Apparently Luke (the guy who knows everything on Twitter) has suggested that none of the signings made were Manga’s and he didn’t even want Ismael!! Doubt any of that is actually true, but it’s interesting to see the Chinese Whispers going into overdrive.
Say what you like about Gino, but the Pozzo model is increasingly influential. Gary O'Neil at Muff, Neil Harris at Gillingham, John Eustace at Brum, it's not about results, it's about... err I'm not sure.
Thanks. Where are Manga or Watford looking for players? Alex Muzio, the Owner or Owner on paper of Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium (Tony Bloom, Brighton Owner is USG financial backer) has indentified several undervalued players in the English third tier as well as signing 13 new players from their data led scouting system. Manga had a great reputation from his time at Frankfurt. At Watford, he was never going to be given a free hand by Gino. Why he came to Watford, only he knows. Watford FC are the Christmas season Pantomime..
I find it quite hard to imagine what was going through Manga’s mind when he decided to join us. After his success in Germany, you’ve had thought he’d have had much better offers at more sensibly run clubs. After championing his cause all summer, I often feel relieved that we refused to stump up the extra cash and responsibilities during our negotiations with Farioli. While he currently sits second (and unbeaten) in a major European league, our shitshow just keeps delivering. He dodged a bullet there and hopefully Manga’s reputation will remain on track too despite his strange decision to join us.
In regards to the Raj deal who knows, but there is a couple of players we have signed this season in which you could make the case maybe that weren't down to Manga as they seem to follow a similar pattern to signings made in our last couple of seasons - Lewis seems to be the latest player who has a bit of a reputation at this level that we have taken on loan with an option to buy if things work out (by which I mean promoted, cant see us spending the reported £5 mil or whatever it is on one player if we dont go up) He's this seasons Davies or Choudrey. Player in their thirties who have had a long career at this level or above and are now available on a free/virtually free, no not King or Assombalonga its Ince.
Probably came because he knew he would get a massive compensation sum when sacked after a few months.
And like clockwork there is a new interview with Bilic now on the Watford Observer site saying that the hierarchy are all great but that Manga and Costa coming in 'confused and overcrowded' things and derailed our season due to there being too many people making the decisions.
Ha ha ha, amazing. Were they in cahoots with Edwards, working to carry on where he left off with his pre-season sabotage? It was going so well until they joined in December last year. Who could forget the 0-3 away at Millwall, 1-3 away at Blackpool and many other momentous occasions.
And people claim there aren't those out there blindly supporting Gino et al despite all evidence at this point: *Trigger warning: bootlickery
I knew Gino had it all under control! Great news. Now I'm being told we're linked with an Indonesian u23 player who Bayat represents. Just £5m
Did we pursue him? I vaguely recall him saying there were no offers from England once he signed for that Danish 5th tier side. In any case, it wouldn't be the first time we expressed interest in a player we had absolutely no intention of paying anything close to market value for.
1. This Ismael sounds like an idiot. 2. No wonder Gino wants to keep him. 'Would you like me to part with £3m Valerian?' 'No thanks boss, I prefer free transfers and ageing 50k punts.' 'That's my boy'
Finally got round to reading the forum so thought he'd better knock out a quick non-committal piece twenty times the length of the original tweet but not giving any more info?
AF reporting it too. By all accounts he did have involvement over hiring VI but wasn’t involved in any of the summer transfers. So now we know, it’s all on Giaretta. Rajovic and the others were nothing to do with Manga at all. There has been a difference of opinion for quite a while and all the talk Gino gave about Manga being such a good fit and filling in areas they were weak in was just BS.
I've never for one second thought that the signings we've made over the last two windows had much of Manga's influence. Several of them clearly had nothing to do with him. Ferreira and Araujo were the only two I ever thought he had a clear influence over. The rest were classic Gino/Giaretta/VI crap.
Fear not, he did walk.... with his P45. Joking aside, very strange decision this unless he has literally done nothing which seems to be implied and was earning a fat wedge. Surely getting rid of Giaretta would have made more sense because recruitment has been questionable since he has come in.
Have to put a bit of accuracy into this. The interview with Bilic was not organised via the club. The timing was his choice: he wanted it run during the international break so as to not draw attention away from games. That also worked for me as I’ve got this week off (well, what’s left of it) so I could file the interview to run while I was off. Had Bilic said Manga was a genius it would have made no difference. What he thinks is his business. I ran the story now because that was what we agreed. As that was going live, I was working on the Manga story - if you’ve read that you’ll hopefully see I’ve referred to him being sold a pup etc
So. We've chosen to let go of a scouting team that by all means was considered a coup in the football industry. A team that scouted and signed players such as Evan Ndicka, Luka Jovic, Randal Kolo-Muani and forward Rafael Santos Borre, among others. He was promised full sporting control and it's clear that he's been sidelined in that role. His budget remit since he was given proper control can be considered *at most* £2-3m and that is generous as we've spent £1.2m in transfers total this Summer. We opt to keep Cristiano Giarrata, the Sporting Director who has overseen the worst set of head coach appointments and player transfers since the Pozzo's took over. He spent literal millions upon millions on players who are either no longer at the club or have underperformed whilst here. (To name some of these players, please refer to Mogi Bayat's clientele, the Belgian Agent under investigation for fraud among other things) The same person who was retained over Rob Edwards almost 12 months ago to thus day over a similar power struggle who *currently* is in charge of our arch rivals and got them promoted that same Season. All because Gino Pozzo is good friends with him. This is why we at Watford FC cannot have nice things and deserve ****. Because Gino Pozzo, Scott Duxberry and Cristiano Giarrata are actively ruining this club now.
Agree, he was hired on 22nd Dec. Kone joined 1st January, most likely too soon for Manga to have had an influence. Ferreira and Araujo were definitely his and he admitted in an interview that he misjudged the qualities of the league (I still quite liked Ferreira and Araujo turned out unsuited to the league) but again, joining a new league barely 2 weeks before the transfer window opened gives very little time for him and his team to settle and assess.
I thought Ferreira showed promise too. If I was being cynical I would suggest the Ferreira loan this season was more to snub Manga than the reason given of only wanting two players in each position.
A royal mess and waste of time this has been . Manga has not had much time to do anything really and now gone . More short term instability .
Gino is utterly incapable of relinquishing even a crumb of control and via Giarrata cant stop interfering. What a total waste of time and yet more money we cant afford pissed up the wall
This is why fans have to use their only ace up their sleeve. A ‘Gino Out’ protest is a must at the next home game. It’s the only thing we can seriously do. If, as a fanbase, we do not do this, then we cannot really complain too much, as we’re all complicit in what’s going on if we don’t try to enforce change. It must be beyond all reasonable doubt that Gino is really hurting the club now. We have to act in order to protect it.
