https://www.watfordfc.com/club/official-retained-list-confirmed I've got to say, I don't really understand the extension of Britos 1 year, Holebas 2 years and Prodl 4 years. It's baffling.
I just offered him a new 1 year contract on football manager. Been in blinding form for me scoring in three games on the bounce. A useful squad player to have around, I wouldn't want him starting here next year but have no problem with him being in the squad for another year.
Presumably we expect to be able to get the odd £500k for him if we sell him which justifies keeping him under contract for a few more weeks ? What would moneybags Wolves pay for "an experienced prem CB who can also play LB" ....
Thing is though, that's true of all our centre halves. All ok squad players to put in as back up for a few games per season. What none of them are, is a reliable starter, capable of consistency over 3 or more games.
Shame to see Brandon Mason go. I thought he looked a real prospect a couple of years back. Retaining Britos is baffling I'm afraid.
Or if they do show they could be a reliable starter they get injured and come back a totally different player such as prodl
It's a shame that the forum was rebooted and all the posts about wonderkid Brandon Mason from a year ago have probably been wiped.
Bear in mind extending a contract can be a means of guaranteeing a fee. But risky if no club comes in as then stuck with the contract wages.
People always say this, but they will not be doing it to sell him. No one would pay a transfer fee for Holebas, Britos or Prodl. They are free-transfer players. We've only done it to retain them in the squad. It looks like we're not going to invest in the defence this summer. £1.5m on Wilmot might be about it. I can't understand the club's philosophy on this. We let in nearly 2 goals a game. Something is clearly not working, surely we need to spend money in this area.
If we don't bring in a quality left back and a quality centre back then I fully expect us to be relegated. The club will have gone completely mental if they continue to rely on our old, slow, inconsistent, injury prone and, quite frankly, crap defence.
Maybe we do need to spend money, but that doesn't necessarily mean that better players are available and/or willing to come. That may well be the problem - allowing those three to leave, not being able to replace them with better, then last minute panic buying with the possibility of ending up with worse. We need to strengthen our defence, not run the risk of weakening it - and I can't believe that GP isn't aware of this. On that basis, I'd say that the club are most definitely still looking and that retaining Britos is simply a case of better the devil you know...
All good players. All have proved they can hack it in the Premier. We are not going to dispose of them lightly. All three could also do a job for Udinese (not necessarily involving its relegation).
Exactly what I was about to say. We have some experienced defenders that will help any new young players and who can still perform at this level if not consistently. Makes sense to me
I understand what you're saying, but in the case of Holebas and Britos, I do not for one second believe Watford could not find and sign better alternatives. It's a strange policy. I understand continuity and having players around that know the club. Britos and Prodl are good pro's, I have no doubt about that, but their footballing ability has been on the decline for a while now. Holebas has never been all that good, even from day one, Ake kept him out of the side. Why he's become the first choice now is really strange. It's as if we've got no money, and we just have to make do with what we've got. We are a Premier League team with tremendous revenue streams. I just don't understand the club's thinking here, especially when we have haemorrhaged goals consistently for the past 2 and a half seasons.
But that's your thinking, not necessarily the club's. The Pozzo transfer history suggests that they prefer to keep their cards close to their chest. Rather than worry, I prefer to believe that the 'transfer elves' are working feverishly behind the scenes, negotiating in attempts to bring better players to the club.
Lack of ambition from the club. Add Fabianski to our ranks and we would have a ******* nightmare dealing with crosses next season.
Unlikely in respect of central defenders. We already have Britos, Pr*dl, Cathcart, Kabasele, Kaboul, Mariappa, Wilmot, Hoban. We won’t be signing anymore.
Don’t you have any ability in our Head Coach to be able to improve these players or our defence as a whole?
What a wretched group of 8. I like some of them but if that is the group for next season it is simply abysmal and a relegation unit.
We could have Pep and Mourinho, and they wouldn’t improve. A coach can only do so much. The majority of our defenders are not Premier League quality.
Britos and Holebas are not good enough. We have offered both new deals. Who is making these stupid decision?
Getting your excuses in early I see! All three actually played under QSF (though Holebas only 11 times) who did a fairly decent job of organising our defence. Gracia did a good job with his at Malaga too, conceding around only a goal per game. Many people here rate him highly as a coach so let’s see what he can do.
To be fair Britos and Prodl have deteriorated massively in the last year. If this is really the defence the club is giving Gracia then it is frankly imbecilic and I don’t know what any manager could do.
I'm not thrilled by the prospect of either player but just a small point re. Britos in your post. It's a one year extension option exercised by the club so no pay rise etc. I realise it doesn't make it any more palatable and I'm being pedantic but it isn't a new deal.
Well the defence did improve under Gracia. There is no denying that, but you can only do so much. I tell you, if he makes these players play well, then he's a better coach than even I'm giving him credit for.
Perhaps we’ve retained them in the hope one of them can go better than our forwards and midfielders and score a goal on the road.
This is just our retained list - not squad logged with premier league. Makes sense to extend a Britos or he goes for nothing. A number of these defenders may go b4 start of season and a number of new faces could join
It's not quite June - surely a bit premature to write off all hope of us signing some better defenders yet?! Looking at recent past history of defensive signings, all hope is not lost: Cathcart - signed 24 June 2014 Pr*dl - signed 1 June 2015 Holebas - signed 2 July 2015 Britos - signed 22 July 2015 Aké - signed 4 August 2015 Kabasele - signed 1 July 2016 Kaboul - signed 19 August 2016 Mariappa - signed 30 August 2016 Femenía - signed 1 July 2017 Only Pr*dl out of that lot came early in the summer (3 years ago tomorrow). Surely it's better business sense to have defenders at the club to add to, and then loan out/sell/give away those that aren't needed once reinforcements have joined - rather than getting shot of most first and leaving ourselves short and desperate in the transfer market? I shall start to panic should we get to mid/late July and nobody has signed. And even then, it wouldn't surprise me if the club managed to get somebody decent in on loan, like they did with Aké.
It seems prudent to me to keep what you've got until you get replacements. The worst situation to be in is having let the majority go, not been able to get in the desired players and have the deadline approaching. Other clubs would know this and the cost of replacements would rocket.
