I don't see what would be awkward about it. The opportunity for Everton to get any traction at all in their pursuit of him exists entirely because of the ambiguity he is encouraging. If he wants to stay and Gino wants him to stay it's clear the financial gains from a successful PL season would far outweigh any compensation Everton would pay.
Well he never plays enough! Hughes has probably played more league games already this season than Jack has. I hope if Silva does go he doesn't come after some of our players... Moyes asking for the West Ham fans to support their team - good luck with that one!
Have met Will Hughes quite a few times for various reasons and he is a throughly nice chap. He spoke very well about not playing and basically told me he was in no rush to make his debut, as he'd keep working hard and get his chance eventually. He took it today, what a performance.
Apparently Doucoure won possession 13 times and had a 94% pass completion rate. It's like Ngolo Kante and David Silva had a very tall baby and named it Abdoulaye.
Everyone was great today apart from Britos and Gray. People are falling over themselves to praise Gray because for once he didn't literally infect everybody who was watching him with ebola. This was as good as he gets and that is not good enough. He calls for the ball, then doesn't challenge for it. He loses two yards because he anticipates nothing and he doesn't have the pace he is supposed to have. He's fine as a bench option but the fact that he's starting games is probably the reason why Silva wants to leave. If that was the best striker at my club (apart from another one whom I irrationally despised and would never play) I'd want a new club too.
The Silva thing is interesting. He's ******* me off, but equally i'd be pissed off if he did what Rodgers did. The strangest thing is to me it's clear the best he could do with Everton this season is a top half finish. Whereas with us he could hugely overachieve and be touted for a top 6 job. It's fairly obvious it's only going to last a season at best though. Which is a big shame.
Hands up, is it just me or did anyone else feel a little bit nervous no matter how much we looked in control throughout so much of the second half? I thought given the amount of injury time that was sure to follow I wouldn't be comfortable unless we were at least 3-0 up going into that period. Oh me of little faith! But Everton were hardly better than West Ham and we were still a bit sore from seeing a seemingly unassailable two goal lead evaporate within 10 minutes during that game. So as bad as West Ham were, gaining our first home win with no goals conceded should help us regain a lot of confidence with faith in our ability to see games out. It's not necessarily about relentless attacking and/or keeping it tight, just maintain possession and the oppo can't hurt you and as Steve nicely put it, we have the quality in abundance especially in midfield to do just that. In case there were any doubters, Gomes proved today just what a difference he makes to our side - not that that should totally excuse our collapse a fortnight ago, but I think people underestimate the impact his going off had on the shape and confidence of our team. As flawed as our defence is, it would surely be even weaker without a goalie of Gomes' calibre to provide stability at the back and impetus to much of our attacking play. What was great about Rich today, in addition to his usual energy, surging runs and ability to make his own chances, was that he's adapted so well to the more physical nature of the league. He can do the less glamorous bread 'n butter stuff, with the ability to get back and defend (no mean feat given he was played in a more advanced position today) and play dirty if necessary against a team that seemed more content to rough us up than show any desire to play constructive passing football (very un-West Ham like) - witness that shoulder barge against Zabaleta to win the ball. Very impressive debuts from Hughes and Zeegelaar in our last two games - the one-two between the latter and Rich to set up our first goal was a joy to watch. We'll have tougher games ahead and West Ham didn't seem to have much fight or desire after the Gomes double save, but to hear the West Ham fans turn against their team and board in a big way was great to hear, as I like to think our team played no small part in making them look abject and I have confidence we'll be doing the same to a fair few more teams this season. Loved that passage during the first half when West Ham had possession but thanks to our hard-working midfield were absolutely clueless what to do with it and just ended pinging it back and forth, kind of like us many a time last season.
Not knowing why Ighalo was at the game until now I was thinking something similar and was actually wondering whether Silva was considering re-signing him, crazy though that may sound to many. I'd certainly have more confidence in Silva than QSF and Mazzarri to get Iggy scoring again, especially with the way we are set up and not just the predictable look for the big target man and fall apart when things don't go our way.
Good day all round. First goal for Hughes, and he looks like a new signing for us. That's now 12 different goal scorers, which is the most in the Premier League. Carrillo, Femenia and Chalobah I expect will score at some point this season, so that list should increase even further. I was very impressed with Zeeglaar. Excellent debut, even after his 6 second welcome from Carroll. We did survive some scary defensive moments, but Gomes was outstanding today. Overall the performance was controlled. It was one of those professional performances and we closed the game out without incident. I'm optimistic Silva will stay. I'm a big fan of his and I'm loving the style of his Watford team, even though it does have weaknesses. I think that will be remedied in January. So I predicted we would beat Everton comfortably and lose tonight.....so 3 points from our last two games sees me bang on with my predictions We played some top drawer stuff tonight. There was a period just after half time, leading up to the second goal, where West Ham could not get the ball out of their own half. It's good to get back to winning ways after those three defeats.
I stayed at home with my kids today. We built a bunker in the tv room. Just in case. . At 1-0 well it became a castle. 2-0 it became a fortress. My kids knew what it meant. My wife knew. She took our newborn in the living room and let us shout scream and express all the emotion I needed. My kids 6 and 3 knew it meant something to Daddy. I love football. I loved my Dad. Today it all collided emotionally. Thank you.
Could Mazarri's English possibly have been worse than the garbled gibberish that this snake spews forth?
"Looking back on when we first met I cannot escape and I cannot forget Hughesy you're the one You still turn me on You can make me whole again"
Tony I know how you feel. My dad who took me to my first game 55 years ago died this week At the end I had a tear in my eye and thought about how he would have enjoyed watching the game on sky which he always did
Well after a week of continued uncertainty, at least today had a happy ending. Will Silva stay or go? My belief he'll stay (which has softened, I'll admit) - is because I just think that Gino will refuse to let him go. And I don't think Silva is the type to down tools and sulk. His reputation will take a huge hit if he did so. I guess my faith is more in the Pozzo's than the coach. But whatever happens, I'll enjoy any win in the premier league, so I'm definitely going to enjoy this one. Think it was clear to see that West Ham had been told to "leave their mark" on us (tactical genius that Moyes is). And it didn't take Carroll long to do so. How on earth did he stay on the pitch?? Impressed with Zeegelaar, especially after the elbow. At least we know Holebas has some decent competition for a starting place now. Thought we played some wonderful stuff, yet was still convinced that West Ham would get back into the game through some kind of error by us. Gomes with some top saves - what a legend he is. Even though we were by far the better team, it just goes to show how important a decent keeper is. Had they scored any one of those, who knows what the outcome would have been? Will Hughes was magnificent, as was Richarlison and Doucoure. Britos - as stated by virtually everybody - had a bit of a mare. If we actually had all our players fit at the same time, it's frightening to think of the team we could put out and the performance we could get out of them. Makes our silly errors losing us games all the more frustrating. Really didn't know what to expect today, so delighted it turned out the way that it did. And it seems ages since I've posted any pics from us winning a game - so enjoy this selection if you've not already seen them:
That passage of play where we kept the ball in the final third for about ten minutes was incredible. West Ham struggled to get near the ball and when they did they couldn't get it out their half. Would have been an Everton style travesty if we didnt win that game. I also think if Silva goes to Everton he'll fail. Their fans are delusional and will rip into his defensive weaknesses adter a week. A little like Moyes and the West Ham fans. Everton and West Ham for relegation please.
Given the manner which the club has treated managers over passed 4 years can Silva be blamed for ‘keeping his options open’? I don’t get Gray, he’s basically a less good Deeney.
Gray is utterly rancid. He is the reason we are nervous even at two nil. We are playing every match without a striker. It's extraordinary. If we had a striker who could play football we'd be thumping teams just like man city are. Everton, Chelsea, we'd have hammered them. We MUST get a new striker in January and get this **** out of the club. The superstars in our squad can't have played with anyone so terrible before. What must the likes of pereyra and richarlison think of him? The most catastrophic signing in the history of our club. £18m!
You could say that, but he has a two year contract, on appararently a large wage, but not as large as Everton will pay him! If he stayed until the end of the season and was concerned we were going to depense with his services he would still get one years salary as compensation! And as he is highly thought off he next job would be just around the corner (not Luton)
Still holding out hope that Gray will come good, but that airshot that led to Hughes’ goal just about summed it up for me
Played some really good footbal today and pressed them high up the pitch, never looked like loosing, it's a joy watching Watford these days. West ham look awful and they've spent a lot of money mediocrity type players. 9 Gomes - Made some vital saves today, surely some of those were the best saves of the premier league season so far. Kicking was good, played it short when he had to and was comfortable in his box. 7.5 Kabasele - Played well today, tackling was decent, covered a lot of ground and made an important goal saving block. 8 Mariappa - Won a lot in the air today and marked carroll down to a tea, was great to see carroll so frustrated as he came off. 4 Britos - Forgetting the brighton game this was probably one of his worst performances. Him and carroll were in direct competition to see who could get sent off quicker. Passing was bad, had a shot from about 35 yards when a simple pass was on, reckless tackling, shaky with the ball. Still think he's a useful player and will be come good throughout the season but we should try and find a better center back come january. 7 Zeegelaar - Decent performance, looks composed on the ball, tracked backed well. Took a piledriver from carroll but if anything think it helped fire him up. 7 Cleverly - Worked very hard, really does put in his all for watford. Just needs to work on his delivery. 8.5 Doucoure - wow, what can i say. This man does not stop running and has probably been our player of the season so far, how wrong was walter mazzarri... 10 Hughes - Like someone else mentioned here he remind me of abdi in that he appears to be always a step ahead and knows exactly where to postion himself. His passing was top notch especially in the final 3rd, runs through challenges the ball just sticks to his feet. The goal was slightly lucky the way it fell to him but still awesome reactions to turn and shoot so quick (Kinda reminded me of eustace in the box). Keep it up and this is a right steal. 8 Femenia - Decent performance all round, seems like such a versatile players. Didn't really put a foot wrong all game but his delivery could of been slightly better. Still how on earth did we manage to get this calibre of player on a free transfer?! Hope he is not out for long 8 Richarlison - Richarlison... 6.5 Gray - Worked very hard again, linked up well with hughes. His assist sort of sums up his watford career so far (battles hard for someone else to put the quality in)
Mark Lawrenson just had shove in the "Watford always get rid of managers and its now ironic that their manager actually wants to leave now"
Yes, what a surprise. Absolutely loathes us. Complete dinosaur and a total embarrassment - amazed the Beeb allows him to dribble on. Especially when you contrast him with the perceptive and eloquent Jenas.
Shouldn't really laugh but did the minute or so after Arnautovic got injured remind anyone else of this advert? I hope the bloke is OK.
