence from potential match winners/game changers.

 

Ahahaha Boring James, considering you said Bournemouth WOULD get relegated playing 'exciting' football, that question has the foundation of quicksand.

 

What is your point? You seem to be saying pretty much 99% the same as the rest of us, but making out you have some special understanding about the situation that sets you above everyone.

 

In the grand scheme of things football is pretty trivial. I dont understand why people get so heated about it that they even argue amongst their own. Just remember we are all related, we are all brothers and sisters connected by DNA.

 

Our goals before new year were due to Ighalo's incredible form, constantly bailing us out, which couldn't be maintained.

We essentially have few other ideas how otherwise to score.

We have no players ahead of the ball, little movement and nobody breaking into the box to get on the end of crosses. It's horrible to watch.

 

I would agree that they were reasonable in as much that the scores were fairly close, but we rarely looked like scoring more than we did. To me the only game where we gave it a go was away at Spam.

Unfortunately, I feel that if QSF gets a full pre season all that will happen is a more of the same. He has developed a reputation for being an ultra defensive coach over many years and he won't be changing in a few months whilst he and everyone around him think that he has been a tremendous success avoiding relegation and getting 13 points out of the last 51 is nothing to moan about.

Fortunately, whilst many on here think that things are fine as they are, I think Gina will want a change.

 

Personally I don't think we have really got any worse, not based on this one result anyway. Palace managed to beat us at their place even though we had been winning and we shaded it at home while they were in freefall (but that ended some weeks ago). Despite the doom and gloom there wasn't that much between us yesterday over the 90 minutes and once again it was just by the odd goal (yes I know we can play better).

I can't see us not beating Villa and Norwich, Liverpool we should get smashed on current form but will we? I doubt it .... Then there's Sunderland, if they still need the points they may well beat us under Allardyce but it won't suddenly make us rubbish.

 

Swap exciting for entertaining and my answer would be yes. Thing is, entertaining teams don't get relegated.

 

Spurs away we were dominated for 90 mins. So so negative that day but it helped keep the score down. Mostly agree with the rest though.

 

Let's have incest

 

I get what u mean but hope I'm not connected to some of the WFC fans DNA I saw at Wembley...

And u'r right - football isn't that important overall (as an acquaintance vividly brings home when he told me last week he has inoperable cancer)

But

The Hornets are very emotionally important - And I do want to be cheering and singing a team who are trying to entertain.

I've calmed down a bit after yesterday and Troy is pretty sensible in his analysis on Hornets player - to the effect we will look back in the summer and regard it as a pretty successful season, and must now show no fear and go all out for the momentum of good results in the remaining games.

And whether QSF stays or goes I'm happy either way AS LONG AS he shows a bit more attacking ambition and learns to mix it up when plan A isn't working.
Can he do that if he gets another season?

But the fact there was no club statement trying to quash any speculation that could affect player performance before such an important game is pretty ominous - it's a pity as I like him.

Thank God the Pozzos are professional football businessmen with the experience and contacts and cash to hopefully get it right whatever their decision.

 

Jeez, dont you read anything. It is about the last 4 months! Not one game.

 

Clearly there are problems with QSF and I would nt be gutted if we upgraded on him in the summer but I m finding the tone and vernacular of many of the forum posts from the past 2 days, more akin to twitter football fans, or plastic Mancs at not winning the title or part time Chelsea fans baying for Mourinhos blood .

I always feared mild EPL success would bring out the worst in this forum , but didn't think it would happen so quickly .

 

On the other end of the spectrum, it's hard to actually create a plan B with the players in the squad right now. Had any of Ibarbo, Berghuis, Diamanti actually worked out then we'd have a lot more flexibility in the squad. We simply don't have that now so are stuck with one approach.

 

Yeah but you said you'd rather lose. You lose games and you get relegated no? This season was survival and it's been done with practical and boring football. Do I care? No. Next season is the season where we get the attacking players in to take us to another level.

 

Depressing isn't it. Speechless at some of the stuff I'm reading on here.

 

Vydra and Forestieri. Sorry to bring it up again but it's not getting any better with time.

 

We're six points down on the half seasons results and West Ham accounts for 3 of those. Simply the games have come in a different order, a couple of them against teams in better form.

 

The first 17 games gave us 28 points. The second 17 games gave us 13 points.

15 points difference.

 

I said results not points

 

Quique reshaped the squad purposefully, and actually stated that he doesn't believe in having a plan B. He stated that he doesn't like to 'unsettle' his teams by changing formations etc.

I'm not going to trawl the web for links at this time of night, but I can't believe I'm the only one who remembers him saying this.

I questioned it very early on in the season when we were top of the 'half time league', which I saw as a huge red flag that although the team can cut it at this level, his bloody-minded negativity was always going to place an unnecessarily low ceiling on our ambitions for this season.

 

Yep, I remember both those quotes.

Guess he didn't want to unsettle the unsettled team that had just conceded in an FA Cup Semi Final by changing formations.

 

Makes feel sad that people like you don't think surviving first year in the Prem is not an achievement, its embarrassing that you think mid table and a great cup run isn't a fantastic feat.

How did you cope when we were bottom half of league 1?

 

I genuinely feel that if we keep QSF, give him a pre-season, let him recruit, that we are sunk next season.
I don't think he has it in him to do any more than that which he has assembled now; he's a spent force.
Axing QSF at Christmas next season after this years form continues into the next and hastily throwing a new manager in and we're goners.
If it wasn't for Ighalos run of goals we would've gone down this year.
I was raised on the GT philosophy, that you need to get the ball into the box in order to score. Ok, GT took that philosophy to the max, and he had his critics, and the game has changed- but the point still stands.
I would love to see a move back in that direction.. wingers, lots of crosses into the box for a hungry Ighalo and Deeney ( if we are lucky enough to still have them next season).

QSF is a damn smart dresser, but for all his plaudits and compliments from the media and some fans, i fear he is wearing the Emperor's new clothes.

 

also feel his tactics have sucked the confidence out of Ighalo and neutered Deeney.

 

Not that I often agree with muffin but we really can't complain about this season ... However I do expect a little more positivity for next and subsequent ones while we develop ... Gino will think no differently so quite what ZZ and others are whining about is anyone's guess?

 

You're quite content with you've seen this year then i assume?

 

Yeah, it's better than when we were bottom of league 1.

 

Yes we can complain about this season. Read the posts. Gino has spent a lot of money on decent players, and they have not been used, and we are playing a style of football that is repeatedly failing without any attempt to make it work, other than just trying again.

I am glad someone is enjoying the ride. I appreciate what Quique has done, but I don't appreciate how he has done it.

I am also glad that you have come to embrace the hoof ball game, because I seem to remember you having pretty short shrift for it in the past.

 

12th and cup semi finalists? One of the best seasons this club has ever had, so yes, I am happy with what I've seen.

 

Is this a trick question? Every Watford fan should be delighted with staying up comfortably no matter what the team plays like. The first year you survive by any means necessary. We have an incredible amount of money heading our way and now we focus on improving year after year and establishing ourselves in this league.

 

You could have asked me how I felt when we were at the bottom of Division 4. It is all about relativity.

I felt that we can do better than this. Just like now. Elton said he wanted us to be in the top tier, he said it in front of millions on a stage on a Saturday night TV variety show and got laughed at.

When he and GT took us to promotion the next season, did they sit still, satisfy themselves with just avoiding relegation the next season? Did they heck! They went for promotion the following season and succeeded. Then again, and again until they got us to runners up in the top tier within 5 years and a Cup Final within 6 years.

Wimbledon and Wigan pulled off broadly similar feats from non league positions.

Nothing is impossible if the ambition and positivity is there.

Yet you, many others on here thing we should be creaming ourselves over finishing above relegation after just one promotion.

I would actually be doing the same if I thought we did the best we could with our squad, fought as hard as we could, played to win and finally scraped a 17th place and went out in the Semi Final with a battling display. I too would have been creaming myself, because we did the best we could do.

But we did neither of those. We had a squad capable of finishing in a European spot. Apart from around 3 or 4 games we didn't really reach near our potential, pre Christmas! But hell, we had almost a brand new squad and coach who had barely learnt to play together yet we were in 7th. Fantastic, and if we had just continued with our pre Xmas form without improving at all we would now be where West Ham are now. If we had improved just a bit as our squad jelled, we could be in a Euro spot now.

Remember we managed only 13 out of the last 51 points but we are still in 12th. How much better could we have been with a bit of ambitions?

It will become a cliche, I know, but Leicester proved that anything is possible. They did it with mostly cheap signings from lower divisions and overseas and we beat them to a Wembley play off final just 3 years ago and they were bottom of the Premier League just 16 months ago with the same owner. What is the difference between then and now?

The main difference is that they got rid of a competent but negative manager. Someone who spent his life scowling at the camera, at the media, fighting on the touchline, and blamed everyone else but himself and his players for what was going wrong. They replaced him with a breath of fresh air in Ranieri, who smiles, who breeds confidence in his players (mostly the same players) who doesn't complain and most importantly, they play with little fear and try to win every game. Most of their wins have been by a single goal. Yes, he publicly kept his ambitions quiet, but if you think he would have been content with a bumbling mid table finish you are totally mistaken. I know someone that has an office actually in the King Power Stadium, and he was telling me last summer that the club were privately targeting a Euro place.

QSF is obviously unlike Pearson in his manner, he is clearly a nice decent bloke, but we do not want someone in charge of our team if he genuinely thinks that avoiding relegation in such a negative, bumbling manner is something to be satisfied with.

We can do better.

You may feel sad that I and others on here are disappointed with such mediocrity, but I genuinely feel sad for those who aren't - as their own success, no matter how well they have done, has been limited in some way by that mindset.

I expected those who disliked my OP to do so, with the possible exception of Knight GT. But I certainly expected Moose's and Clive's will be there soon.

 

Just for some perspective, Aston Villa spent twice as much on players over the summer.

 

I am surprised with your evident business experience that your response to a manager who meets a difficult target would be to sack him, rather than set a new harder one and give him the tools and corporate strategy to achieve it.

But let's be clear, we didn't have a squad capable of a European spot. That's fanciful. Nyom? Ake? Parades? Oulare? Ibarbo? Anya? Amrabat? Berghuis? Abdi? Diamanti? Etc. None of these would get in the squads of those occupying the European spots.

We can do better. I'm looking forward to it with or without Quique.

 

Does that take into account receipts for Delph and Benteke?