Pretty sure that was more on Helena Costa than Manga. Since the Portugal/Belguim divisions were her "bread and butter" channels of scouting. It don't know if they work independent from eachother behind the scenes, but Manga is certainly trying to get deals done. It doesn't look like we are getting anything other than reports of possible targets now. A few have been media spotlighted and made to believe there was more truth in them than was actual possibility (Cho Sung) but that's not on Manga. What we have right now is going to have to keep us stable in the division until January if we see no further movement. A lot of players have gone, but a lot of those players should of gone a long time ago. Doing it all in one big sweep has hurt the squad depth even if those players' were past their best. Had we got rid of Sarr when we had offers for example. could of helped us getting in a replacement. The same could be said for all the players we have let go bar one or two. Gino refused to believe the squad wasn't good enough anymore and the fact we had our worst season points wise in the PL last time out after promotion, added to the fact last season was very dissapointing all around, it's taken him far, far too long to sort the club playing staff out. We had the funds to make the changes, but he was too suborn to call the shots at that time. Now Manga/Costa are working on a shoe-string budget trying to tempt players with peanuts and half promises. Not entirely their fault, this is, as we have always said, stems from the top of the club. We are not a big pull anymore, and our handling of managers and finances are probably well known to a lot of clubs. It's almost as though we are waving a red flag during transfer windows now.
Can I have a look at this crystal ball that some people seem to have that we will be signing any, let alone any decent, players in the next 4 weeks? Im not sure what is so special about the next 4 weeks? I for one think we have near finished the recruitment Pozzo wants. Sure we want more and some decent prospects, I just dont see it happening. We are now at the point of, at most, squad fillers from Udinese, and Boji castoffs we will never see play
Giaretta has guaranteed Wendover it will happen. And he’s going to let everyone know. Just like Duxbury guaranteed him a right back last season.
Couldn't agree more. Yet more £000's down the drain that we can't afford alongside Duxbury's near £1m a year.
Also I am surprised that we haven't loaned any young up coming players from the big clubs in England - I suspect our lack of stability has created a reluctance for these teams to consider loaning us players as they don't trust we can develop them as well as others - that and the players not wanting to come for the very same reason. With our Arsenal connection you would think we would pick up a loan or 2 from there if we were more stable. Clearly Jamal Lewis is not in that category so he doesn't count, we are either going to sign him perm or we are putting him in the shop window for others
Loans are more likely towards the end of the window as clubs want to make sure they have cover, no injuries etc. Lewis was different because he was not of the plans at Newcastle
So Watfordy to recognise that we've been failing in the transfer market, hire an expert on a huge wage with the brief of rectifying things, then proceed to completely ignore him and carry on making the same poorly considered purchases.
Its spending your last pots of gold, on £10m worth of Kalu, Kayembe and Bayo from your mate Bayat and then expecting Manga to sort it your idiocy with a budget of £50k.
I for one am absolutely flabbergasted that his appointment has changed absolutely nothing and that he's just been bought in to play the fall guy.
Oh come on now, Ben Manga obviously has a working copy of the computer game Football Manager 2011. He’s picked up hot prospects Jake Livermore and Tom Ince in real life based on the fact they helped him get Woking from the Conference to the Champions League in six seasons.
It is a bit of a head scratcher to get this guy in and have £0 budget (so far) but I’m struggling to believe Pozzo and co have agreed to pay him and his team x amount of money just to pull the wool over the eyes of fans? My guess (and hope) is the budget was based on sales, which we’ve now made. Or alternatively, maybe his remit is a longer term one. Yeah I am maybe scraping the barrel here - but my first point still stands
I think it’s generous to assume there was ever a plan. Gino woke up one morning and thought it would be a good idea to hire Manga. The day after the contract was signed, Gino had moved on and was already googling ‘players with ACL injuries’.
Was has that Manga chap actually done ? other than picked up an enormous salary , maybe I am missing something.
It’s all a front. He’s working for both Udinese and Watford, but mainly Udinese in this window. There’s no way we’ve invested all that money on employing him, Costa and Tonello, plus all the other scouts, for them to do absolutely nothing. Not even a few youngsters of pedigree we can tuck away. I think that must be the only conclusion anyone can take from that.
Yep a good point and I hope this is correct, but still a waste of a money whatever percentage we are paying him.
We’re paying 100% his salary. He’s only registered as a Watford employee. Just another example of the club being used for only benefiting Udinese.
He's either crap at his job or he's quickly realised he has absolutely no say and Pozzo does what he wants. Either way I'm sure he's delighted with his decision to leave Germany and come to this hellhole.
What difference does it make? If the club can't afford to pick up his salary we'll just sell or loan another player to Udinese again for an absurd fee to make up the difference.
Or as he was given a long-term contract, he’s thought he can’t do everything he wants to achieve in his first window.
It’s just all the lies and deceit I’m sick of. They treat fans like we’re all idiots. Yes some are, and will lap up everything the club tells them, but a lot of people can see right through it. You can’t fool all the people all the time.
Well any fans who expect the clubs will be run 100% separately would be idiots. And the owners would also be idiots if they ran the clubs 100% separately without any sharing of resources and making use of the benefits of economies of scale etc. - but clearly they don't run the clubs 100% independent of each other. Even before Manga joined I thought it was generally accepted that the Pozzos had a scouting network which fed in to both clubs, for instance.
I'd assume his aim is to keep Watford in the Championship though? It's hardly a stretch to say that we could easily go down this season once we get into the injuries and head coach changes.
The problem is, you're not their target audience. The ones who never learn a thing. Who herald each new dawn as a real fresh start, despite a thousand failures already. The ones who actually believe it when the manager says 'I specifically asked for a load of crappy players or Mogi tat.' They're the target audience and will still be.
Yes….and the other part of that famous quote is……you can fool some of the people all of the time……which I guess are their target audience. The Wendover’s of this world.
I see Ismael has rejected the chance to sign 3 or 4 players this week. The Twitter argument now is that they must have been Bayat crap, not that Manga has served up Ismael some sh1te in the last week of the window. If Manga does control recruitment as he seems to think, why is he offering players to the head coach that are completely unsuitable?
