Yeah, I agree with what you are saying. Crap was probably harsh, but certainly crap relative to the very high standards he had set previously. I guess he was a mid/lower level PL midfielder in that season (as opposed to a top level midfielder before that) and in that sense Etebo may be enough to replace him.
Wonder if getting the likes of Gray and Success off the wage bill will mean we look to reinvest in the squad ?
The move to a more advanced role affected Doucoure, though he wasn't terrible, and he got 4 goals which ended up effectively winning us 6 points (would have been more if not for dodgy decisions from the officials and Mariappa sigh). We can talk about the merits of keeping or selling Hughes and Chalobah all we like, but do we have anyone in the midfield who can pop up with that amount of goals in the Prem? What was it, 5 goals between Hughes and Chalobah in the Championship? Louza got a decent amount of goals for Nantes, King SHOULD be more prolific than Deeney, but there's no guarantee that Dennis will have anywhere near the impact Geri had in even a relatively fallow season
Is this a bad time to say Deeney has 6 non penalty goals in his last 51 starts. 5 of them were open goals and the other was a header
So if you look at my posts over the last 3-4 seasons you'll see I've been more in the 'time for Troy to go' camp, so clearly not a back him up regardless fan. But, if we are only discussing his on field contribution, it's been clear to 99% of us on here that it's been his physical shape / attributes that have been the main reason he's not played anywhere near the levels he did previously. When you watch footage of our promotion season (the first one under the Pozzos) he was agile and mobile. As a footballer he is actually far better technically than his 'I'm a big tough lump' character that's been developed. I'd still rather have new strikers, but at the same time I could see him having his best season for a while if the photos of him are reflective of a more leaner and agile Troy once more. Wouldn't make up for the poor 3-4 seasons he's had and it'll be bloody annoying if people then keep saying "he's proved the doubters wrong", because unfortunately he can't travel back in time and improve what he did over that 4 year period - it won't be proving people wrong, in fact it'll be proving them right. Based on the fact the club and hierarchy love him still and he's clearly going to be used, I'll be praying he has taken away some strength for more speed and agility. If so, he'll quite possibly be useful this season. Having said that, I've also convinced myself Fletcher is going to be an asset...those good old pre-season blind faith optimistic feelings!
As the current squad stands we need to ship out 6 players. The easy ones to identify are Gray, Perica, Success, Navarro & Dahlberg. Then it comes to who else gets shipped out. Probably TDB, as he needs a season in the Championship to test out that knee. However, I think we'll bring in at least one more midfielder, so that would be another departure. Probably Zinckernagel. Personally I think we also would need another midfielder and central defender as well. If that happens then two more would need to go. For me, that would probably be Gosling and Sema, although I'm not sure that would be the club's thinking.
I guess the 6 to miss out (not including if we bring anyone else in) would be; Dahlberg Navarro Gray Perica Success Zinc?
Beat me to it, and not that I don’t agree about the wish list there, but I reckon they will go one CM and that’s it, bar anyone leaving.
Dahlberg (loan), Gray, Perica, Success and Navarro - I agree. I think Hughes will unfortunately be the sixth though. TDB will go out on loan to make space for another midfielder to come in. Zinc and Quina at risk of missing out if we can’t shift the likes of Gray.
I agree. I think it will be only one more midfielder, but I personally feel we need two. These have to be upgrades on what we already have. I like Gosling but he's not going to be too useful to us in the Prem. When I say two, that's with the assumption Hughes leaves. If Hughes and Chalobah stay then just one, but of the level of a Doucoure or Capoue. We're in the Premier League now, and we do need a smattering of "Premier League" players in key areas for it to work. Of the squad, who would be considered potential/established Premier League quality? I would say Rose, Sierralta, Hughes, Cucho, Sarr, King, Louza.....maybe Dennis. The rest have the ability to step up, but I think they are a bit marginal. Too good for the Championship, but might struggle at Premier League level. Players like Cleverley, Sema, Cathcart, Kabasele, Kiko, Masina & Gosling seem to fall into this category. Players like Pedro, Quina and TDB have a potentially high ceiling but that's yet to be achieved.
https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ims-good-enough-watford-premier-league-place/ Got to give it to Gray, he tells a good joke.
Clear from the friendlies that Kabasele and Cathcart have not miraculously improved over the summer. Really hope that despite what may have been said by Giaretta, we are still trying to bring in reinforcements for CB.
They look pretty poor. Kabasele probably had one of the worst performances in a Watford shirt and Cathcart looks very Championship. That mistake a Stevenage was horrendous. It's a big concern the lack of form some of our players are showing. Gosling, wow, he looks dreadful. Was poor against West Brom, and just as bad against Arsenal. It's not looking too bright right now.
In my opinion both Kabasele and Cathcart have even played themselves out of backup status in the last two games. Kabasele can be decent but then it'll all fall apart. God help us if Sierralta is now injured.
Pray that Mattie Pollock can play football properly or give Abbott or Langston a crack at it. Ok maybe not the second option. We'll probably sign some shyt from Udinese in January if we're desperate for a centre back.
The player photos have been updated on the official website, apart from Navarro, Gray, Perica…….Hughes, Pedro and Sierralta.
We'd only have to get through West Ham on 28th and then Spurs on 1st Jan. Maybe Wolves on Boxing Day but I'm guessing he'll be available for that one still.
Still seemingly no imminent moves for any of the dross like Navarro, Gray or Success. I wonder how many players we'll be stuck with at the club but unregistered to play.
Those are the players we end up with. Basically, our club is like a sieve. All the good stuff is filtered out on loan, sold or given to Udinese, but the utter crap gets caught in the filter to fill out our squad.
How many more do we need to shift before submitting the final squad. I think its a minimum of three, and obviously more if we add any more signings.
As it stands, 5 more - though I expect Navarro and Perica aren’t in your thinking, hence 3? Still wages we need to offload though.
Are there even clubs interested? I did see Perica getting mentioned with a club in Belgium though, he did have a little success there the last time.
Numbers announced. Basically the same as they’ve been wearing in pre-season for those, like me, sad enough to pay attention. The only changes from the friendlies are that King’s taken Zinc’s #7 shirt and Kucka has usurped #33 with Elliot taking #35. Can’t blame him. If that scary b****** asked for my number I’d let him have it too.
So As it stands from the over 21 list 3 are already loaned out - Dele-Bashiru - Zinckernagel - Dahlberg 4 are likely to leave or be left out of the 25 man squad. - Gray - Perica - Navarro - Hughes** Which would leave us with space for another over 21 player regardless of HG status. Presumably the CM we're looking to bring in. If we can move out Success then we've place for another in the squad.
Look at the positives, the more he plays the greater chance he gets injured... and then someone else plays