Because this suggests to me that we are desperate to get wages off the books. This is a serious weakening of the squad at a time where our stated aim is promotion.
I presume Norwich will sell Buendia and Bournemouth will sell Brooks then. Pushing for promotion? Just sell your best player. Makes sense.
I think it is stretching a point to call Capoue our best player at present. He had a great season a couple of years ago but has been average at best since the summer and if he wants to go there's zero point in keeping him. I'd rather he stayed but all good things etc.
This is a key window. Will tell us a lot. If Capoue is sold they need to make sure he's replaced sufficiently, even if its a Udinese loan. It's not as if Tom Dele-Bashiru can step up given his injury.
Capoue was an accident waiting to happen yesterday, I was waiting for the red card to come out so he could get the New Year off!
Capoue clearly has talent but little interest in playing for Watford - has become a liability with numerous mistakes in his inimitable languid style. We need motivated team players not mercenaries - so no loss.
Without having seen much of any of them, someone like Walace would be good on paper, a semi-regular at Udinese over the past season and a half (and a Brazil international from his time playing at home for Gremio!). How far back does it go when they measure games played to be eligible for a WP? He's played 25 league games since the start of last season I believe, which would be more than the 40% needed, but just 5 this season, which wouldn't be. Needless to say the youngsters Coulibaly and Palumbo haven't played enough Serie A games to qualify, would they qualify via other means? Do youth caps at international level count?
Players from Udinese would qualify with 30%+ minutes, and this is counted over the previous 12 calendar months. Walace should qualify. Youth international caps can boost points. Coulibaly doesn't have any though and I don't think he can qualify overall from what I gather. Palumbo has 3 international caps this year, which might tip him over in to qualifying, but it would depend on whether they were in competitive games and how many of the available minutes he had in those games, and I can't find that out. When we were linked in the summer though Palumbo wasn't considered ready physically for the Champ yet though, he'd prob just be another Garner so unnecessary.
Bit of a kick in the bits. Have slated Etienne for a while now but thought he did some really good stuff yesterday and might have decided to give it a proper go for the rest of the season.
AL has suggested the fee to be around £4.5m (which seems a little high to me), but Watford would be looking to reinvest to bring in another defensive midfielder.
No confirmation but Leventhal has said the negotiations are ongoing on the Athletic's transfer tracker. He also added these details, so fingers crossed:
However if you get Hughes fit, I very much doubt that he would wonder round the pitch without a care in the world like Capoue has been. EC has made the choice not to apply himself properly and clearly wants the exit.
I hope Jack would be willing to fight for his place against Tommy, Will and Nate. Having spoken to them and to Big Dave who works at the training ground, they seem quite confident that it doesn't matter if Jack, Matt, Steve or Billy sign, they'll be first choice.
Danny Drinkwater (Chelsea) and James McCarthy (Palace) are available according to The Mail, we would of course be looking for a loan initially.
DD hasn't got good reviews of late has he? I thought James McCarthy had been playing until recently with James McArthur. When Mr IBB comes out of his period of mourning for the Villa game I'll ask him,assuming they don't lost to Leicester and he enters another period of mourning!
I would take Maitland-Niles on a “rest of the season loan”. Arsenal are as desperate for cash as most. His wages will be less than Capoue and with the promise that he has 20+ games in the championship to show Arsenal he can be part of their future. He should be desperate to prove himself to our benefit. Why buy a player? Recruit when we know the league we will be in next year.
But he isn't that either, he's a pretty offensive-minded central midfielder who basically played all of his effective football as one of the attacking prongs in a midfield three.
