I don't think Welbeck, like Dawson, was a bad signing. They were both were reasonable quality, cheap squad options with a lot of experience of the division. The fundamental issue is that we didn't bring in the starting quality players that Welbeck and Dawson were supposed to be back ups for.
I’m with the young man from Spain here. I too think he was a POTENTIALLY very good signing for us. Get 20-25 matches a season out of him and his skill and experience would have been a real asset for us. Unfortunately there was always a big IF about him, related to his injury record. We rolled the dice, but it didn’t quite come off for us. The margins last season were so fine. One more good result somewhere or one better VAR decision or most realistically one less Mings goal in our net and it wouldn’t have been us having to sell off most of our key assets or Villa buying the likes of Martínez and Watkins and loaning Barkley and thrashing the champions 7-2. So close and yet so far. Which kinds of sums up Welbeck’s time with us too.
Not saying you’re wrong - but on one hand you’re saying you think we were paying Welbeck 100k a week but on the other you’re saying he was supposed to be backup? No way did we give Welbeck 100k a week with the plan for him to be backup.
Welbeck was a starting quality player who was too injury prone for most of the Season, barring the run in where he featured and did well as he seemed to sort his fitness out. Dawson I absolutely agree.
I'm sorry to see Danny go, because he seemed to get through those last nine matches without any injury problem, so I think he might finally have put his injury problems behind him and become a valuable player for us. I would not be surprised if he goes on to become the player he once was before all those injury problems, it's just a shame it will now not be for us So it's over to Perica to fill the boots I hoped Danny would be in.
This has been the problem for the past 3 seasons. We have filled our squad from the bottom, not the top. We rarely have brought in players who improve our starting 11, instead we've signed players who can be back up to established players who are already considered not good enough.
He was signed on a free transfer though - his wages are naturally significantly higher because we didn't pay a transfer fee. The total cost of him was £10m. Compare that with say Andre Gray who works out at a disgusting total cost of £36,700,000. Maybe back up is too not quite the correct word, but I don't think he was expected to start week-in-week-out.
Think the 100k figure is based on the wage he was looking for when touting himself to clubs as a free agent last summer. The Standard and the Mirror and a couple of Watford sources told of the performance-based contract. I really struggle to believe even Gino would make a walking injury like Danny Welbeck our highest paid player.
I agree. I did not see the WD18 article. It was just what was banded about due to his dire injury record. It was rumoured that he received a £5million upfront signing on fee in compensation for the earn as your play contract. Who really knows?
I see what you’re saying but could we have afforded to give him 200k a week then - still only about half of what Gray is on after all? Of course not. I know in these times of uncertainty it’s easy to just believe the more negative side of things - and there’s plenty of it around the club, and the wider world. But it was very widely reported the type of deal he was on when we signed him. Now all of a sudden, from nowhere, he was on 100k a week which was never reported at any point before today. Personally I give far more credence to the belief that he was on a heavily incentivised deal and we simply could no longer afford to pay him to play. Couple that with him wanting out and having a misguided opinion of where his career is at, and you arrive at the clubs decision to let him walk.
How on earth does giving someone a multi-million pound upfront payment to compensate for a pay as you play contract work?! It would completely nullify the entire point of the pay-as-you-play nature of the contract. With that in mind, it's almost certain to be true.
I dont really think it is negative - I dont think £100k per week 2 year deal when there was no transfer fee for him was bad value. The issue is more that Deeney and Gray were also on absolutely bonkers long term-contracts. We had 3 players only good enough (or fit enough) to be rotation options, but together they were being paid more than some of the biggest stars in world football.
Hope he’s humbled by the fact nobody wanted him. Average footballer, always was a average footballer and an absolute sick note. Not sure how much he cost us in wages but it wasn’t worth it. Horrific signing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
We all know footy players by and large get paid a fair whack. As for individuals, if their agent gets them a good deal, good for them. If you were a footballer and your agent helped you get you, say, a £100,000 a week deal, you ain't gonna say to him "That's disgusting, knock it down £20,000". And if you're playing crappier than you'd like you ain't gonna ask your manager to change your contract introducing a pay cut are you. None of us were born yesterday to not know this already.
I'd rank this at about number 39 on my list of mistakes by the club over the past few years. Nowhere near our worst piece of business.
That's completely true, and it probably goes some way to explaining why no one is claiming that they didn't know that, or that they thought that he would do that.
Its called negotiation. Back and forth. A bit like you being offered a job and then negotiating yourself a nice wage.
I don't really understand your point. Is he supposed to turn down the clubs offers and say he isn't good enough to deserve it?
Here's a picture of Dat Guy signing his release terms. So happy for the lad. Looking forward to seeing him in the Euros next year.
Is that at London Colney! I recognise that sofa! Releasing a capped England international from little old Watford! Who'd have believed how far we would come!
Its a shame and I do worry how Welbeck will manage to make ends meet now. If you need a place to stay Danny you can borrow my sofa for a bit.
Excellent news. Makes us financially stronger whilst getting rid of a bad egg. He didn’t want us, Ivic didn’t want him.
Good player. We can’t afford to pay him (even though the 100k a week was dependent on appearances, so we didn’t pay anywhere near that on average for him), but I was hoping we’d get a couple of million for him. I can see him being picked up on a similar deal a newly promoted club. If he really wanted to boost his (almost non-existent) chances of getting in the Euros squad though, he should have proved his fitness and scored goals in the Championship and then signed for an EPL team in January.
