The Andre Gray Conundrum

The Watford Observer posted an article the other day discussing this most trying of issues for Watford FC.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/19043321.long-watford-remain-patient-andre-gray/

While the article doesn't tell us anything we don't already know, it did get me wondering just what the best possible solution is.

Simply put:

• We can't get rid of Gray as no one would want to pick up his wages, much less pay a transfer fee anywhere near approaching what we paid
• His performances are not good enough to merit being picked, but if we don't pick him we are shelling out vast sums of money for someone who never plays
• Financially we could not sign a like for like replacement without first moving him on. Which we can't. (See point 1).
• If we do play him we at least have a tiny chance of him recovering form, but it is much more likely we are wasting a place in the XI.

So it really is a Catch 22 with no easy answer.

The best solution I can think of is to use Gray as an impact sub like in 18/19. This was by far his best spell for the club, when he had a run of games coming off the bench and scoring important goals. This way we don't weaken the starting XI by picking Gray, but we can at least utilise his wages by chucking him on when we need a goal. As a busy and energetic player, he seems best suited to this role.

What would you do if it was up to you?

 

Let him train with Glenn Murray.

 

Let him play with Glenn Miller.

 

Is this like the Alan Parsons Project?

 

Prefer the Countdown conundrum


No prize, just for fun.

 

Not listed as an option, but pay him to f*ck off. Must be able to come to some arrangement that wouldn't cost the full remainder of his wages, allowing him to move on and collect a salary off someone else.

We're not going to get anything for him in the transfer market and that's the only reason to hold on.

 

He's not even worth the appearance bonus he'd pick up as a sub.

 

This is the problem when you sign a player for a lot of money, give him a 5 year contract and make him the highest earner at the club.

He has to deliver the goods, but no sooner as the ink dried on his contract I think the club realised what a horrendous error they made. He was never an £18.5m player at the time, before or since. He's not deserving of the reputed £70k per week salary. But this decision was made and because of the outlay it's extremely hard to just give him away.

At the end of the day what use is he? He's become a mockery of a player with the technical skills of a toddler. This will never change. If anything he'll get worse as time wears on.

The only thing Watford can do is call Everton and hope they want him. I can't think of another mug punter on the market with money on the hip and no brains. Failing that, you have to pay off his contract and let him go for free. It's the only solution. We are still paying a lot of money weekly for no return. It has been a disaster and there's no salvaging anything from the situation anymore.

It's preventing the club from moving on, so no matter how hard it is, Watford have to reconcile themselves to the situation and accept he's been a £30m+ waste of money.

 

Playing him because he is costing us loads in wages is pure idiocy. He was a massive waste of money, but playing him isn’t going to change that.

He’s not like Ozil who clearly has the talent, he’s just not good enough and the team is worse when he is in it.

 

As I alluded to yesterday, Gray's wages are the ultimate sunk-cost fallacy; they should have no bearing on whether he gets to play or not. We should judge it on his attitude, performances and contribution to the team. In other words, he should never set foot on a pitch in a Watford shirt again.

 

We're absolutely stuck with him until the end of his contract unless we can somehow come to arrange something with his agent. But considering how much they utterly ****ed us and outwitted our ******ous negotiators (probably just Duxbury), we'd probably have to pay an absolutely insane amount, regardless.

The only thing we can really do (were it not for the fact he'll likely play anyway) is put him on the bench, but have him so far down the pecking order that he can't get on the pitch. Try a new formation, change the dynamics with our other attacking players (we can surely come up with better than this lopsided 442), and make sure he is fully behind Perica and even Success in the pecking order.

The only time he should get on the pitch is in a "**** it, this'll do" sort of attitude. Much in the same way that people mash their hands and heads against their keyboards while trying to guess someone's password (or when posting their opinion about something grown up or political on Twitter).

 

I reckon it's Paul McKenna's fault



We should send him back to get it undone.

 

Gray is poo!

 

I would go for two of those options: -

Send him to the phycologist, but at the same time use him from the bench as a late impact sub. That way he would be fresh up against tiring defenders so he might just manage to get a goal or two, also the phycology might just work

 

Heres' another

SIN DREAMS

 

Try to pay him off for 60/70% of his contract if our cashflow allows it.

 

Not so much "Eye in the Sky" more pie in the sky I expect!
Not much chance of Gino being "Old and Wise" here it seems.
My brother Laurence has a dog named "Sirius"....cont'd page 94

 

Invite him to another party during lockdown and wait for him to turn up and sack him.

 

He might just be thick enough to fall for that.

 

He cannot be Sirius!

 

None of the above.

Plant drugs in his locker and then sack him for gross misconduct.

 

Gray's stats barely even back this up. In 18/19 he scored 9 goals, 7 in the league and 2 in the Cup but only 3 of these were scored as an 'impact sub'. They came against Everton and Leicester and then Palace in the Cup, all at home, in a 7-game spell over 5 weeks, during which he made two starts.

 

We don't know what goes on behind the scenes but whatever you think of Gray his confidence must be shot. Needs a goal or two to get him up and running . Is he getting support on the mental side of things? who knows.
You do wonder what players do in training, he should spend his sessions just shooting at goal time after time after time.
Think new boss trying to show faith in him by picking him buts it's not great what's going on is it

 

Two and a half hours later I still can't solve it. Well done.

 

You mean like the goal he got earlier in the season? Followed by no further goals whatsoever? And get him up and running to the heights of his previous magnificent goalscoring form before this season?

Makes you wonder where exactly Munoz is drawing that faith from, given that it isn't from the player himself's performance, nor his attitude, nor his instinctive ability, nor his behaviour off the pitch, nor his prior record. It must be divine.

 

Phycology is very much considered a pseudoscience.

 

He is JPMc!

 

Raise money for local good causes by putting him in a set of stocks next to the GT statue each match day and charging people a fiver to throw %h1t at him

 

Better still: give him a bucket of shyte and tell him to throw pieces of it in the air and avoid it hitting him. Judging by his marksmanship skills within 2 minutes he'll be covered by the entire bucket.

 

Reluctantly agree with this. Cannot afford to dump him with the under 8s. He seems deluded/stupid enough to think he is a competent footballer. This may knock some complacency out of him, plus he is a reliable source of ammunition for Team BW.

 

There is no conundrum. He's a faulty/broken product that is without a warranty and that can't be repaired, thus you simply chuck the worthless heap of s**t in the bin.

The idea that we "can't afford" to not use him and just let him rot is truly insane. He is quite literally a detriment to the team, a detriment to the development of the likes of Pedro (and therefore potentially a detriment to his future value and the money we may receive for him) and someone who fails to provide a single shred of positive outcome every single time he steps on the pitch for us. Absolutely nothing good comes of us playing him. Feeling obliged and allowing that to continue just because we were so unbelievably stupid in giving him such an astronomical contract (best negotiator in the world lol) is even more moronic than that initial fact.

We are stuck paying his ridiculous wage whatever we do - that is officially out of our control until his contract expires - but what we don't have to be stuck with is forcing an abysmal footballer into our squad, to the detriment of our progress on the pitch and other, better players, and inevitably paying even MORE for that luxury in appearance fees and win bonuses.

 

Here's another Andre miss?

 

This.

We are damaging ourselves by trying to generate some value out of him, either in results, general performance levels or as importantly by his presence meaning that someone else is not getting minutes and developing.

I would go with the approach of paying off/cancelling the contract at a reduced rate, on the basis he won't be playing for us anymore. If he wants a game somewhere else this gives him the opportunity as a free agent and would cost us lots but less than him staying. If there is no agreement there then remove his squad number and let him train on his own, if he would rather rot and take the money he is not somebody we should be giving an opportunity in our squad anyway and I don't want a man with that attitude and proven idiocy to be in with the youngsters as a role model.

We have spanked enough millions on this bloke and and are contracted to continue to do so, on that basis cheapest way out for me, with a bit of luck not being in the squad would at least reduce any potential bonus payments.

 

Might actually be worth giving him a start in the women's under 14's team to see if he can get a goal and get his confidence back. My thoughts are that he wouldn't be able to get a goal though unfortunately.

 

You can see why they signed him. Quick player running off Deeney as per Ighalo and Vydra and with a decent scoring record. Also they probably paid the ‘going’, albeit bonkers rate.

However....he really does seem to have lost it. Playing him really seems to adversely effect the team. If we aren’t playing Pedro then I really can’t see a Dalby or Hungbo being any worse. It really is odd that head coaches(of which we’ve had many) continue to play him!