And according to that the offer for Zaha was £3.25m with £1.75m of clauses and a sell on. Hardly the £7m everyone has been quoting like it's set in stone. Sounds a lot more realistic to me.
It's not like we didn't already know Malky was a snake in the grass. He's making his own bed, and one day this way of trampling on people will come back to haunt him.
I've heard a whisper the deal could be worth 4.8 million in the end. If so, it's a sensational deal for us.
Are you taking the ****? I'd be pissed if this wasn't up front for an England U21 international plus add ons.
I'm sure there will be add-ons and I bet more information will be released in due course though we will probably never know the exact headline fee. Incidentally by my way of working it out even at £3m that would mean only deals for Ashley Young, Marlon King and Danny Graham exceed it in the whole history of the club. Also in 7 days time the 'emergency loan' window re-opens. At that point we can use some of the cash to sign a replacement, loaning them until the end of the season until a permanent deal will go through. I'd rather the club took its time to get a target they actually want rather than making a rash decision in the last minutes of the transfer window. Who gives a hoot if he plays for the U21s? I've seen this all over the forum tonight. It's means diddly squat. There are heaps of players in the lower leagues who were capped at U21 level in their youth. Their qualifying competition is basically the equivalent of academy football. Games against nothing youngsters from footballing powers like Iceland, Belgium, Azerbaijan and Israel just some of the highlights of the current round. I don't doubt it's a nice thing for a player to play for their country and it's nice for the club, particularly one like Watford, to have that link to the national side. But the reality is at 20 if you're good enough you'd be in the senior team easily. And that's the only international cap that matters.
No, like I say it's just hearsay but if it's true it's a fantastic deal. He's totally unproven in the Premier League and I personally have my doubts on whether or not he'll 'make it'. Totally agree - use the loan window to our advantage.
The thing is, why does Bassini always come out with such bollox. Only last week he stated we don't need to sell our best players and gone are the days that Watford are just a soft touch. What does he do on deadline day. He touts our best players to the highest bidder, sells the only "striker" we have, and would have sold our best defender too, if it wasn't for Mapps turning down Wigan. All for just around £5.5m, when the club had slapped a valuation of £7m on Sordell and £4m on Mapps. The veil of credibility has now gone as far as I'm concerned with Bassini. He makes sure all deals are done so late, that he has a ready made excuse for not reinvesting. Our owner cannot be trusted, and I am really concerned as to what his end game is.
OFFICIAL: SORDELL JOINS BOLTON Posted on: Wed 01 Feb 2012 WATFORD FOOTBALL CLUB has confirmed that it accepted a bid this evening from Bolton Wanderers for the services of Marvin Sordell. The 20-year-old striker has signed a three-and-a-half year deal at The Reebok Stadium, after moving for an undisclosed fee. He debuted in the 2009/10 season, but his Hornets' career took off last season - much of which in partnership with Danny Graham. The Harrow-born forward hit 15 goals last term and a further 10 this campaign, from a grand total of 82 Watford appearances. Article continues Advertisement Released by Fulham as a teenager, Sordell was recruited by the Hornets' Academy via an exit trial. He progressed to enjoy a full Academy scholarship with Watford before breaking into the first-team in August 2009 - a month which also included his first Hornets' goal, away at Leeds United in the Carling Cup. This transfer is subject to confirmation of registration by the Football Association and the Premier League. After all the speculation I cannot believe it's a ****ing "Undisclosed Fee" What are you trying to hide Bassini :rant::rant::rant:
It might just be that Bolton have specified that the fee should remain undisclosed. All we do is speculate, and then wet our knickers when we are not given chapter and verse.
Last minute deal just makes me think we were desperate for some cash but Bas doesnt have to reveal anything as he owns the club outright.
I thought you would be a bit smarter than not to believe that...didn't Simpson say the same sort of thing about the likes of Young and King? Ok we got higher fee whereas 3/4 millions seems low which is fair enough. I tend to agree on that.
It's good money, and tbh he's actually been worse this year than he was last. Think Marvin has the potential to be a decent player but he's a long way from that yet. If its the £3.5m as reported, i'd say that's a sensible price. Gutted as I've really enjoyed watching marvin play, but Deeney looked excellent last night and I think he has it in him to step up to the plate now.
I didn't believe that at all. I never believe anything that comes out of that man's mouth. I'm just saying why does he go out of his way to mislead everyone all the time? He has a track record of saying one thing and doing another. How can we as fans trust someone like that?
Watford are a club that has to sell to be stable. Was he going to come out 2 weeks ago and say we need to sell a player in this transfer window? I can't understand why you are so anti bassini, in my opinion he has not done much wrong. Sordell was going to go now or in the summer and it was probably felt that we got the better deal for him now.
I’ll try to explain rationally why I appear anti-Bassini. He came to the club with a clean slate, and my opinion of him has been formed from his subsequent actions. I have tried to keep a close eye of financial events since his arrival and I have worked out that, in all probability, Watford have generated an income of at least £17m this season. To give you a brief breakdown of this, player sales £8m, ST sales £3m, savings on Ellington, Sadler, Gate receipts, shirt sponsor & merchandise sales £2m, Saracens rent £850k, Young sell on fee £1m+, Sky TV £2.5m, FA Cup run £200k. Transfer fees paid out comes to £1.1m, and staff/player salaries are about £6m. There was a £3.5m shortfall from last season and the first bonds rights issue payment £2.5m. This all comes to about £13m. Bassini stated he has made other payments for fees owing & building work etc and if these are to be believed that total comes to £4.2m. So in affect, Watford, to date, have been totally self sufficient. Apart from the £440k he purchased the club for he has not put a penny of his own money in. All he has done is ease the cash flow by paying for things in advance, but the club has by and large looked after itself this season. What he says in the press he will do and what he does in reality, gives me the impression he is a Machiavellian character. We have to place our trust someone like this to do all the planned stadium works and look after the playing side. I am very sceptical this will ever happen. You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
Unless I am missing something here are we not looking for the club to be self financing? Bassini does not have an endless pot of money as we all know however, through control on expenditure and player trading he has managed to get the club breaking even, He must be up to something!!! Under previous ownership we have had to continually borrow money from the owners at an increased interest rate which we are no longer doing. If your figures are correct Bassini has got the club on an even keel and if this is the case I will upgrade my not done anything wrong to he is doing an very good job.
So your conclusion is that because the club is self-sufficient something fishy is going on? Honestly - take a moment to contemplate that. Do you seriously consider that to be a bad thing? Plus you've underplayed the "all he has done is ease the cash flow" point significantly. Do you seriously think money for players sold, club sponsorship, Saracens rent and Sky TV all comes in in one payment in August? I also fail to see how money saved on Ellinglump and Fat Sadler add anything to the bank balance by way of income.
These figures are more or less correct, without being the club's accountant. I agree, it's a good thing to be a self-sufficient run club, but what I am saying is how on earth can they improve the team and do all these stadium works, when right now, the books balance almost perfectly. Baz tends to fabricate the truth and there are many examples of this. There is enough doubt regarding his credibility to be worried about this guy. Unless he is being badly misquoted in the press, virtually everything he says doesn't happen or is misleading, and why so secretive? The most important thing regarding the club is the quality of playing staff, otherwise what is the point?
I dont really want to get bogged down in small details, as this is already a fairly lenghty post. I do give credit for the cash flow, but really what else can he do, he has no choice but to make payments on time. I'm not critical of this. What I am saying is, so far the books seem to balance, but where is the investment for new players and stadium works going to come from? How is he going to achive this? Be honest, do you really trust someone with a track record of saying one thing and doing another?
OK in under a year of his ownership he has stopped the club losing money despite a reduction in match day attendance and season ticket sales, very good going in my opinion. As there are not a line of wealthy investors at Watford this is surely the first step? I would be keen to see some of the many examples where Bassini has fabricated the truth and also what he has promised that has not happened. These do seem like easy accusations to make and are fabricated or did not happen! We need to walk before we can run and to do this we have to ensure the club will still be there in 10 years time. Before Bassini came in the club as a business was not sustainable, now although there may not be wholesale improvements the club will continue and we can look at further development.
Well we'll have the agree to disagree because I don't see him having "a track record of saying one thing and doing another". His comments last week about not needing to sell were pure politics. Football fans have to accept that it's now an integral part of the modern game for clubs to posture in public like that. And to be honest it doesn't bother me. What do think the offers for Mariappa/Sordell would have been if Bassini had said something like "We need £1.5m by the end of the transfer window to keep the club running for another 6 months"?
I am still open on Bas being good or bad as I do not see any strong evidence to show he has been bad (yet) but enough unknowns not to be sure he is good. Hornetboy1, you have listed a lot of detail about what you think has happened since he took over, but we do not know exactly what the position was that he inherited, other than it being bad. Others have already questioned some of your info/conclusions; I have another one for you. “ST sales £3m”, didn’t the previous regime borrow money against this that needed to be paid back ?
