Now you see I made that the third line. It was the 'Watford heaven 47 line I didn't hear'. In which case I'll just sing 'sod off Marco' in the '47' bit, until I receive clarification from Erasmus or our version of him.
We spent big for the first few summers as the championship squad needed to be turned into a premier league squad and that was the shortest most practical route. Now we have a premier league squad you can see we are reverting to the Pozzo model of stockpiling young talent and the best will come through into the squad. I’m sure if we had a really pressing need for a player the money would be spent. It sounded like we tried for several centre backs last month but didn’t land one. But every step you make up the premier league table the pool of potential players who can improve what you already have gets smaller, it won’t be a linear equation either. Look how much Everton have spent and their squad is arguably no better than it was 5 years ago.
If you went to the thread where fans predicted our final league place and ran an average, I reckon we'll be overperforming massively compared with expectations.
I don't agree with you on that, no, even though it is not what I said. If Javi were to finish bottom half with this squad, I would expect him to be replaced, unless there were serious injury problems.
Not so sure it so cut and dry. I think it depends on how we play as well. Well clear of relegation has to be the aim. If we are bottom half but playing well then I think he still gets a pass. If however we're mid table but the players look miserable and not putting the effort in I don't think the club will be slow in giving the boot. It takes time for a drop in form to start to affect league position and conversely it take a while for a new manager to come in and stop the rot. One thing the Pozzos are not slow in, is replacing a manger. Javi seems to be liked by the players and we do seem to have a lot of confidence players at out club so it's a good match. I don't think with the squad we have that a more authoritarian manager is a good fit.
Yes it's about quality not cost. Look at what we paid for our keepers and defenders. Thruppence hapney!! Doucs Caps Hughes and Chalobah combined was only about £25m in total. Id say the value of our squad is a lot higher than we paid for it, unlike for example Everton. We've never had this kind of strength in depth before.
I agree, our approach to building the squad has been very measured without going overboard; yes there have been some flops but mostly they have been those that we've not paid massive amounts for. Looking at Bournemouth, who don't have the same scouting set up as us, are spending huge sums of money to get their targets. It's all very well when things are going fine, as they are for them at the moment, but in the long term it's not sustainable. How many clubs crash out of the Premier league with horrendous debts? If we get relegated with the Pozzos, I have no doubt that the club will be sustainable.
I think you are in a minority. We of course aim for the stars but anything out of the bottom 6 is overachieving with the squad we have. Look at our back 4 on saturday.
Watch Craig's reaction to the goal...and his pass was sublime... https://www.planetfootball.com/quic...ok-backheel-doesnt-make-sense-and-we-love-it/
That's the first time I've seen it since it played out in real time, from the Family stand. Wow to the power of 10.
I've posted something similar to this elsewhere, I think Holebas is every bit as tenacious as Robbo was, but is actually more skilful than he was. Holebas definitely deserves Robbo type status among WFC LB's IMO!
That wasn't very long ago, but it's incredible even in that short time how much the stadium has improved.
Do you mean look how they played or look at them through your eyes. Pretty much unanimously they played well. So what's your problem? When we have one of the better performing defences in the country, conceding only three goals in our last seven matches, two of them against Spurs. Sadly, it appears only to be on this forum that there would be a majority criticising their ability. We (the forum), are a laughing stock among Watford fans.
Several things spring to mind watching that: 1) Forgotten how much I loved the promotion season jersey - still ranks as one of my favourites 2) Anya, bless him, actually put in a decent cross 3) Ighalo just wandering around with the ball - it wasn't about him so he didn't seem to bothered, when everyone else is losing it 4) I miss Angella's enthusiasm and genuine love for the club 5) Ahh Abdi....still miss you bud Craig may not be Vincent Kompany, but he's so important to us as he does so much covering and unseen work.
I don't have a problem ? Yes they played brilliantly. My point, and probably Jumbolina's is that Gracia is getting some fairly average premier league players to overperform through excellent coaching and motivation. You may of course believe that Mariappa for example would walk into any premier league team and that's fine.
Excellent result! Another clean sheet too which is great, haven't read this match thread but I doubt there is much bed wetting about not signing a CB anymore.
Really? It’s not fair to sack Gracia were he to finish below Everton, Wolves, Leicester, West Ham surely? There is a gulf in resource. 11th or 12th would still be a good achievement in my book.
Didn't someone say we are 15th on wagebill? That is the best benchmark for the manager's 'added value'.
I completely forgot about that goal, as it was the only positive thing to happen throughout what was a very tense and nervy game.
Mariappa has played like that consistently since he came back. Javi is showing belief in him and is being rewarded. His tackling has always been first class. He is good enough and is capable of doing a job for any PL team and fit to walk into anything outside of the top 6 on merit.
Yep. That's great. Can we agree to differ? I'm not saying you are wrong but you keep asking me to contradict myself and agree with you, and I cannot do that.
Yes, but our standards are set by Gino, and they appear to be higher than yours in that respect. You do not believe in the quality of a number of our players but he does, I do and so do plenty of others, and that belief is being justified. End of story as far as most are concerned.
I'll wear that badge. Outside of the select few, erudite and lucid members of this forum (that I have found time to create) our fan base is a dribbling mess of idiocy. We're their laughing stock? They're not even stock.
Phew. Those laxatives play havock with my bowels. Hang on! How do you know what's going on in my pants?
Really? We're only 4 points above 11th and still have to play Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City, bottom half is very realistic and surely everyone is aware of that? I've never heard a Watford fan once mention this forum, I thought it was pretty much non-existent to most fans outside of here considering there's not that many active users compared to how many fans there are.
