Own up Who was the pizzed up Watford fan wanting to take on the coppers near the ground outside the train station before the game ? Pop corn was out !!
100% Davis was a statue, Araujo was "hailed" as being the next big thing out of Europe and did nothing in the short time he was here, and Manaj missed from a yard out, got injured and never played again. Absolutely abysmal recruitment. I like Bayo for his energy and never say die attitude in games, sure he's not prolific but it's a shame he can't force a partnership with Raj. His size and strength a good counter to Bayo's (limited) speed. It could blossom.
Genuinely believe I’d do the same job. Plus, someone better from the academy could have made us a better team for 0, surely
What happened to all those Korean players who came over many years ago with a view to joining the club? I think if my memory is correct you hosted one?
Frickin' lol, so he hasn't. Thanks for reminding me! 0 goals and 0 assists (but 1 yellow card) in 570 minutes for a mid-table Liga NOS team, and they've basically also now given up on playing him. His thread is definitely worthy of another bump. My posts in there have aged like a fine wine.
Lol, obviously you couldn't - unless you're secretly already a pro striker and not telling us? And if you "genuinely" do think you could do what he does then why haven't you got yourself on trial with at least a League One club and started banging the goals in already? Our only natural academy striker who was anywhere near the first team was Adeyemo and he's been injured the entire season - so no obviously he couldn't have made us better.
Why not compare him to the Piroe for £1m that Swansea paid in 2021? Or the £1m Coventry paid for Gyokeres?
I can compare him! Raj is a lot worse than those two, who ended up being bargains. But not totally hopeless as some make out. Shouldn't be a starter however.
His original post calling him "a total waste of money" was clearly not. So there's no reason to believe that his continued doubling-down on his original comment is suddenly a joke, especially when it's prefaced with "genuinely". I don't know why you're trying to help bail him out from his original comment.
Why not compare him to the £2.5mil that Swansea paid for Yates this summer (7 goals in 300 more minutes than Rajovic, aged 27)? Or the £6.5mil Coventry paid for Simms (just 6 goals in the same number of minutes as Rajovic, one year younger)? etc. etc. etc.
Forde is 176 minutes per goal against Rajovic 171 mins per goal, nothing in it except one division which obviously makes a difference! Totally different players, time will tell what plays out for both of them!
You bought up expensive flops, not me. I’ve given three examples of where spending £1m could prove to be a fantastic investment, my original point was that Rajovic hasn’t been that. What’s there to argue about?
We also had Joao Pedro last season, so weren't totally reliant on the the four you named, unlike the three for this season!
There are a couple of points: Firstly you were implying that it should be simple to get a fantastic striker for just £1mil, but I'm pointing out that it clearly isn't so straightforward as there are as many examples of the same types of clubs spending a lot more money than Rajovic cost to end up with strikers who score less. And if there were so many Gyokeres type signings out there for us to have got then why didn't Coventry also go and get lots of them this summer as well, rather than the two strikers they signed for £6mil more each?! Secondly, bringing it back to the original point I had been making, if you were to consider striker signings on a scale from "absolute bargain" to "total waste of money", then in comparison to the various examples given while Rajovic wouldn't fall in to the category of "absolute bargain" he also wouldn't fall in to the category of "total waste of money" as King Dev tried to label him.
Because it's so obviously a tongue in cheek/intended comedic comment, of a type similar to hundreds thrown out all around these forums. There's no need for you to come back at it and pick it up as though it's genuinely serious and you're carrying out some kind of 'facts and logic' gotcha - we can all tell from our experience as adult humans reading the most basic social cues what it is!
He’s certainly not a total waste of money, in fact we could probably make a tiny bit of profit on him. My point was more some people mentioning “what do we expect for £1m” when I believe his goals record is fine for what we paid but his lack of fundamental footballing ability & intelligence is alarming.
The thing is he's never going to gain the pace to become effective with it but he could bulk up enough to be an effective target man. The Deeney example doesn't really work because he was always heavy framed and I doubt that was club sanctioned. Rajovic doesn't have a comparable frame. Look at how much putting on weight helped Joao Pedro. He managed to careful add mass rather than Deeney's dirty bulk.
He's doing well now, but if we started the season with Forde up front and he went on a dry spell, I don't think the fans would be very happy!
Thanks for agreeing with my original post. And my counter to was that you have unrealistic "expectations" of what £1mil is guaranteed to get you considering that the likes of Piroe to Swansea, and Gyokeres, aren't typical and do not grow on trees.
Again, if Pollock and Kayembe can improve in their sharpness as they did over the last summer then I'm just not ready to discount similar for Rajovic until the next season has started. When JP arrived he was a loose-limbed twiglet. If anything when you look at Rajovic try to run around his frame currently looks too stiff.
How is "someone better from the academy could have made us a better team for 0, surely" in any way comedic?! There are already other posters sincerely engaging with his claim here. And then how is "Genuinely believe I’d do the same job." also obviously comedic, in light of the fact that his first comment was genuine and his remark after it seemed sincere? He just decided to randomly insert a joke comment in between two sincere ones, while stating that his joke comment was also "genuine"? Come on now. It's also telling the poster themselves never tried to claim it as a joke. Given the reading comprehension ability of the average poster on this board relative to me it is unlikely that my interpretation is the most inaccurate.
Kayembe showed flashes of what he is capable of when utilised correctly, and Pollock (didn't he also spend last season's pre-season with us anyway?) ultimately has had most of his best games for us recently against League 1 standard teams, and considering he's already shone at League 1 and Scottish Premiership level, I don't think we've really learned much about him of late
Last season Kayembe had the turning circle of an oil tanker, this season he has been much more sharp and nimble. Last season Pollock looked one of the slowest CBs I'd ever seen and I wondered if his lack of pace would hold him back from playing for us, but as of this season he'd clearly gained a yard and it doesn't seem quite as much of a deal breaker. (He was also decent for us against Cardiff btw, who aren't League 1 standard, not that it's actually relevant to my main point). You can add Kone, Morris and Bayo to the list of players who all seemed a bit quicker and sharper this season relative to the previous one. It's clear that the pre-season we just had under Ismael was more beneficial to the players than the previous one or two we've had, even if our season is petering out a bit now (not helped by the small squad). The amount of injuries we've sustained this season being night and day compared to the previous one also seems to support this. To add to the above, Rajovic's pre-seasons will have mostly been at clubs more like League Two standard.
Kayembe had good games against Boro and Luton last season where he showed flashes of the marauding box to box midfielder we've seen this season, and was unlucky not to get a few goals, Koné was an obvious talent but I think it was naive to think he'd show it consistently straight away, and it wasn't under Ismael that Bayo first showed he was capable of being a pressing machine, it was last season on loan at Charleroi. Morris has been Morris, he didn't let us down last season when called upon, and other than one or two ropey performances this season he's been much the same
Deeney only truly bulked from strong but mobile to heavy framed in 2016-17 onwards when he spent time with Anthony Joshua
Firstly, as I clearly outlined in my original comment, I am only referring to the "Genuinely believe I’d do the same job." sentiment as the obvious comedic/knowingly hyperbolic comment. Secondly, you can probably take the amount of posters who have liked my reply, explaining how obvious a comedic comment that we can all understand implicitly it is, as some evidence of that exact sentiment. Thirdly, stop being a robot! That last sentence is demented in itself! You don't need to keep doing this continuously, as you are on two fronts here and in the Team Bus section as we speak, mate. Really, it's not necessary and it lowers you when you do otherwise have opinions and insight to share. If you can't tell in the same way others can, for whatever reason, that's fine, but it doesn't make sense then to go around responding as though you are the only who actually does and that your 'unique' interpretation is the only possible one that can be correct, in spite of all other views and evidence.
I don't see how what you've typed relates to the point I'm making. I haven't said that some of the above players didn't also have the odd good game for us in the past or showed promise, but rather that they generally look quicker and sharper this season. The uplift in Pollock, Kayembe, Kone and Bayo has been obvious to most; Morris as well even though it's a tad less obvious as he's not played much and is still slow. Your post also glosses over my point that the significantly fewer injuries under Ismael supports that it seems the summer under Ismael did improve fitness levels. As an aside, how much of Bayo at Charleroi did you watch btw to come to that conclusion? Not that the Jupiler League is directly comparable to the Championship anyway. In addition, your caveat that "it was naive to think [Kone]'d consistently" peform straight away could also potentially be applied to Rajovic considering both initially started playing for us without having had a pre-season here and with having incredibly little decent level football under their belts before joining.
And again, considering that it's sandwiched between what we both seem to agree were sincere comments in a sincere back-and-forth, there is nothing to indicate that it was not also sincere. In fact, the second half of his comment begins with "Plus", indicating that it's a direct follow-on from the first part of the comment and a continuation of the same argument. There is nothing to signal that the comment goes from a joke in the first part to sincere in the second. Further to this, do you not know the meaning of the word "genuinely"? Genuinely, the quantity of posters agreeing with something means little; there are plenty of examples on this board of the majority of posters getting things incorrect (and plenty of examples in real life of lots of people interpreting things incorrectly, eg arguments for Brexit).
