October 2020 Transfer Window

Window round up

Outs:
Doucoure
Estupinan
Suarez
Welbeck
Janmaat
Foulquier
Pereyra
Holebas
Mapps
Gomes
Cucho (loan)
Dahlberg (loan)
Pussetto (loan)
Deulofeu (loan)
Sinclair (loan)
Penaranda (loan)
Dawson (loan)

17 first teamers/expected squad players shipped out.
That’s not even including the likes of Segura, Sibo etc.

Ins:

Ngakia (tribunal to set fee)
Ekong
Perica
Sierralta
Garner (loan)
Murray (loan)

Needless to say, our wage bill has been significantly reduced.

Kept Sarr, Hughes and Capoue which is positive.

The one massive negative and it really is massive, is not signing a LB. This is so short sighted yet again from Gino. We skimped on the defence in the Prem for years and we eventually got relegated because of it. We were all hoping he learnt his lesson, he didn’t. That can’t be ignored. Extremely poor to not sign the one position Ivic has gone on about all window. All he wanted at the very least was a LB. We couldn’t even provide that.

Weirdly the winter window opens in just 10 weeks. I’m not holding my breath that we sign a LB then, but I do wonder if Gino is gambling on being in or around the top of the league, and then strengthen.

What he has done as an owner is limit Ivic and his tactics by not signing a LB. Masina won’t kick a ball until December. Not back until mid November, then has to get match fit.

Overall I’m in the same boat as two weeks ago. This window was just meh! I give it a 6/10 maybe a 7/10 at a push. I’m happy with some things but disappointed with others.

 

Excellent window. Stuff of dreams. Very happy with Ngakia and Troost-Ekong. The rest are all very good players because we are now in the champ and any old **** will do down here.

Props for fighting off Spurs, West Brom and Man Utd by slapping a big 'NOT FOR SALE' on our Talisman, Deeney and for saying 'No' to offers of half of what we paid for Sarr. Real statements of intent.

Also took a lot of guts to say 'NO' to Valencia despite their offer of nothing for Capoue and Kiko.

Sierrelta and Perica add much needed something to the squad and Murray will easily get 10 goals at this level.

Stevenson will never play for the first team, but he could if we wanted him to. Easily good enough for this crappy level.

Very good widow. Very pleasing. IPWT.

 

Leventhal in his Sarr/final day explainer directly attributes not bringing in a left-back to not being able to shift any of the high-earners, so obviously we are looking at a mixed blessing of sorts:




I did enjoy this section though:



Particularly Palace apparently believing they knew better than us the 'reality' of what our valuation of our own player should be, as well as the fact that we dismissed it out of hand. I imagine whichever backroom boi it was who fielded that inquiry probably enjoyed themselves in that moment.

 

Recruitment teams are like referees. If you don't notice them at all it means they must be doing a good job.

 

I have to respectfully disagree.

We have kept Foster, Hughes, Sarr, Deeney, Capoue. All are Premier League players. Add to this Pedro, Troost-Ekong, Sema, Ngakia...who will all prove to be assets in this league.

We are a little light in numbers admittedly, but only a bad run of injuries will derail a promotion push now.

Ok, I'm hopeful January doesn't prove to be a bad window in player exits, but traditionally Watford do not sell key players in the middle of the season, although if Sarr rips it up for the next couple of months, he could well go.

But right now, I think the club have made a huge statement of intent. Bringing in a left back is not really that significant. Keeping Sarr is, and for me, that's the statement of intent.

Of course, I'd have liked up to have kept Estupinan and Suarez, but clearly they didn't want to be at the club. We failed to get a good fee for them and Doucoure as well, but those players did have to be sold in the end. You cannot keep players who desperately want to go.

Our first choice XI is good......but as I say, we do need to be injury free to be top two.

Ivic has his team, and he has enough quality to get us promoted. Will we walk it? No.....we could have done had we kept a few other players, so 100 points is out, but we should still be a good bet for a top two place.

 

Palace's view that £25m reflected reality after Covid. Someone should have told them, that was not Watford's view.

 

It does seem a shame though we went through all the angst of selling Estupinan, who could well have been a very decent left-sided player for us, and not replace him.

I’m not saying our business has been totally bad. We’ve kept key players and signed a few good ones too.

But to not have a recognised left-back for our first match after the window shuts, and became of injury and suspension to play tonight with, most likely, not an out and out number 9 (unless Murray starts, of course) just seems remiss.

Once again we have a squad that seems unbalanced. High quality in some areas but lower quality or no actual players at all in others.

For me, balance is the key word here. A balanced side has good and natural players throughout. We don’t have a left-back, or indeed a left footed central defender. So our defence lacks balance. That’s not the same as saying our side is poor or we’ve not done well keeping Sarr and Hughes etc. But we’ve sold a promisingly good left-back and not replaced him.

 

The suggestion that we couldn’t afford to loan a half decent, left footed, left back without outgoings first is ridiculous

Leventhal is nothing more than a club mouthpiece who repeats their spin after the fact

 

What an absolute f**king state we must be in if we couldn't afford to even loan a left back.

 

I don't think he's even that anymore. Just makes it up. Sounds kind of credible so put it out there in a way that doesn't quite state it as fact but has enough wink, wink, nudge, nudge nuance to pretend he knows more than he does. What has become painfully apparent this window is that he knows no more than any of us.

 

As much as it's theoretically enjoyable and the reason I signed up to The Athletic (that, and a huge discount) the downturn in the quality and reliability of Leventhal's reporting may have something to do with the pressure to produce relatively constant, or at least consistent, Watford-themed content. Last time we were down here, we basically just had the Wobby, and they are terrible, and mostly just reported what was said in interviews and pressers.

In reality, there isn't necessarily that much going on with the club day-to-day, and there are only so many 'what a fascinating childhood he had' pieces on new signings/existing stalwarts to be written. I'm not saying it's a great excuse, but I can see why it might have happened. Add to that the fact that he is required to cover other clubs too to justify his position and we are in fact not laughing.

 

overall the window has been good but undermined by the incompetence of previous windows and stupid contract extensions.

To not be able to afford a left back is completely inexcusable. We have sold £50m of players and shifted maybe £15m from the wage bill.

But we can’t afford a loan fee? Ridiculous

 

Bayli Spencer-Adams has gone on loan to Dover Athletic.

 

None of our players ever just drop a division. It’s always to non-league. And then released 2-3 years later.

 

Burns didn’t need to wait long as the bench is stacked with U23s tonight.

 

I'll admit I was wrong here. I thought they'd get into the line-up in an injury crisis but with 10 senior players unavailable, they still can't get a start. My bad.

 

Life comes at you fast.

 

So how many players do we have in the squad now and if it is less than 25 can we still sign free agents?

 

I can’t believe 10 players suddenly became unavailable. What rotten luck when we could have spent this week compensating for that.

 

No no, we definitely should have brought in 10 replacements, you're right! Don't worry about the fact Capoue, Gray, Hughes, Sarr, Perica and Sierralta will all be back in the next week or so! We should definitely make the same mistake we made with Murray and recruit without needing to. Genius!

 

I’ll remind you of this in a weeks time. Or before. Whenever really. However much time you need to get the next excuse off the rank ready.

 

Probably just easier to admit you’ve now made yourself look foolish with your dialogue with Burns and then we can all move on. But we all know you obviously won’t so as you were.

 

If you can explain why, then I will. Because from what I can see, I said u23 players won't start unless we have several players unavailable. We've got several players unavailable, and they're still not starting. So feel free to explain where I'm wrong.

 

Or they go straight into our matchday squad first, before proving they were never at the level we needed them at.

 

Anything Jumbo? Nah didn't think so.

 

Replied in match thread. Not going to engage in here with someone who is (a) wrong and (b) will continually want the last word. So knock your socks off on your virtual victory lap mate.

 

Assume you'll be taking me up on this bet then, eh?

I'd guess not, because you know I'm right.

 

So our transfer business may not be over after all.

#Watfordfc set to sign left wing back from the free agents list. VI tonight: “We’re looking for some position...Until now we didn’t find something. (There are) some free player, free agent, who can come at any moment and we are looking now...to come in this position..”
@BBC3CR

 

Current list of free agent left backs from transfermarkt: https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/spi...klasse=&wettbewerb_id=alle&seit=alle&yt0=Show

Not sure if it's 100% accurate.

Some interesting names. Players that have recently played in England include:

Pape Souare
Jordan Obita
Franck Tabanou
Charlie Daniels (injured?)
Cheick Keita

Also Pablo Armero who had a couple spells at Udinese

 

Asamoah wouldn't shock me.

He had talks with one or two other clubs I think and he is a former Udinese player so would fit the bill.

 

He was Inter’s starting LB in 18/19 season. In fact in the 40 games he played in, he was their LB in 37. Only played LM 3 times.

Last season he was only involved in 11 games. Didn’t play LB once.

That 18/19 season he was their 6th best player overall according to whoscored. 3rd best if you go by players that played more than 20 games.

He is genuinely the only free LB/LWB I can see us signing. The rest are crap.

 

Heard a little more info tonight about our Joe Bennett pursuit and **** me we must literally have no money.