I'd be very surprised if he has heard of Suarez, Estupinan and Pedro. No chance he would rather the chance to play with Ismaila Sarr than with Wayne Rooney.
Rooney is done, has been for years. I’m sure he has heard of all of them. With all the rumours flying around about each of them. Linked with Barca, Madrid, A.Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, Liverpool, Man Utd, Spurs just to name a few. Hard to miss not seeing their names in the papers/social media/timelines etc. Sarr that tore Liverpool a new one, or Romney who is about to turn 35. Wow!
We've all seen plenty of rumours about Suarez/Estupinan and to a lesser extent Pedro, but I can't imagine Matt Clarke has. It has hardly been back page news or major news on social media. It has usually been a few reports in foreign newspapers picked up by Watford fans. There are probably 30+ players that get linked to Barca, United, etc. each window. Even on the off chance he has heard of them, I don't understand why he would have a great desire to play alongside them. Wayne Rooney is still a decent Championship player and is Manchester United and England's all time top scorer. No way someone would rather play with Pervis Estupinan than with Wayne Rooney.
I’m not saying we don’t need to upgrade, I’m saying as squad players and back up playing a part they’ll be good enough. I agree plenty have gone down and thought the same thing and are either still there or dropped further. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
QPR in talks with CB Rob ****ie. Another name I suggested weeks ago. Had a great season with Oxford and could easily do the job in the championship. English, young and plays out from the back. Basically just what we need and what Ivic is looking for. So annoying.
Andrija Zivkovic is a free agent now. He was considered to be our most talented player and one of the most talented players in the world. He was dominant at youth levels as well as in serbian league and Europa league with Partizan. He started really well at Benfica but than had an injury and after he came back from injury Benfica appointed a new coach and he almost hadn't played since. He can play on both wings and as an attacking midfielder. He's play style is similar to Messi(on a lower level ofc) and he's been compared to him throughout his career. He's also a great set-piece taker.
Wages?! Would be a big gamble in our current circumstances as well surely given our history with injury prone players.
According to internet his wages are about the same as Chalobah's. And he's not really that injury prone. He had that one thigh injury but apart from that he wasn't really injured. He broke his arm a few times(once when their bus was attacked!). I think he'd suit our new style of play really well and as I already said, he's an excellent set piece taker, which was one of our biggest problems last year imo.
Zivkovic looks to be an interesting idea. For sure a lot of risk, but as competition/backup for Sarr/Pedro, an interesting option. Pione Sisto has a couple of really hot seasons at Celta Vigo but is now available for a low fee. He seemed to be headed back to Denmark but talks with Copenhagen broke down yesterday. Very pacy and an excellent dribbler. Andreas Skov Olsen flopped at Bologna and is being linked with a move away. Would be pretty cheap and still only 20. Was much vaunted before he moved to Bologna. Both players are looking for somewhere to rebuild their careers, have a lot of upside and would be willing to join a club of our ilk.
Couple of good shouts. Sisto concerns me though. Apparently he is a very strange individual. CV fans definitely want him gone. Apparently on more than one occasion he has just disappeared, then just randomly turns back up at training. Sounds like he has an attitude problem as well. Olsen on the other would be a great piece of business. Sounds like Bologna are willing to sell or loan him out. Rangers supposedly are in for him on loan. However with our Italian connections, I’m sure it’s something we could make a permanent move by offering them a player swap. Bologna take Pussetto we take Olsen. Sorted.
Couple of other shouts. If we sell Capoue then Abdoulaye Toure from Nantes or Alexis Blin from Amiens could fill that void. Nantes finished 13th last season. So maybe Toure would be willing to take a step over to the Championship knowing that we are pushing for promotion. At 26 yrs old, he’s the right side of 30. He’s strong, decent at winning the ball back and has a good engine on him. Can’t imagine him costing us more than £10mil. So even if we sell Capoue for £6mil and buy Toure we would only be shelling out £4mil. Wages shouldn’t be an issue, from what I can find on him he’s on about £8k-12k a week. Compare that to Capoue’s £40-50k a week salary. His contract also runs out in 2 yrs, so Nantes are better off selling him this summer. Alexis Blin would be another cheap but decent alternative option. Amiens were relegated last season into Ligue 2. At 23 yrs old he definitely has age on his side. Former u21 international for France albeit 2 games, but represented France all the way through the youth ranks. Another DM that is good at winning the ball back, good engine and gets stuck in, but where he and Toure are different is that Blin dictates the tempo of the game for Amiens. We’ve all been reading how Ivic likes his DM to dictate the tempo, hence the links to Glazer. Blin is the same age at Glazer however he’s put up some pretty impressive stats Ligue 1 despite being playing for a team who ended up relegated. The championship is a much higher level than Ligue 2, so we would be an attractive offer. Apparently he is valued at around 4.5mil on transfermarkt, so you would think it possible to pry him away for £5mil. Again from what I can find with wages seems he’s on £7k-12k a week, so not a problem at all for us. Also his contract runs out in 2 yrs so this would be the summer where Amiens are going to make the most amount of money for him. Obviously I would love to keep Capoue, but if we replace him with either of these two, then that would certainly soften the blow, a bit. Ok not really, but still. Custom YouTube video
Here is a decent highlights video of Zivkovic if anyone's interested. I can also assure you that he's ten times better when in form like he was at the u20 world cup or in the Europa League with Partizan.
Are we actually linked with this fella? It just didn't happen for him at Benfica but looked the part in his early days.
Zivkovic would be fantastic, Serbian link with Ivic too so you'd hope he at least knows of him. Sisto and Skov Olsen exactly the type of players we should be targeting too. Shame this forum doesn't run the recruitment department sometimes!
I read Sisto is going back to Denmark, that's why Celta Vigo made a cheeky bid for GD. Valencia have a massive Serbian midfielder too. Uros Racic. He was out on loan last season.
No he's just my suggestion and he is a free agent now. Things I like best about him is that he is young, good set-piece taker and can play in three positions (rw, lw, cam). I think he could work out for us similarly to how Mitrovic worked out for Fulham(Mitrovic was playing even less at Newcastle, both were once considered to be the most talented Serbian player, Fulham had a Serbian coach in Jokanovic, we now have one in Ivic, etc...)
Racic is a weird one. At Red Star Belgrade he looked pretty average and everyone was surprised when Valencia bought him. But he was really impressive on loan in Portugal and is now massive for our youth team. He would have probably even been called up for senior squad but we have really good midfielders(Milinkovic Savic, Matic, Milivojevic, etc.)
Understood just me adding the Serbian connection together. What will have is a lack in height in midfield when Caps goes. I believe he's 6-4 and that comes in very handy. As for the one whose available, set pieces are our downfall. A decent set piece take increases your ability to cause to score obviously. We miss that quality so badly especially when you have a threat like Dawson throwing his head in for chances created.
Does it? I can barely remember Capoue winning one header! (Not to stay he didn’t..) but it’s certainly not something he’s known for.
He's 6-2. As per Burnsy's post above, I'm not sure heading is his strong point. We'd lose out on his strength in the tackle and his stamina in getting round the pitch more - Chalobah, Hughes and Quina are all slight, and none of them have proven themselves capable of keeping their performance levels up for 90 minutes on a regular basis.
Not really the point I was making. Take Capoue and Doucs out of the midfield and we have a short and not very imposing midfield.
Ben Pearson is someone I would love for us to have a go at from PNE. 1 Year left on his contract, ready-made Capoue replacement, (Tackling is just as good, passing not quite as good but not poor either) and room to grow still, cost effective signing.
c.giaretta It’s time to fight as never before! Proud to be part of this new amazing challenge. Let’s get ready to act, time is running out! #comeonwatford #hornets #nevergiveup
