I know he didn't come through the academy but it's hardly a great sign for the youngsters coming through. We'd rather let an England U21 international go and keep Kabasele and Cathcart, if that doesn't scream pathway what does?
Oh look, more terrible decision making and negotiating from one of the best negotiators in world football. We stunted his career and growth as a player last season - like we do with literally every young player since the Pozzo's came in - and we're now selling him for peanuts rather than taking our time to really see what sort of player he can become. Extremely young for a centre back at 21 years old, fairly impressive at an even younger age in the Championship for Swansea, plenty of time and potential to improve... but nah, f**k him off to Stoke for a couple of quid rather than getting him a decent loan in the Championship. Excellent stuff once again. I genuinely hope it comes back to bite us.
I'd imagine it'll all be discussed on their podcast. Sponsored by the Hornet Shop. With special guest star, Scott Duxbury.
Given that the Pozzos are supposed to be genius player traders, we do seem to buy high and sell low an awful lot. Stoke are buying Wilmot to replace Nathan Collins who they are selling for £12m...
Pozzo is an awful negotiator. The moron paid £18m for Andre Gray and £12m for Isaac Success and is now selling young players with potential for a packet of Quavers.
With Success he was basically just negotiating with himself, in which case he both did terribly and very well out of the deal.
I didn't think we'd get much in this climate, but that is a disappointing fee. Hope we get some sort of sell-on clause because I do think with regular Championship footy this season he'll become a right player
Glad to see the back of him. He has not kicked on or physically grown in stature. Weak defender who may or may not get any better.
Joke of a fee. Unless the sell-on is about 50% then we've properly had our trousers down on this one.
I don't want to criticise Xisco too much, but I find it hard to believe that Wilmot, Ngakia AND Quina were all so far outclassed by their more experienced teammates that they were worth nothing more than short cameo roles. Blame the Pozzos all you want (and they certainly do have some blame not holding out for more than £2m), but they were all having some degree of success under Ivic
Not a shock I guess, barely got a look-in under Xisco, so the writing was on the wall! The handful of times I saw him play he looked decent, perhaps a bit green, but he's very young and will probably turn out to be a good defender but not sure at what level. Perhaps a little too lightweight at the moment for the top flight? Good luck to him, always came across well, hope he goes on to have a good career.
I didn't think he was good enough but only my opinion. Certainly not good enough for the next level up and might free up a place for Premier League ready defender although going on our recent transfer history I doubt it. Sounds like he wants to play which is great and would probably rather settle at one club instead of another loan
I don't think he's quite ready for the Prem, and maybe he wouldn't have been even if he'd played every game last season, but he was arguably the second best defender for a team with the joint best defensive record in Championship history, can't knock that too much
How much have we sold him for? isaac Success looked very good for Granada and seemed to have the attributes for English football. Unfortunately injuries and general attitude have let him down. I'll give you Gray! I will be amazed if Wilmot ends up with a career in the top flight of English football
What's that, 3 semi-decent Championship players in the 10 years or so? Even when we had bunches of youngsters in the team when we were skint, our youth team wasn't as good as we thought I guess
Suspect the Wilmot role of 5th choice CB will be played by Pollock, who is almost certainly a downgrade currently, but might turn out to be good in the future
Why? He's 21. How many 21 year old centre backs are there playing week in, week out in the Premier League? Zero, or close to. Most centre backs don't hit their peak until their mid to late 20's. Cathcart at the same age was absolutely woeful. He's effectively a kid, certainly in footballing terms, but one who has shown he is at the very least capable in the Championship despite his young age, and to sell him for £1.5m-2m is actually mind blowing it's so ridiculous. He will almost certainly improve, whether that's minorly or greatly is to be determined, but we have 100% binned him off too quickly and especially for such a pathetic fee.
Quina was not a success last season. He got game time but did bug*er all with it. Ngakia was kept out by Kiko who showed he didn’t need resting and his level was high all season. Wilmot maybe was worthy of more game time - but WTE was needed to lead the defensive line so Wilmot didn’t really fit there - and Sierralta? See Kiko above.
£3m. Not seen much to think he’s worth more than that - but of course modern fee’s are silly so maybe you’d be inclined to go a bit higher. £1.5m is just stupidly low.
If we sell at £2m then that’s £500k profit?Better return then sticking the money in the building society?
Yes - isn’t 1.5 million what we paid for him so making a profit on him albeit very small and probably not what the Pozzos were expecting or hoping . He probably wants out and we aren’t fussed about him going .
From what I've seen he doesn't look like he will be good enough. Only my opinion and could well be wrong. I was very wrong when I said Ashley Young wouldn't make it. The other side to this is the player himself. Maybe he doesn't want to get loaned out and asked to leave permanently so he can settle in at a club and build himself as a player. Not Premier League quality so that wouldn't happen here.
I'd honestly have expected at least £4-5m for him, with a decent sell on as well. For a young English centre back signing from a Premier League club, who already has Championship experience and some decent performances there under his belt, £1.5-2m is beyond a joke. Standard Pozzo and D*ckbury.
£2m is a pitiful fee. There's no dressing it up or defending the hierarchy as this being a good deal for Watford. It's not. It was very good business when we got him from Stevenage for £1m. To have never developed him and then sold him for just £2m, is only a good deal for Stoke and Wilmot himself. Not sure what the club are getting out of this. No doubt Stevenage got a sell-on fee from the deal also, as part of the original deal. I suspect we've got a sell-on fee ourselves, but this one reflects poorly on the club.....IMHO of course.
