[SOLD] Will Hughes

Discussion in 'The Transfer List' started by nornironhorn, Jul 7, 2021.

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  1. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Hughes put in a decent shift for us in the premier league. Not outstanding, but making out he is not premier standard just because he has left is childish.
     
  2. Loyalhornet

    Loyalhornet Reservist

    Agreed, often played out of position , but proved himself good enough for the premier league on enough occasions and always put a shift in. Will be missed but good luck to him .
     
  3. Jon G

    Jon G Academy Graduate

    Strategy. That was needed to convince Hughes he needed to move on, while we negotiated the better option.
     
  4. Jon G

    Jon G Academy Graduate

    They may be too trusting, I suspect.
     
  5. wfcSinatra

    wfcSinatra Predictor Choker 14/15

    A decent shift in a team that got relegated. He's tidy and probably just about Prem standard but if we assume none of West Ham, Brighton, Everton, Villa, Southampton, Leeds or Wolves matched what Palace offered then that says a lot.
     
  6. Clive_ofthe_Kremlin

    Clive_ofthe_Kremlin Squad Player

    So farewell then Billy Hughes. Pigmentally challenged public school posho with a weird white beard. Like Father Christmas, the early years.

    Sadly he was a pale imitation of what we hoped we would be.
     
  7. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    He's a tidy player, but isn't particularly effective at Prem level. He was superb last season in the Championship and he leaves having genuinely contributed for the club.

    Nothing 'childish' or fickle about my views on Hughes, I've said the same about him for a very long time.
     
  8. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    He certainly tried hard during our relegation season, and then watched the likes of Doucoure, Capoue, Gerry and Peyrera get moves away, who with the exception of Gerry didn’t try hard at all, while he remained stuck at the club. He’s home grown which should automatically make him more valuable, yet even in the last year of his contract there was seemingly only one English club interested, even at a cut price. If he was anything other than lower prem quality at best, he would’ve got a move away last season like the rest of our other midfielders effortlessly did, and teams would’ve snapped our arm of this season for a home grown player available for a cut price.
     
    Arakel and wfcSinatra like this.
  9. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    You’re right, it is ghastly. I’m just old enough to remember them wearing claret and blue stripes and I liked the white strip with a sash they wore in the 70s, but the red and blue stripes together has always looked jarring to me.
     
  10. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    None of those teams came in for Sissoko. Does that mean he's crap too?
     
  11. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    No.
     
  12. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    Surely the fact that he is prepared to come to Watford and none of our feudal overlords out bid us, means he's utter dross?

    I literally have nothing else tangible to judge him by, whereas with Hughes I have 107 appearances, the majority of which I watched myself, to make a judgement on. I don't need Villa's scouting team to make that for me.
     
    HappyHornet24 likes this.
  13. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    Sissoko has been on any intelligent football fan's radar since his Toulouse days, provided his athleticism is still there he is a quality player.

    Hughes is limited at Prem level. You should have spotted this during his 107 appearances.
     
  14. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I hate to break it to you but all of our players are limited at premier league level to a certain extent. This need to talk down Hughes is bizarre.
     
  15. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    I don't have a football radar. I care about Watford players only. I don't give 2 ***** about who is playing for Toulouse.
     
  16. I Blame Pozzo

    I Blame Pozzo First Team

    Isn't it the same reason?
    Hughes apparently had the choice of Burnley or Palace. Palace had Sissoko as their first choice.
    I assume both players have families and young children so both moves would mean they would not need to move home.
    MS most probably lives in the Cuffley/Broxbourne area like a lot of Spurs players do,this is a quick journey to Colney.
    That's much better for him than a trek to Beckenham where Palace train.
    Whatever the details of the contract we offered Hughes perhaps we were confident of better players? Hughes has had a number of injuries.
    It does seem Hughes and PV misjudged the situation in terms of the amount of interest he would attract.
    Anyhow the past is another country,they do things differently there.
     
  17. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    More simplistic nonsense from you. We have many, many players who are less limited than Hughes at Prem level.
    Point proven then, you don't know sh*t about football and aren't worth listening to.
     
  18. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

    If that's your burden of proof, I'm delighted that your opinion of me is irrelevant.
     
  19. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I’m afraid you are the one being childish. Your view is seemingly player has left therefore you are going to pretend he wasn’t a valuable asset.

    Hughes wasn’t Delefeou, but let’s not pretend he was in the Mariappa bucket.
     
    Otter and wfcmoog like this.
  20. Teide1

    Teide1 Squad Player

    The Claret and blue stripes kit, wasn’t that when they had Malcolm Allison and Terry Venables as Manager and assistance respectively, with Fiona Richmond thrown in as a bit part player!
     
  21. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    Agreed.

    And his final sentence made me a little bit sick in my mouth.
     
  22. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    Hughes isn't Tufan, Sissoko or Kucka either.
     
  23. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    How do you know about Sissoko then?
     
  24. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    Agreed. He’s played far more PL football than 2 of them for a start.
     
    Jumbolina and wfc4ever like this.
  25. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    I’ve never been a huge Hughes fan - and I’ve said as much over the last few years. I think he’s been largely an example of unfulfilled promise. I found the fawning of him in our relegation season a bit OTT and I think Capoue, Doucoure and Chalobah are superior players.

    That said, he’s clearly of a level to play in the PL. And there were only a few fans who criticised him before this summer. There’s a lot of revisionism going on here from some just because he’s left.

    Sissoko is a better option IMO - but that doesn’t mean Hughes was a bad option. Tufan and Kucka are completely untested in the PL and Etebo has been a bit nomadic so we can’t be 100% sure on him either yet, even if the early signs are good.

    Simply saying ‘we have signed 4 superior players’ is a bit premature at the moment surely?
     
    FromDiv4, Teide1, Jumbolina and 2 others like this.
  26. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    Come on Burnsy you're smarter than that. We've upgraded our midfield, there is no ill feeling towards Hughes.

    One of the main reasons Watford got relegated was because we stood still and kept the same group of players for far too long without upgrading. Deeney, Holebas, the CB gaggle Mazzarri put together. It's encouraging that we're starting to be ruthless with the market again.
     
  27. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    See above. It’s premature to say we have ‘upgraded’ our midfield as it is largely untested in the PL. So far I’ve just seen a lot of people going off the deep end about players we haven’t even seen in a Watford shirt for anything like an amount of time where you can make glowing assessments of them. Yes they have good pedigree elsewhere and plenty of intl caps - but that will mean f*ck all if they don’t do the business for us. Plenty of international players have come and gone under the Pozzo’s without being anywhere near good enough. Let’s just wait and see before making sweeping statements about improvement shall we?!

    And even if it comes to pass that we do improve in CM, that doesn’t by default make Hughes a bad player who isn’t PL level. The two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

    I also have no idea what you mean by being ‘ruthless’ in the market.
     
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2021
  28. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    Also let’s not lose sight of the fact we offered Hughes 60k to stay and to make him one of our highest earners. We not only deemed him good enough, but clearly high enough to build around him as a regular player every week.
     
    GoingDown, Jumbolina and wfc4ever like this.
  29. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    Tufan has been a big deal since his Bursaspor days, he made a mistake in signing for Fener and not going to one of the top 4 leagues. The guy has a huge amount quality which he now has the opportunity to show in the Prem.

    Kucka's performance vs Villa was a mild sample of what he brings to the table.

    What international players are you referring to?

    We've sacked off 4 strikers, Zinckernagel, and our entire Championship midfield in an attempt to be strong enough for the Prem. If that isn't being ruthless then what is?
     
  30. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    Every chance that figure has been invented by the reliable Paulo Vernazza. What's to say Hughes was guaranteed regular football here either?
     
  31. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Funny though, us 'bedwetters' are constantly wrongly accused of being abusive and nasty to all the Johnny Positives around here, yet all we've had over the last few days is name calling and dog's abuse.

    I never thought we'd end up the good guys.
     
    wfcmoog likes this.
  32. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    On paper - let's see how they perform.

    Encouraging early signs and Sissoko is an excellent buy in theory but they need time to gel and adjust to our way of playing etc.

    Hughes was pretty useful if not outstanding and maybe could have got more goals.

    I am not sure he was worth the 60k a week reported wages though and certainly not without a relegation clause.

    Not many of our players are...
     
  33. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    I can assure you the figure hasn’t been invented.
     
  34. WatfordTalk

    WatfordTalk First Team

    Would be surprised if Hughes goes on to achieve what Tufan/Kucka/Sissoko have achieved in their careers. Think it's fair to say we've brought in improvements*on paper*.
     
  35. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

    Eh?

    Our entire Championship midfield has been binned off? Hughes was offered a deal to stay. And Chalobah, Cleverley and Gosling are still here. As is Quina.

    Kucka had played one game. Hence my comments about people going off the deep end on one game. And the PL is a different level to any league Tufan has played in. Just calm the expectations until we have played more games surely? You could well end up being right. But you’ve got an itchy trigger finger right now.
     
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