Paid £8m. Saw glimpses in the PL. He downed tools in the EFL. Now sent out on loan. Classic Watfordy depreciation of assets.
Would you take him back? Seeing Dennis change his attitude gives me hope Louza could too. A useful player at our level if he’s up for it
Sort of torn, obviously he can do bits at this level if his mindset is right (and Clev seems like someone who won't rub players up the wrong way unlike Val), but he might also stink the place out and depreciate his value even further
He's not even really shown this. With Kayembe, Kone, Chak and TDB it's hardly as if we're lacking in midfielders that play in a similar role to him (and that's assuming Asprilla is sold). If we can get a decent fee for him and reinvest it in areas in more urgent need of strengthening then that would surely be preferable.
I presume the challenge given his last season will be getting a decent fee. He might need to rebuild his reputation/promise before we can cash in.
Blue is his stats for us this season under VI, red is his time in Lorient so far. Not much defensive work but his on the ball stats are v v good.
Definitely a good player but needs to have the right attitude. Not sure what happened this season with Val but he certainly seems to have done well in France. I would have him back next season if he really wants to be here. I don't think we're in a position to be fussy and new talented players maybe at a premium so we would be wrong to turn our nose up at him
Why? Because he fell out with a coach that didn't want to play him as a ball passing midfielder? If we are to play 4-3-3 next year or 3-5-2 we need someone in the middle who can keep the ball moving. Would he make us better ? Yes
I always felt he seemed to think he was too good for the champ and wasn't prepared to give 100% at this level. Played vs PSG yesterday in a 1-4 defeat in Ligue 1. He may feel that's his level and push for a transfer to that league though Lorient are currently in the relegation zone, so maybe another team !
Agree with this although I suspect he'll be sold in the summer either to Lorient or another French club.
Because he was an under-achieving player with a poor self-discipline who actually very rarely turned matches for us.
I expected him to offer a lot more in the Championship and have a similar impact to Will Hughes when he came back into the team and kick started our last promotion. By that I mean a metronome for the team, always available for the ball and setting the tempo. One that even if they're playing a relatively simple pass, it's perfectly weighted (Abdi being a master of this) so the player running onto it doesn't have to check their stride and the attack loses momentum. Instead he played in bursts of quality and often disappeared entirely. Talented enough but can't see him being a dominant force in the Championship, which he really should be given his ability and the fee we paid for him.
Exactly this - his defensive stats in 22/23 were actually not bad at all, I fully expected VI to bring out the best in that side in him, which combined with his ability on the ball I was hoping meant he was gonna have an absolute stormer of a season. Sadly that didn't materialise at all.
I can’t help but remember him looking like a distraught adolescent as he sat on the bench after being subbed off in his first EPL start… in which he really had looked like a competition winner from the local Cub Scout troop.
