And Wilder was also here for all of four games, he would’ve had the players he was given so couldn’t have drawn any conclusions on Giarettas ability to scout players, or anything else for that matter.
Shame you won’t venture an opinion. Might as well not have an opinion on players because you don’t see the exact role/restrictions the manager has for them on the pitch. As for being in a worse position without Giaretta I’m struggling to think what that looks like by the way.
. Much easier to assess the players as we see them performing. We don't see what restrictions are put on Giaretta, budgetary, pressure to buy from Bayat, or not, interference from Scott and Gino. Which players has he put forward that weren't signed, was he responsible for the Portuguese wonderkid, Kalu, Kayembe, or was he just told we are signing these players ? Is his role solely recruitment ? To what extent was he responsible for VI ? I just don't know. I just know that Wilder and Bilic who worked closely with him seemed to rate his input and could easily have criticised.
My understanding was he told he was no longer needed on Tuesday, cleared his desk on Wednesday but then there was a change of mind the next Sunday (which if my memory is right, was the day after the draw with Sunderland).
You don’t know if a player is acting on strict instructions if he plays a certain way. You aren’t in the dressing room or at training. May as well not be critical of Dux or Pozzo either. I don’t know the exact workings and neither do you. They have created a complete **** show but let’s let them all off the hook because we don’t sit in on any conversations. What a pathetic way to leave people in positions of power with zero accountability.
It's a fair point. I'm not 'itk' but all I know of Giaretta is apparently he's 'always watching'. This was from someone involved in the academy. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing I'm not sure. I'm not even 100% sure what he does, but Bilic seemed to suggest he's passionate and wants the best for the club. Seems a little silly to be so angry about Giaretta, same as it was silly to be angry at Giraldi. The buck stops with Gino for finances, and with Duxbury/Gino for the day to day. Unless Giaretta was responsible for flask-gate, in which case **** him
No but you can pretty fairly assess if a striker misses a hatful, if a defender misses a bunch of tackles, if the keeper drops the ball etc. We may now know if a LB/RB is told not to cross the half way line for example but if he pings in a few terrible crosses, we can express a view. You're in danger of undermining your argument with a poor analogy. We know that as a block "the board" or "Management Team" have overseen the slide from mid table prem in 18/19 to lower champ so far in 23/24 and absolutely have to take responsibility. I don't blame them for failing to still be a prem club as I don't think we had the financial clout to stay there forever. However the past 2 years have seen a number of poor decisions over signings, manager turnover, the failed Manga experiment. So what does Gino do, sack them all and start again ? Is it all down to Giaretta ? Is it down to Scott (who does what exactly?). I don't feel the same anger that you do, I just feel disappointment that a golden era is over and we are back at the stage where a mid table champ finish would be a par performance, and disappointment over poor and confused decision making. I still don't understand what Scott/Gino hoped to achieve with Manga, and why it failed.
I'm pretty sure there's been an account out there for a while now from some other agent or something, describing how Bayat basically has the run of the place at Colney during transfer windows and it's him people are presented with for transfer strategy meetings when they visit the club. *DISCLAIMER* I cannot at this time back this up with evidence - I think it was either something @LouOrns tweeted, or maybe featured in a semi-related article, or something like that. Would be fascinated if anyone remembers, as I think searching the forum for 'Bayat' mentions would be a reduced-size needle in a haystack style task.
I'm also left wondering if other clubs simply don't want to work with us with Bayat involved? Firm believer in there's no smoke without fire and perhaps the reputational damage and negative exposure his possible conviction could provide, simply by association, is something others don't want
With the way they so vocally tried to protect him with absolute filibuster and distraction at the forum are you truly suprised
Thinking the other way round. Why is the vulture Bayat bothering to pick at the remains of Pozzo FC. There is no meat left on the carcass - Pozzo and his cronies have seen to that. I don’t think anyone else will touch him except Pozzo. And similarly few people want to any business with our chaotic fools. We are a lump of stinking decaying meat to the rest of football.
Not really surprised, but it just makes me hate Gino even more. God help us if we ever had a financial audit.
Without saying I necessarily agree, can I just say what a tremendous mental picture that paints! Vultures turning their nose up at meat so acrid and mephitic even they don’t want it! I’m banking that for future use
I'm actually longing for the Edwards interview where he states Giaretta and Bayat were a pleasure to work alongside and that he was fully backed.
That makes little sense and doesn't really tally - if the player isn't one represented by Bayat then it doesn't really matter. In the last window we've dealt with plenty of other clubs for transfers that have had nothing to do with Bayat or seemingly been affected by his association with us - selling JP to Brighton and Sarr to Marseille. Signing Lewis on loan from Newcastle and Ince from Reading. etc.
Don't forget, in the most recent season that The FA have published data (2021/22) Watford had 9 transfers that used Bayat not as an agent but as a registered intermediary. He wasn't involved in every transfer, but a significant proportion - just because he's not the player's agent, doesn't mean he wasn't involved. For reference, we also paid £12M in intermediary fees that season. Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
It doesn't seem to actually be stopping clubs dealing with us though. Any fees will also be just going from our side (to funnel money/save taxes).
Doesn’t matter who the agents are . A club our size shouldn’t be paying 12 million to any of them . Particularly when it seems to produce very little !!
I might ask my employer if they can just deduct a large percentage of my income at source and give it to some dodgy football agent so I can reduce my tax bill, wish I’d thought of this before!
Given corporation tax isn’t an issue because of our Goliath brought forwards losses, you seem to be implying personal tax evasion?
It’s either Gino funnelling money out via Bayat to avoid personal tax, as you say, tax evasion. …Or it’s £12m being funnelled out of the club completely and into the hands of a dodgy agent to line their pockets. It would be interesting to hear which scenario Rousey believes is preferable, and works in favour of Watford FC.
It has been shown before that money paid by clubs via agents can reduce their tax bill - it doesn't mean it's illegal, it's a clause that the Pozzos clearly make use of and which many other top level clubs have done as well (though perhaps not as frequently). Minimising tax legally isn't anything wrong necessarily. Perhaps it benefits the club because otherwise it would simply have to pay more tax? Or it benefits us because one way or another the Pozzos will wish to pay themselves some kind of an annual dividend out the club, say £1mil per annum , but in doing it this way via Bayat they only have to take £1mil out the club to get that sum in their pocket, whereas if they were having to do it via less efficient methods maybe they'd instead be taking £1.4mil out the club in order to arrive at the same £1mil in their pocket (from the other £400k being taken in tax).
7th highest agents' fees in the Premier League after only both Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs and Chelsea if I remember correctly. Yet whilst other clubs in the PL were buying players for £20m and £30m that season, our highest transfer outlay was Louza for £8-9m. By Premier League standards we spent next to nothing last time we were promoted. Make it make sense...
I guess it makes sense if you realise the objectives of the football team and the owner and his cronies are not always aligned. Or more accurately despite years or evidence there is an arrogance that they can get away with enriching themselves as priority one without it impacting the club adversely on the pitch.
https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...missed-livermore-three-pl-youngsters-january/ Great article. A few reasons why Manga was let go....
