News soon on Jokanovic's future

If the WO is now finally correct and we offered a £1m per year plus performance related - then that is more than fair. A wage demand of £2.5m is way above what is reasonable - and I doubt Joka will get that anywhere.

 

But the discrepancy between what one media outlet is reporting and what another is is huge.

You said yourself that the WO reported Jokanovic was offered a grand a week more, but he wanted... "£2m a year and a 3 year deal."

Now it's been said that we offered £2m a year (£1m basic plus a big bonus on staying up) and that Slav wanted 500k a year more and 3 years.

The truth is somewhere in this, but the numbers are far from clear right now.

EDIT: Now the WO have changed their story...? Presumably because other papers have been read or...?

 

If he did indeed 'demand' that then I entirely agree with you again! But we don't know that. It's just another bit of speculation in an endless stream of it and no more likely to be accurate than all the rest.

 

Maybe now Slav is thinking that he should of taken what was on offer. You don't often get chances to manage in the Premier. He could of done well, renegotiated the contract or moved on having Prem manager on his CV.

 

I trust the WO more than any other media outlet with regards to Watford so I'm inclined to believe these figures, even as a ballpark estimate.

It seems pretty clear that we were offering about £1m a year+bonuses (which we don't know whether they are only related to staying up).

It also seems pretty clear that Slav wanted the security of a long-ish term deal, which is fair enough on his end but we were never likely to give him that.

 

What changed in the article? Didn't look any different - still saying it was £1m wages + £1m bonuses and he wanted £2.5 wages.

 

The WO only gave us the £1m a year+bonuses detail after other news outlets came out with it. And this has been prefixed by 'we understand' rather than pulling out the old 'sources close to the 46-year-old'. I think they've added the £1m a year detail due to other news stories getting out. I'm not sure they're so sure exactly what the figures are or were, the WO merely know that it was money that stopped a new contract being signed. One source is saying one thing, another is saying another. The only constant is that money was the biggest factor.

I don't think we know enough yet to know for sure which side was being the least reasonable, Slav or Gino.

 

I could've sworn it didn't say anything about the £1m basic until a bit later. I could be wrong there though.

 

If it was a £mill a year that seems a more than reasonable offer to me... but we don't know and neither does the media

 

£1m a year plus £1m performance bonus is more than enough. We'll never know if that was the offer made to Slav but if it was then the owners can't be accused of making him an insulting offer. In fact it's insulting he turned it down.

 

Agree with you 100%.

 

Unless of course if Flores is being offered more.

 

I think 1 million plus a £1million staying up bonus was mentioned very early on as soon as promotion was achieved, however we won't know the full facts until we read Troys biography in 15 years time or so.

 

This ^ minus the biography comment. We just don't know what the details of all this are. This is the way it is now and we just have to accept this. I would seriously have to question anyone now that claims in the know because the Pozzo's just do not disclose anything to any one

 

I'll agree with this and if these numbers are ballpark correct, then I withdraw my previous criticism of the club's handling of the renegotiation and add the lable of "greedy fecker" to Joka.

I'd also like to add, if he thinks he's worth 3 years at £2.5m after a good 8 months, then I'm very disappointed in him.

 

Yes Loyal1 I completely agree, in fact all of the talk re signings as far as I am concerned is rubbish as I can't think of one player we have signed in the last three years (outside the Pozzo empire) that we had any idea we were going to sign and the first we knew about it was after the event.

 

Could it be that Joka has/had already been in talks with other club(s) who are/were offering this sort of money? (Sunderland seem pretty free & easy with their spending for example). Thus he asked the Pozzos to match it, knowing that if they didn't he could get it elsewhere?

Might explain a somewhat excessive demand, if the amount the papers are talking about is correct.

 

The trend is for early ghost written autobiographies these days. So Troy's is probably being ghost written as we speak and will be in the bookshops for Christmas next year. In reality, I doubt that Troy knows a whole lot more about this Gino v Joka saga than we do.

 

That's what I thought. He stands to have an income of £0 after June, so it seems a gamble to ask for so much without back up.

The only thing I've seen was linking him with PAOK in Greece, but looks like Laudrup is going there. Of the English clubs needing a manager Newcastle seem to have their sights on Viera, Mclaren or Garde, West Ham are after "big" names (Bilic, de Boer, Bielsa, Emery), leaving Sunderland. I'm not sure that they'd go as far as the supposed crazy Joka demands and he's not been particularly linked with the job - Dyche currently the favourite.

 

As an aside, I contend that Katie Hopkins is a 'worse person in the country' than Martin Samuels.

 

But Sunderland supposedly only paid Poyet £500k p.a. Conflicting reports regarding them then.

 

Slav needs to understand that money alone can't make you heppy.

 

Absolutely. Didn't say he was the worst, by the way.

 

The contract Sunderland gave Defoe make me think their owners are not of sound mind generally.

 

As another aside. Why is there a pic in Samuels' article of Rafa Benitez waving a red-hot-chilli-pepper about'? Is he a fan of the band? Wouldn't know why - never floated my boat. But my best mate up here's an afficionado. What would he know though? - effing Claret.

Anyway, we need to be told!

 

Partly to see who posts an indignant response!

But also because I strongly disagree with the way Pozzos treat their head coaches - McKinlay certainly, Joker probably. I'll hold my hand up if proved wrong, but it seems on what I've seen that the Pozzos never gave him the impression they wanted him to continue, and made him an offer a combative sort like Joker could only refuse. So he retaliated by doing the same. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but even if I am, I think continuity at the top of the football department is more valuable than they do, and Joker seemed a perfect fit. for us.

I'd like him to prove me right by succeeding in the Prem. Of course, I'd also like Florrie to prove me right by succeeding in the Prem.

 

I'm really struggling to see the issue here. Gino was trying to land a big fish last year, but their targets didn't want to come to a team in the Championship. Joka was never their first choice, probably not even their second. Even more telling that when he did sign it was on a contract to the end of the season. The hard work of everyone at the club got the team promoted, not just the head coach. I'm sure Joka's stock rose as the season went on but the Pozzi have always had eyes for another. Joka was the rebound. The prom queen wants our number now.

 

There is absolutely no proof in the public domain that the Gino has done anything underhand.. whatever happened to British concept of innocent until proven guilty?!!

Slav thought he was worth X Gino thought he was worth Y

You need to look at Gino's decision in context of the Pozzos having 2 other head coaches and ex HC Guidolin employed by the group, there needs to be some kind of structure to staff wages

 

Yep, the hard work of everybody, and especially the head coach, got us up, and now we're where the money is, somebody else can stroll in and get the benefit. Presumably if Florrie can get us into the Europa league or win the F A Cup, the Pozzos will get rid of him in favour of somebody who won't go to a club that isn't in Europe.

Even if Joker knew the score when he came, I'm still not happy with the attitude that underlies this approach.

 

So you hope the team are worse off without Jokanovic still?

 

A perfectly fair analysis (and what I'd started to think too) apart from one thing. If Gino did indeed offer the Joka £1m p.a. plus a potential £1m in bonuses then that was a very fair offer and doesn't sound to me at all like an offer that was calculated to push the Joka out the door.

So we have three figures:

- £400kish p.a. + £1k p.w. Derisory and would entirely fit with your analysis above.

- £1m p.a. + the potential for £1m bonuses. Doesn't fit with your analysis - the Joka could easily have accepted that.

- the Joka stuck by his 'demand' of £2.5m p.a. for three years. Silly, greedy Joka and a shame that I, Unhappy Bunny and moog amongst othere have mounted such a robust defence of him on this thread. Maybe he just wanted to get away to be with Mrs Joka unless he got a real silly money offer. But there's no point in trying to hold Gino to ransom.

I'm sure you're right though. Flores will have been on Gino's radar for ages. Earlier I suggested since the Joka arrived but you're probably even more right. For yonks maybe - right back to when he won he won the UEFA cup with Atletico five years ago. The Pozzos are bound to have an extensive file on all potential head coaches. I bet all clubs do. So maybe Flores has been a favourite for ages. But he already had good gigs with Atletico and Valencia. And then his condition was, you've gotta be in the EPL, and now we are Gino and Flores finally get to tango.

You and others have said - look, the Joka was offered a short-term contract, he's delivered on it, he's been paid, now it's time for a parting of the ways. So what? Fair enough - except maybe for one thing again!

It would have been reasonable (not at all naive) for the Joka to think - hey, it's a short-term contract but they're gonna give me first dibs at managing them in the EPL if I can get them there. And if the middle offer of the three above is true then that was indeed the case. Gino did consider the 'continuity' argument. But if, alternatively, Gino had a different agenda and neglected to say "b.t.w. - they'll be very little chance of you coaching us in the EPL if you actually get us there. Because we've got another name lined up for that" that would be different. Gino wouldn't say that though would he even if that was in his mind? But if it was in his mind it would be disingenuous not to reveal it. That piece of information may have made the Joka think twice about joining us in the first place. It would me. I'd have thought "eff that for a game of Smarties". How about you?

So again - offer i would be taking the p ss, ii would be a very reasonable one that the Joka should have considered seriously and holding out for iii would make him a greedy canut and, as Moose has said, it ain't just the money that makes you heppy.

 

I cant believe that Slavisa wanted 2.5M € per year. I was so happy that Serbian become manager of may favorute english football club. But I dont understand you Slav,for a god sake you have been manager at Serbia,Bulgaria and Thailand. You had chance to lead team in PL, for 1M € plus bonus of 1M€ bonus if we stay in Pl. I am pretty much dissapointed...

 

It really doesn't matter what was offered or what wasn't offered.

The point is, Slav was (or his agent was telling him) to put up his wage demands above the wage threshold.

This was too high and Gino, IMHO made the correct decision.

Would we spend well over the odds for a player that has never achieved anything at the highest level?

 

Fair comment somx86. But we don't really know if that offer is correct. We've heard all sorts of different 'offers' for about three weeks now. Like our Serbian friends, there are many of us here who are upset that it currently looks like the Joka won't be staying with us next season though.

Edit: It's even more than you say somx86. The offer was supposedly in £ sterling, not €. So, with a current exchange rate of £/€ of 1:1.4 that equates to 2.5 + 1 = €3.5m p.a. + €1.4m potential bonuses!

 

Assuming the Wobby is right (and I tend to put more credence into their reporting then other outlets), an offer of a million with a million in bonuses is incredibly generous.

To turn that down would be ridiculous. To expect more from a recently promoted club is even more ridiculous.

Assuming the Wobby is right, I would think Joka will come to regret turning that offer down. One good, solid year in the Prem and he would have had his pick of contracts. Instead, he's priced himself out of an opportunity to show everyone how good he is.

Very, very shortsighted if true.