We don't know they were far better. Clearly no other major club was interested. Both could have ended as cheap punts that failed. Maybe Kayembe will turn out to be a world beater ? They see the same data as you and plenty more.
Sorry that’s a reach - one had good pedigree at the top of Italian football and stacks of international caps. And the other is already valued at 4-6 times more than the original fee. We do know they were better because all common sense tells you that and for you to suggest otherwise just looks silly. I don’t think you’re a Gino apologist. But this whole argument you’re making about affordability and not being able to upgrade CB’s is dying on its ar$e.
You’re not reading what I posted. I said supplement the centre backs with a single signing. One player. It’s really not too much to ask. Deeney and Gray weren’t starting the second half of last season so not sure what relevance that has really.
Your view isn’t balanced. I don’t mind your posts but you are relentless with your views that that we can’t compete and therefore Pozzo ignoring the defence over half a decade should always be excused.
The point could be that they needed to replace the entire defence before this season because they had totally neglected it for the previous 4 seasons. No real attempt to carry out affordable, gradual upgrading.
Easiest if I just respond to the last 4 posts in one post. We clearly have different views. I've no worries with that, though you seem to. It's a fact that we are at a disadvantage when competing with richer established prem clubs, that we made a significant number of signings to strengthen the squad in the summer, that we chose to focus on the forwards and midfield given the obvious need and the low goals conceded last season. Some hits, some misses. Of course a couple of quality CDs on top of that would have been great, if we could have bought them at a decent price and they'd wanted to come.
Eh? This debate has involved both of us - just ducking out and suggesting I’m the one with the issue is a bit odd. We disagree - I’m not sure how you’ve concluded that’s somehow anymore my issue than yours!
ok apologies - trying to get a deck ready for a 14.30 presentation so ducking in and out quickly with little care and attention !
I've not seen the game yet, but will be watching it on Sky later. However, in the meantime the Sky pundits on Jeff Stelling's Saturday afternoon program said that Cathcart & Samir were great and that Cathcart was running the show at the back. So much for all the slagging he gets on here then
It’s not a hard concept to understand TVOR. Plays terribly and makes lots errors = Criticised. Play okay but still look iffy = Not mentioned/Criticised Play well or very well = Praised
Yep. He's completely redeemed the 20 or so crap performances he's put in this season with the one today.
Said all along that when he plays alongside a competent defender he is pretty good. Stick him with someone like WTE or Kabasele and they both become hopeless. Finally the club seem to have another CB who isn't completely dreadful to put him alongside.
Think he's really been helped by having Samir arrive so that he can move across to be the right hand centre back. Looks more comfortable on the ball there.
He’s been pretty steady all season but he’s been surrounded by some dross such as Ekong, Rose, Bachmann etc. He’s a steady defender. Watford fans love a boo boy and Cathcart was one of the front runners to replace Deeney but it looks as though Cleverley is taking on that role.
But this is a fantasy - he has not been 'pretty steady all season' - extremely far from it. The 'boo boy' accusation is just waved around to lazily excuse whichever of our players is performing badly and feel a sense of superiority if/when they finally manage to stop performing consistently badly (across rather a small sample size, so far). It diminishes his improvement in the past couple of weeks, as much as anything else, to pretend he hasn't been dismal for the majority of the season. Was he the worst defender we deployed consistently? No. But that mark is lower than sea level at this point, and it's nothing to be automatically proud of to be found with your head above.
I wouldn’t say we particularly love a boo boy. We really don’t love well past-it defenders who can only play alongside a defender who’s supposedly much better than him. But that’s not his fault. He should have been shipped off 5 years ago.
Laughable that Cathcart was somehow the designated boo boy. We have so many sub standard players you couldn’t possibly pin it down to one.
Imagine walking into the dressing room after a game where you made glaring errors, as Cathcart did most weeks in the first half of the season, and then proceeding to say it’s all because the person next to you was crap as well… What Cathcart possesses (which I don’t think Kabasele or WTE do at PL level) is the ability to go through a game without a glaring mistake if he REALLY puts his mind to it - which he did yesterday and in Hodgson’s previous games. I still want to have far far better options next season but for this season, he’s as good an option as we have.
The club have gone into overdrive desperately licking his arse on the back of Saturday. All is forgiven, Craig. It was all *insert other centre back here* fault the whole time!
Don't think he really was "the boo boy". Just one of a number of players who's mostly been completely crap all season who has deservedly had his regular poor performances discussed, as have a number of others.
Yeah I worded it that badly, what I meant/should’ve said was that it’s laughable to suggest Cathcart was a designated boo boy, we’ve had so many poor players he hasn’t got anymore stick than plenty of others.
I think Craig will be a top level centre-half until he is 40. We need to secure his services on a long term deal
End of next season. Pozzo will be getting twitchy about losing a player with no transfer value on a free about now I reckon.
From what I can ascertain online he has played for us 219 times throughout his career. We may not rate him as a defender, but you can’t doubt his commitment to our cause. Any idea how much longer he has on his contract? Edit - until the end of 2023 apparently.
OK, if we don't go up, we'll have been shorn of our brightest prospects (if they haven't all already been sold), but next year is a big one as the old players who have been here too long will be free agents by then (or at least they should be!), and if we're smart, we'll have given Edwards a year to embed his style of play
Like it or not Cathcart is fine at Championship level. Plus he can play in a back three, he's nailed on to stay. If we get promoted again I will scream if he's not sold though.
