Not at all. Whilst I appreciate injuries got the better of him late in his career, in his first season with Sheff Wednesday, when he was fighting for a place, he wasn't considered good enough to start regularly. Players who have played for us, it doesn't always work out when they leave for a Championship club. It's not just Abdi and Gray, i'm sure there are examples throughout other clubs too. So as I mentioned in my initial post, to the person being amused at Gray not starting, its nothing new. How they did for Watford has no relevance to my point as I already know Abdi contributed more for us than Gray did.
Played last night....as one of 6 changes in the Mickey Mouse cup....didn't score.....subbed after 62 mins.....
QPR fans are beginning to turn on social media, lots of negative comments about his recent performances.
Not exactly defending him, as I have said he's not as good as he was and happy that he isn't with us in the PL campaign.
Someone on here said Gray may outscore Deeney (in a three-legged tortoise race) now I’m not so sure. Has he had any goals or assists that contributed to a result (ie without it/them it would’ve been a draw/defeat instead of a win or a defeat instead of a draw)?
According to whoscored Pollock, PZ7, Tom Dele and Dahlburg are performing well (top 7 for their teams). Gray, Deeney, Quina, Chalobah, Cukur and Mebude are not. Although to be fair to Gray his minutes per goal is even better than it was at Watford. I know some fans don't like these rating systems but they rate King Sarr and Dennis as our best players with none of our central defenders in the top 10 which seems quite accurate to me. Foster is 7th which also doesn't surprise me.
To be fair to Scott and Gino they did an excellent job getting moves for Troy and Andre this summer. Very smart to use the Brum and Warburton connections to offload them. I'd love to know how much its costing us though. A pretty penny no doubt!
Would you have taken Will or Chalobah back if it meant binning Gosling? Well, it's not as though he plays anyway but still... as back up for a possible No.6 role.
Chalobah wouldn't play ahead of Kucka, a man who is blowing out of his arse after 20 minutes. He can't even get in the Fulham squad. Hughes might have been decent backup for Louza but he's not in the same league as Sissoko or Tufan. They could maybe make the bench ahead of Gosling. Neither of them are a loss to us though, we don't need turds like that around the place.
Good point. Hopefully January we can get rid of Gosling. He did his part last season (winner at Norwich), quite obviously now surplus to requirements.
The buying mediocre British experiment was an abject failure that ended in relegation. Of course I wouldnt take those kunce back.
Indeed. The 4 in > the 5 out by a mile, it may not be enough but that's a great bit of business over the summer.
As an observation, players like Gray, Deeney, Chalobah & Hughes were big shots at Watford, but have all learned a lesson that the grass isn't always greener. All of these players are struggling for game time at their new clubs, and all, bar Hughes, have dropped down a league. Same can be said of Quina. Frustrated at not playing enough for Watford, but has gone to a top Championship club and has been told he doesn't work hard enough and he doesn't play. It's mind boggling, that Hughes would turn his nose up at a 5-year contract being one of the highest players at the club with guaranteed game time, and opting for a 3-year deal with a relegation rival with no game time. Same for Chalobah. Turning down a 5-year on similar terms, to drop down a league for a 2-year deal and no game time. Deeney, probably a little different in his reasons, but he's taken a massive drop in salary to sign for a no-hoper Championship club and he can't even get into the starting XI. Gray didn't push for a move, as he knew no one would come close to giving him what Watford were paying him. The club forced him out really and are finally cutting their losses on Watford's worst ever signing. But I think there is evidence to suggest those players were in a bit of a bubble at Watford, forgot what the real world was like at other clubs, and probably all rated themselves higher than was indeed reality.
I think there’s much more to the Hughes story that we’ll find out about one day. I’m not so sure it’s as simple as just turning down a 5 year deal. Chalobah is the unexplainable one. Letting him go for free to anyone is bad enough but to Silva? I can only assume he agreed to leave without a payoff for us to allow that.
No doubt we'll have to wait for Hughes' book before we'll know the real story. Deeney's book was "Redemption", so I'm sure Hughes will go for a similar sounding title........"On the bench, son".
Deeney was somewhat shoved out of the door too really. That was heavily implied by the last minute nature of the goodbye stuff. Quina has looked like a write off for a while given his lack of progression and the number of head coaches who didn't find a place for him. He now needs to concentrate on recovering his career and I suppose that's most likely to happen abroad. Hughes I don't get. Maybe if he hadn't made such positive noises about staying back in May I'd have been able to piece together a logical argument for the move to Palace but as it stands unless he's on a six figure weekly salary it doesn't make sense.
I think Palace offered him a reduced weekly salary and a shorter contract. It seems that his big problem was the reported 50% reduction in salary with the relegation clause at Watford. Basically, if Watford stay up, he's completely mugged himself off.
