Far from celebrating. What a strange thing to say. Ivic has held back Sarrs performances. The Norwich game has given me hope that the real Sarr is on his way back . My Logic would be to move on a 32 year old who doesn't want to play for Watford and keep a 22 year old record signing. Excellent business savvy wouldn't you say. I cant be bothered going through the stats. But I believe we have gained more points without Capoue in the team.
Inevitably they could of risen or fallen having played more games. So I take nothing into that. What part of he doesn't want to play for Watford do people not understand? The whole team looked very good and committed against Norwich. That says more about management than anything.
11 points in the 7 games Capoue has started. (1.57 points a game.) 26 in the 14 games Capoue hasn't started. (1.85 points a game) Couple of games where Capoue came on as sub, 44 mins against Bournemouth for example. Also mitigating factors like quality of opposition so not sure how much to read into it.
A big blow to our promotion hopes. That said, assuming we don’t go up this year (given the incompetence of the owners and our unqualified manager that’s a decent assumption), then this is good from a financial perspective given he preposterously still had 2.5 years to go on his contract. All the best to the player - been a good servant. I fully expect the owners to try and sell Hughes and Sarr this window as well now and bring in some more Udinese or loanee squad fillers.
If that happened, I'm sure it'll be spun as a positive or marked with a 'I'm sure Gino has targets already sorted' without any real evidence as usual.
Is he key to promotion? I’d say no, a good player but can anyone say he’s shown that enough this season. On balance at his age if we can actually get a decent fee then it’s a no brainier £4m fee + £6m saved on wages over the next 2.5 years, which could cripple us if we don’t go up. Not saying we will but we could easily get a less talented player that would contribute a whole lot more.
Capoue is my favourite Watford player of recent times but I think if there is a time for Capoue to go it's now as we will still get a relatively decent fee for him. I have felt a little annoyed with him this season as I don't think he has been fully committed, I thought that he always had one eye on leaving in January when he couldn't go in the summer and I believe he has probably made this clear to the club. If we are going to try and pull in the same direction and develop some togetherness Capoue is probably the wrong player nowadays, no matter how good we all know he is he wants to leave and to be honest I don't blame him, he gets a chance of Europa football at a big club currently try 4th in La Liga. If we invest it on a couple of decent loans maybe a striker and a central midfielder then brilliant if not ot will help balance the books.
If your attitude is that you aren't fussed about promotion. If that's the case, fair play. Can't say I am as the club as a whole is seemingly based on lies.
We have kept players for too long in the past, when in hindsight we should’ve sold them, Doucoure, Igahlo and Deeney are examples. Capoue is 32 and only declining in terms of effort and ability from here on in. The transfer fee and wages saved add up to around £10m, it just makes sense, compared to keeping him for the remainder of the season and what that will actually give us instead. If he was 10 years younger the pant wetting would be fully justified, as it will be if we fail to reinvest the funds on a better player or players, which of course is a distinct possibility and will warrant suitable pant wetting.
Sorry, but the idea that Wilmot can step up is genuinely laughable - he has just turned 21, has made fewer than 50 senior league appearances above League Two ever (44) and he isn't even a ******* midfielder, nor is he an established starter in his preferred position, let alone someone who can replace one of, if not the, best player in the squad in terms of ability. Capoue is so much better than anyone else around him that he can still record stats that compete with the league leaders when he clearly doesn't give a ****, and has played far fewer minutes than many of his rivals. We would be asking Wilmot to step up into a position he doesn't play and instantly become the best player in the entire midfield, to elevate our performances both defensively and offensively, immediately and for the rest of the season, with what would be astonishing consistency. It's moon-man thinking and it would be comedic if it wasn't so concerning that there are fans who would not only accept but apparently advocate for it. And we wonder how Gino et al get away with piss-poor, unacceptable recruitment and a damaging lack of investment in required areas, window after window.
I wouldn't say that on current form and attitude Capoue warrants his wage and that he is critical for our promotion push.
Well I can’t see Arsenal wanting to send players to fellow mid table Premier League teams. If he is able to go to Spain that’s another story. But if he wants to be about the Arsenal squad after Arteta is gone, ( as an Ozil supporter Arteta ain’t playing him this year), a spell next door is not a bad option for him. He can play at left back so I think he has enough at central midfield to add to our squad. I still would not buy anyone - get a quality loan in.
Javia Gracia didn't necessarily agree with your view as to Wilmot's potential as a midfielder. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ould-intelligent-teenager-central-midfielder/
Oh yes,McCarthy has been out,McArthur usually plays. McCarthy MArthur,McCarthy McArthur,let's call the whole thing Wilf,err off!
A) There is a world of difference between 'seeing potential in a 19 year old to become a central midfielder' and 'replacing the team's best player in the position as they seek to overcome a multiple point deficit to win automatic promotion'. B) Let us not ignore the fact that this was tried, and swiftly abandoned. This supposed flowering into a position that, as even the article states, is not his by trade, never happened. We are two years on and it would be exactly as practiced as it would have been then. C) Let us also not forget that Javi was a lovely man, and gave us some great times, but he also oversaw some historic embarrassments and failed to pull us out of a spiral to the point that he was fired. Even Sir Alex Ferguson made enough proclamations surrounding young players that turned out to be wrong; Ravel Morrison and Phil Jones, to name but two. Our former manager is not some unimpeachable oracle whose word is law. The fact that Javi Gracia gave an interview directly after Wilmot's Premier League debut saying that he could one day be capable of 'play(ing) in midfield as well as defence' is pretty bloody neither here nor there when it comes to whether or not he can fill the gap left by our best player in one of the most important positions on the pitch ex machina, having had almost exactly as much experience there as he did when that glowing quote was made.
Look, I think that when conditions are right (i.e. he's happy with the manager, etc.) Capoue is still our best midfielder. When conditions are not right, he turns crap. I don't think he wants to be here and yet he has value. If he plays hard over the next few matches to get a deal, and we can play Hughes and Wilmot there after he's gone it's not terrible. Yes, I'd prefer the happy top-of-his-game Capoue, but I'm not convinced we're going to see much of that. That being the case, I'd prefer to get some value for him and move on. One thing that Ivic was right about was that we need to play the ones that want to be here.
He will be a miss but only when he puts the effort in. If he had put in the necessary application in his career he would never even been here. I just hope that the monies saved are invested in a replacement because at the moment the midfield is paper thin.
Sure, but as I said in an earlier post, he's still our best midfielder by some distance when he conditions aren't right, and he isn't on his game. That's both an indictment of all our other central midfielders and something of a tribute to Capoue's natural talent. If he is going, which it seems that he is, the replacement has to be looked for and brought in with the brief of being an actual replacement; that is, the best central midfielder, and one who is adept both defensively and offensively. No one we have on our books as it stands is anywhere near capable of replicating what Capoue does (and I don't include Hughes as a central/defensive midfielder, though that's a bit moot as it stands given that he has featured in 4% of all possible minutes this season to date) and there's no benefit in getting a player who's not that bothered about being here off the books if it doesn't make room for one of the requisite quality who does.
There was a big influx of signings after promotion in 2015. The Pozzos may be frugal again in the hope of going up with what we have before attracting PL level talent in the summer rather than signing a run of the mill championship midfielder who may only be useful for the next 6 months. That being said there were plenty of pragmatic signings made that promotion year too with the likes of Bassong, Motta, Guedioura and Connolly, who all played their part.
We were linked with Mamadou Coulibaly a few years back and I wouldn't be surprised if he is lined up as Capoues replacement, he has hardly featured for Udinese this season and his physicality would probably suit the championship its not the most exciting transfer but I am fully expecting any replacement to be from Udinese.
As was discussed on the previous page in this thread, Coulibaly seems unlikely to qualify for a work permit. Walace would do though and could be decent.
