West Ham United 3-1 Watford Fc - 17/07/2020

What’s perhaps concerning me most is Pearson’s words after the game. He’s at a loss to explain why we are so bad - I don’t like that. He should be able to pinpoint the weaknesses and work it out.

Vaguely mentioned it could be because of the pressure of the situation - well that’s only going to increase. If these players can’t take the pressure, that won’t suddenly disappear. I’d rather he rotates the players now and put some in who feel like they might have a point to prove.

 

Yes but how often does any manager do that in a post-match interview?

 

When Gino arrived and things looked very much on the up I seem to remember somebody saying they hope we don’t in to fans like those at Stoke, Swansea etc. The type who expect a very small club in Premier League terms to keep getting better and if things go wrong to ask for new owners, managers etc. Fast forward a few years and here we are. First bad season and people are wanting the owners out. They want our third manager of the season out but want stability. We have turned in to those fans who think we have a right to be top 10 in the Premier League when in reality without a billionaire chairman this won’t happen

 

An oversimplification of the situation. It's not just about this season, it's about the fact that the problems that have now exploded into focus have been visibly brewing to anyone with two brain cells to rub together for a long, long time now. Meanwhile our owner has completely and utterly ignored these glaring issues.

This season is simply the culmination of years of horrific, arrogant recruitment by the club and the lack of any discernable long term plan for our identity as a football team on the pitch. A merry go round of managers, no youth system, no logic to our transfer strategy or lack there of. Just a mess.

Pozzo has been mismanaging things for a while and got away with it but it's now coming back to bite him on the arse, and deservedly so.

 

A lot of the common themes with these clubs (certainly stoke) is that they had a specific manager and style of play and then it collapsed after that was changed. It’s possible something similar would happen to Burnley and Bournemouth. Our problem is exactly the opposite to that, so I’m not sure you can really compare.

 

I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

Deeney's comments along the lines of Foster eating whatever he wants, training like **** and performing world-class saves were a real red flag for me. Also, world class saves mean nothing if you don't even attempt to save shots like Rice's.

 

I don't think fans complaining about the recruitment policy and hierarchy is remotely believing we have a right to a 'top 10 finish'. It's just a clichéd response like 'be careful what you wish for'.

 

Whilst very disappointing I think we have done well to have 5 years in the Premier. Player recruitment has been questionable, but we are not in a position to buy too many established players, and therefore in the main, have brought players with potential. They are always higher risk, and less likely to be good enough. For me the blame for this season sits with the players; they are good enough but haven’t applied themselves.

 

That we don’t even give a chance. That’s the problem.

We buy players with potential in the hopes that they have a great season on loan elsewhere and can make us £30mil+.

That’s the irritating part. Look at the other premier league clubs in our position giving youth a chance. We sign youth and ship them out.

Quina has a lot of ability and could be a world beater in 2/3 years. What do we do, keep him here only to never play him. You think he feels wanted?

Wilmot - Our defence in shambles, had the chance to recall him after his showings in the championship proved that he was good enough at that level, so why not give him a chance. Now he's injured.

Estupinan - could have played for us this season. Nope, ship him out to Osasuna where he has taken La Liga by storm and is now the most sort out LB in the world. All good though because it will line our pockets is Gino’s stance.

Cucho - we needed pace our wide, proved himself in La Liga with a terrible team. We send him out on loan again. Playing for Mallorca this season where he has got 5 goals and 1 assist in the equivalent of 16.5 games. Playing across the front three.

Pedro - the boy from Brazil that everyone was shocked we got him. If you believe reports, multiple clubs including the likes of Liverpool and Real Madrid trying to scupper the deal. We sign him. The nation of Brazil goes on a twitter meltdown because we signed him. This is his moment, his big break. He was scoring goals for fun in the Brazilian league, went through a dry patch, but still, proved his quality. What do we do. Stick him on the bench, give him 5 minute cameos and tell him to act happy as he conducts interviews for our social media pages.

This list just goes on and on over the years. Here’s a couple more though.

Dahlberg, rated one the top young keepers in the world, broke into the Swedish national team. Don’t worry, watford will soon put an end to that.

Berghuis, never given a chance. Wasn’t liked by the current manager at the time, not played.

So yes we’ve bought players with potential. Only to then invest in managers who don’t play youth and don’t trust them. Potential wasted.

 

Everyone has to take their share of the blame for this flea ridden khazi of a season but the players are the most culpable.
Attitude is everything and from the first five minutes a year ago v BHA we could all see how wretched we were.
Every athlete thrives on confidence but application, attention to fitness, tactical awareness,heart,legs,mind should not be in question.
Unforgivable from top to bottom.
Such an avoidable scenario if everyone had been professional.

 

Why do we play players that just can't be bothered ?? and I have seen more movement in a garden slug than some of the players that put the yellow shirt on and wtf is it with always playing Deeney he's rubbish has been for years same old problems over and over again, an octopus has more talent at keeping the ball why put him up front he has no speed and no skill at this level should have got rid years ago. Give Dawson the captaincy

 

Utter oversimplification. The usual defence of our hapless set up by those who have turned a blind eye to their failures. “You’re all entitled”. Nope. I just want the idiots who run the club to:

A) not run up massive debt with huge revenue
B) focus equally on the ageing defence rather than spend it all on offensive players and players who end up on loan never to play for us.

 

Lots of angry people here. I stopped being angry about WFC when I stopped investing money and heart in the club.

Try and see through all that badge- kissing-aggressive-shirt-pulling and I love this club ******** spilling out of players mouths because its said for people just like YOU in order to keep you coming back again and again and again.

And if you want to REALLY go to town, stop giving your money to sky / BT for Premier league access.

Hit the ******** where it hurts. The pocket.

Kylie Minogue, happy since 2010, with a very narrow range of feelings from 'Great, Watford Won' to 'They lost again!' Instead of ridiculous highs and catastrophic lows!

**** that! There is ALOT to be said for a level mood!

 

What has been a major disappointment of the Pozzo reign is the way young players have been treated..... very much as commodities which can be shunted around from place to place, its no wonder they don't feel a connect with the club

Same goes for youth development..... doesnt seem any clear pathway into the first team squad

 

Look at Quina, came into the side briefly last season, showed obvious potential, talent and work rate, lost his place and basically hasn't been seen for 18 months since.

How the people running this club think that makes any sense truly boggles the mind, especially when you consider that not only has he not featured in our team, but we haven't even sorted out a loan for him to continue his progression. Utter negligence. We just destroy these players careers.

Horrible club we've become.

 

Yes, but he isn't going to say "that bunch of bang average bottlers, who I'm tearing my hair out over trying to get something out of, shat themselves again"

 

Do you believe he’s really tearing his hair out about it?

 

The only manager we've had under Pozzo who was willing to give young players a chance was Zola

The expansive football under Zola season 1 was the most enjoyable of the whole Pozzo era

We should get him back and let Mullins support him

 

I think the Cup Final defeat knocked the stuffing out of many of the players, and it took them a while to recover. Add to that some complacency from the club, who didn’t think we need to make many changes to the playing staff (either that or lack of funds). Some players come back stronger from adversity, but many of ours showed themselves to be weak. The reason we will go down is not through lack of quality, it’s lack of mental strength. You would have thought that the reason players get to play in the PL is that they can cope with disappointment, and deal with in a positive way e.g I am going to work ten times harder to make sure that never happens again, type attitude. The BHA was indeed a disaster and just showed where many of there heads were.

 

I think most players today see their identity strongly, first as professional sportsmen, then secondly, and to a much less degree, to their current club. It's not that they are not competitive, but come the final whistle they'd rather associate with the other players than with the fans of their club.

 

Not unless he's wearing a wig, no. But I bet he's furious on the touchline watching another lame performance.

 

I don't see much sign of that fury. Just my personal opinion but I think he knows he's not staying on and is just going through the motions.

 

I’ve somewhat processed yesterday’s result.

I just feel very let down. I get the players aren’t attached to the club (maybe Deeney, Foster, possibly Cathcart aside?) but there needs to be a bare minimum of pride, passion and professionalism. There has been none.

I’m let down.

Should we now stay up, it’s in spite of these fickle mercenaries who do not care a jot and would be straight onto the phones to their agents for a move.

Stay safe everyone.

 

Fair point - there’s clearly a lack of trust in our other striking options.

 

The hockey club's been opening it's pitches to members who apply and carry out the necessary social distancing requirements. This meant this morning my son could try on his new GK armour and we could have an hour of drills and me whacking balls at him (now my aches and pains have their own aches and pains). When I bollocked gently chided him for standing still and watching a ball go into the goal and questioning whether he was using "...Jedi mind tricks..." to try and save it he, ASD & MLD, pointed out that he was doing a "...Ben Foster...".

 

Sad, but true.

 

This is because the model is once-borderline-wonderkid talent (not the good ones like Robinho) with the game-throwing personality issues big teams got rid of them for (Pereyra and Deulofeu), fraudulent wonderkids from South America that big teams with expensive scouts saw through, and cheap loser never-beens to fill in the rest of the squad registration slots.

The same recruitment runs through all layers of staff - coaches, scouts, commercial people. The last 3 head coaches have more-or-less openly stated nobody else in wanted them.

 

This. At least it would be at worst an exciting shitshow, unlike this one.

 

Very true but they got paid for that humiliation.
We had to stand there and watch it ( RC notwithstanding!). I know that's what we do but where's the contrition from players and or board?
Why is it always Hughes having to apologise,the least culpable?
In any case weasel words,actions etc etc.
I get enough bull**** from my soon to be ex colleague at work. He thinks he's a professional because he passed a flimsy exam thirty years ago.
Our squad undoubtedly have talent but clearly have no resilience or backbone.
I argued for them post cup final. I now accept I was wrong and apologise to whomever I discussed it with.
Buck up WFC for goodness sake.

 

Surely the blueprint was in front of us, so we cant complain how it has panned out. Udinese - The strategy worked really well until all the big clubs caught on on how to recruit and trade emerging young talent. From regular top ten finishes they have struggled to avoid relegation for the last six years.

To maintain success at Watford they need a new variation. How we would react to relegation will be interesting. It took a couple of seasons more that expected to get into the Premier League, not so sure it will be easier next time round to regain Premier League status.

The only hope is someone On the coaching staff has watched how a woeful Arsenal defence has in two games managed to hold out and support their get wins against Liverpool and Man City. five at the back to protect two poor full backs. Might be something in it, to scrape a couple of points, and avoid seeing how the Pozzo club blueprint reacts to relegation.

 

They're already ruining another generation.

Wait until your other kid clears a buffet and turns up to training too fat to bolt on their shin guards and says 'I'm Deeneying.'

 

I'd argue Watford didn't follow the classic Pozzo model and it became twisted. The Pozzo model was never to throw £15M at Andre Gray or to allow Deeney to become undropable. They were sucked in by shiney things and lost their way.

Meanwhile the real products of the classic Pozzo model continue to be loaned out around Europe and never get a game here.

 

I think this is my biggest problem with everything. You see young players playing well elsewhere, they come back and either want to leave or never get played.

I could probably handle our situation if there was a semblance of positivity coming out if it. 'Yeah we're going down but we've got so many good young players who will be better for the experience'. We don't even have that. We'll go from the oldest team in the PL to the oldest in the Championship.

Add to all this, the social media team feel the need to tell us the full life story of any young player, which gets you invested, only for them to be sold to Timbuktu Town for £500k.