Almen Abdi joins Sheff Wed

Abdi was the Tommy Mooney of his generation. Walked the championship not quite good enough for the premiership. Fantastic player and I will miss him, but if we are to move forward then he isn't quite up to it and it would have been a share to see him rotting on the subs bench.

 

The Pozzo network is the something something proof that something young talent something something Alexis Sanchez Alexis Sanchez Alexis Sanchez.

 

Id say that over time, most top flight clubs in Italy will stumble upon an alexi Sanchez. I think that we've seen evidence enough in recent seasons that the Pozzo scouting network ain't all that.

This summer's recruitment so far has been, quite frankly, appalling. I hope we have the big name signing on the way, but if, as people suggest those names are really too good be true and they don't join, then I think we've really ****ed it.

The only new player I was mildly excited about seeing was Peneranda and he's ****ed off already. Otherwise a bunch of ageing wing back hacks and the odd centres back, plus spme forwards for the under 21s/ first team fringe. I'm left completely cold to be honest.

 

If you throw enough **** at the wall, some of it's bound to stick.

 

Keep the faith Moog.

I'm sure Gavin can enlighten us to the real story but WD Sport have said that we'd agreed a fee for Boufal only for there now to be a stumbling block over the fee.

Additionally, when all that doesn't happen, they say that we have an 'equally exciting' player that we've likely never heard of, recommended by Walter, who also had the 'final say' over the Boufal transfer, even though they said that a coach will never be given the free reign over transfers like Flores did.

As WD Sport said, exciting times. As unclear as they are.

 

Yep, can't argue with that moog.

 

We also seem to have totally given up on scouting anyone from a lower league in England. I know that there is a premium on Home Grown players but we're completely unwilling to gamble on anyone up and coming from the Football League. There are players out there that can make the step up and other teams are willing to take a punt but we seem completely unwilling. We never seem to be linked to young British players that are on the way up and have just had a good season of first team football. With the little bit of business we have done in England, it's either a youth team gamble like Ikpeazu and Sinclair, or an established pro looking looking for a change of scenery like Cathcart, Watson. I've got to be honest, I'm slightly envious of the way Bournemouth are hoovering up young British talent like Lewis Cook - £6 million is a gamble but if he has a good season or two, he'll be worth so much more whilst Mario Suarez is highly unlikely to ever be worth more than the £4 million we've paid for him.

 

Potzos out . Taking this club back to the 19th century .

 

Some members of this forum, because one month into the transfer window and Gino has not signed Pogba, Ronaldo and Messi....

 

Yeah that's what I was getting at - every article glorifying the Pozzo network will just namedrop Alexis Sanchez as some kind of vindication of it's brilliance.

But as we've seen over the past four years, they arguably get more wrong than they do right. The further we go into their ownership of the club, the more apparent it is becoming that the whole scouting network is dependent upon trial and error, and not so much skill or artistry.

 

Nobody said Pozzo's out. Surely they're not immune to some criticism?

 

What do you suggest? Go back to how we used to do it before Pozzo. To say it doesn't work when they have taken 3 quite poorly supported sides and kept one in Serie A for 20+ years, another from the brink of going out of business to the top division and kept them there and another who were financially knackered and heading for god knows where in to a side that just finished mid table in the Premier League. They don't have the money of a lot of other owners so they managed all of this by buying players cheaply and selling them on at a profit. To have achieved what they have with not masses of money would suggest it works and in fact you could say Ighalo is a product of that and we've turned down £30m+ for him, sadly. Yes everybody is aware of Alexis Sanchez as he is clearly their most notable success but there have been plenty of others that I'm sure somebody can enlighten you of.
I'm not sure what some people expect, maybe that whoever we get linked to, if we want them they just say yes immediately when in fact I would think the larger the fee the longer it takes to finalise. Look how long the Pogba transfer is taking. I feel they are getting a rough ride currently from people who just want it all right now and act a little bit like spoilt brats just because the player we are supposedly chasing hasn't signed yet.

 

Spoilt brats blah blah Pogba blah Messi blah blah

 

Did i say Pozzo out somewhere? And did i say it doesn't work?

I suggest we carry on doing what we're doing, because it's how the Pozzo system functions. I was merely pointing out a misconception about how effective the whole thing is, so no need to unload the ungrateful spiel on me.

 

Have to agree with this. There was a thread somewhere about the hits and misses from the Pozzo signings - sure there have been far more misses than hits. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change anything but I'm not convinced yet that we've got our incomings and outgoings right to ensure Premiership survival

 

Is it me or have we signed full internationals and two fantastic prospects in Success and Sinclair this window? There's still a month to go people, we've had a great window so far. If you want a top level attacking midfielder then clubs like us are going to have to be patient. We can't just steam in and have our pick of these players because there will be bigger clubs sniffing around if they're that good.

 

We hope Success and Sinclair will be fantastic, just as we hoped Jurado and Fabbrini would be fantastic. They weren't.

I think we all accept that the Pozzo model is always going to be a bit hit-and-miss, but is probably going to score enough hits to keep us in the Prem or if not, then with a good chance of getting back there.

My main gripe is that we hardly ever sign players with experience of English football. English-based players (not necessarily Brits) might be more expensive, but the risk factor is lower.

My secondary gripe is that we let good players go before we're sure we've got an adequate replacement - Forestieri and Vydra last season, Abdi this. We might get in strikers or attacking midfielders with brilliant CVs,but can they cut it on a wet Saturday afternoon at the Vic?

 

I'd agree with this, for all we know Success could be the attacking flair we are crying out for and if Sinclair has half a good season his value could easily triple by the summer. The Pozzos success in the market isn't always going to be the big names like Sanchez but getting someone like Pudil in for next to nothing and selling him on for a fair bit. Selling a player at almost 30 like Abdi for what could potentially rise to £6m is again good business for a player who is not guaranteed to play regularly unfortunately as much as we all love him.

There's plenty of clubs who've done a lot less business than us from Arsenal to Sunderland and many will be looking at these exciting players if we are interested can be sure we're not the only ones so the selling club are of course going to drag the moves out hoping one of these clubs gets edgy and outbids everyone else.

I also think it's quite telling as with Fessi no prem club took a chance on Abdi perhaps just because he's worth more to a club trying to get promotion who knows.

I agree with the view I'd like to see more young prospects picked up and perhaps players like Brady with prem experience but realistically how often does that happen. I think a lot of it is the players the Pozzos bring in are a fairly unknown quantity. The fact we can sign players with Suarez pedigree and him not be one of our best players is quite incredible for us I think.

 

Just copy, paste and change a couple of names every summer eh pal?

 

sinclair is garbage

 

It's certainly more than Alexis Sanchez**, it's just he's the most well known and "current" so it makes it easier to big it up. I'm under no illusions, recently the Pozzos scouting network has found it harder to find gems (although they still unearthed Ighalo, Success and Penaranda for peanuts), but that's not their fault, it's down to other clubs copying their network so they don't have to ***** £30m on a player each time. So now you have yours Chelseas, Juventus, PSGs scouting the globe as well, all of which have more appeal than Watford/Udinese/Granada. Which will obviously dilute the quality of players coming in. It's simple supply and demand.

** Some examples:

Mehdi Benetia, bought on a free transfer. Sold to Roma for 12m and Nico Lopez, went on to play for Bayern and is now at Juve.
Roberto Pereyra. Recognise that name from somewhere? Udinese snapped him up for under £2m before selling to Juve for £15m.
Isla. Bought for under £500k, sold for £12m.
Candrevra. Bought for 500k. Sold for £9m.

They're the most recent/relevant ones. Not to mention people like Bierhoff, Muntari, Gyan etc. The PL is a different league to Serie A, you can easily be beaten by anyone in the PL, you can't scout 18 year olds from Peru or Chile and expect them to make an immediate impact in this league. Whilst I agree that maybe we should be taking punts on talent from lower leagues. I'd like to establish ourselves as regular in the PL first. Survive. Build a team capable of surviving for a few years, then we invest in some young talent like Ibe and Cook. Are they worth £21m now? Probably not. Will they be worth £21m in 2 seasons time? Who knows. But what I do know is there will be other young tricky wingers and young good English CMs later on down the line, and i'd prefer us to be solid in every aspect before we take gambles like that.

 

It's alright, once we get relegated either this season or next, the players we get will seem better like before.

 

In the Pozzos' support, I'd say that having more misses than hits doesn't necessarily mean the strategy is wrong. If you do the lottery every week and have a medium-sized or small win every couple of months, you're ahead.

 

Hopefully we can get relegated this season and buy Abdi , FF and Pudil back from Wednesday as they get promoted and dont need them any more.

 

Though they will probably try them in their best positions in the prem and find they are good enough to keep !

 

I wasn't implying that it doesn't work. More that it's a numbers game than us having a special eye for talent.

You don't really hear much about all the busts that come out of the network, and we've accommodated a fair few of them in the last couple of years.

I'm not trying to s**t on the system, because it works. I was just debunking the narrative that we have some kind of edge when it comes finding good players.

 

But why can't it be both? Poker/Trading is a numbers game but clearly some people are much better than others, namely those that can make a comfortable living from it. Even players with clear talent may never work out through random factors like injuries, so you must always spread the risk with a large portfolio. To suggest that the Pozzos do not have an edge over many others (but not all of course), to my mind is unfair.

 

You all bought tickets so just enjoy the ride

[video=youtube;Moi7CI2CCNg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moi7CI2CCNg[/video]

 

Yup. RWB, bench and bench.

 

It's a mix of both. I'd argue they do have an eye for talent, but lots of the "known" good players we've been linked over this summer and last with have gone to other, bigger clubs (off to the top of my head: Perotti, J Lukaku, Vazquez, Sarabia etc etc). That's not the Pozzos fault, that simply comes with the territory now. That means for some positions, we have to pursue our 2nd, or 3rd choice options, who obviously aren't going to be as good and as such, reflects badly on the Pozzos, despite there being nothing they can really do about it. Look at the bigger picture, football isn't just about Watford. There's other clubs involved.

 

I would also add that I disagree with some individual decisions within the strategy. Letting Abdi and Fessi go only makes sense if we bring in better replacements, which hitherto we haven't done.

I've already said I am hopeful that we are on the verge of bringing in the creative signings we are lacking, but if we don't do so and we finish the window with the squad we have now, then I think we're in for a disaster.

 

Acuna, Neuton, Fanchone, Lucas Neil, Lee Chu Young, Belkalem, McEachran

I'd actually say The Pozzo's have got more wrong than right in regards to player recruitment, funnily enough.

 

A list of bad signings in isolation really doesn't say much. It's not even a case of "getting more right than wrong", it's a case of making money and having teams that can get to, and stay in, the top leagues. So far they've done ok on that front.

 

Having teams that can get to, and stay in, the top leagues doesn't mean that they haven't had terrible signings or made transfer mistakes along the way.

 

No-ones doubting that our signings haven't been 100% perfect, but what club can say that every signing they've made (even in the last 2 years) has been 100% successful?