Yeah, indeed, absolutely - surrounded by yes men in their entourages who would not dare, and quite possibly also think the terrible clothes are desirable for similar reasons.
More likely that we will have to match what he would be offered elsewhere as a current Croatian internation with gazillions of caps ?
Or - crazy idea I know, we could source someone else and not agree to match what’s on offer elsewhere because it’s loaded with risk?
Would be a plausible theory if Gino didn’t do exactly the same with players the same age, that we already own.
Yes, lets just buy another experienced current international CD from a top 15 nation, who's prepared to join a relegation battle, on a 12 month or 18 month contract instead ? Or maybe a younger CD who has performed well in the championship and assume he's "oven ready" to perform against the likes of Salah.
But you’re being binary in your argument yet again - you’re clearly suggesting there’s no other options out there so we must do this deal?! Maybe just maybe there’s some footballers who sit between the two types of player you have outlined above? It’s not crazy for fans to see the issues that have befallen us before and to therefore be apprehensive about tying down another CB until he’s 35. He’s a 95 cap Croatian international now…do you honestly expect him to still be a regular for his country at the end of this deal?
Not sure what the issue is with Vida. I’m actually excited we’re getting a player who I feel with be an upgrade to what we have. He is not long term, but in the next couple of years will be good for us. Vastly experienced, a little crazy, highly competitive and has a lot of quality. I think some people have to understand our reality. To the outside world we are a small club battling against relegation. To get a World Cup finalist and still regular Croatian starter to Watford is actually a coup for the club. He is a high profile player. If he proves to be a flop and his legs have gone, so be it. He’ll not be any worse than the others, but I think he’ll be an upgrade and will remain optimistic as a default position until proven otherwise.
It’s the path of least resistance as always, either they already play for Udinese, or they’re old and we offer them an overly long deal to get them to sign. It’s great they’re acting on an obvious problem but they aren’t exactly pushing the boat out.
There needs to be some give and take in negotiations in fairness to the club. I highly doubt we will be the only club willing to take a punt on him, and Vida may have said he wanted 2.5 years and had other offers. Of course, the club could have said no and signed someone else. But Regardless of whether Vida is over the hill or not, he has a high profile, good reputation and still gets into one of the top international sides. I am actually excited by this deal and will be buzzing if he signs. I think he will bring much needed calmness and experience to our panicky and erratic defence.
While his historical achievements are great - you are only really as good as your last games and Croatians and Besiktas fans on reddit say he has been ***** of late. His best attribute was his speed, which has now gone. He may well be an improvement on WTE or Cathcart, but there is a massive gap between being better than those two and being good enough to fix our shambolic defence. I just don't understand our obsession with "experience" in defence. Most of our defence are experienced internationals and are still utterly awful. I would rather they be quick, read danger well or have good positioning than have 700 games and be unable to run and spend half their time with us on the injury table.
He has an offer from a club in Saudi Arabia too. I'm sure they can pay more than us so if he's looking for a final payday then he might not end up here after all.
I think he's what we need today. I'm sure he can do a job for 18m/2 years. I doubt he'll be an international at the end of that period but why does that matter ? Is there a better affordable upgrade ? maybe there is but I've not seen one who would come to us.
I will add - I don’t have a problem with the signing for 6-18 months. But when it starts getting longer than that, then its questionable whether you should do it. You say we can’t afford this, or we can’t afford that - but you’re suggesting we can afford to pay him what’s likely £40k at least, for 12 months extra when he’s likely going to be ready to be put out for pasture - some fans of his club and country are already suggesting that’s where he should be right now. So why will it be okay to burn money then - but it’s not okay to stretch yourself a bit now and spend the extra on a better profile? Lastly. I will say I don’t have a problem with the signing of Vida as a player. My issues are far more rooted in the signal it sends out that we continue to refuse to invest properly in centre-backs. This and the signing of Samir look incredibly lazy to me.
Maybe, I haven't seen him play for Besiktas, but I can't entirely agree about Croatia. I have a soft spot for Croatia and watch them when I can as I spent a few months in Zadar whilst studying and fell in love with the place. I did watch all of their games in the Euros as a partial fan, and Vida's performances were fine. They indeed couldn't be described as ****. I am not sure who else we could buy; I doubt there is a long list of players with Vida's pedigree that we could get for around £3 million.
Again, if we saw Craig Cathcart play for Northern Ireland without having seen him play for us for the past 6-7 years, there'd probably be people on here say that he's worth a punt, international football is a different beast
There may be people saying have a punt, but Northern Ireland nor Craig have played at Vida's level for Croatia. I get your point, but I don't think it is comparable one player was playing in the last World cup final and the other plays for a country currently ranked 54th by Fifa.
I'm not saying Vida is exactly the same level as Cathcart, but it was 3 and a half years ago that World Cup, and a major reason why Croatia are better than Northern Ireland is because of their midfield and attack, not just their defence. I get we're not exactly in a position to be bringing in prime Maldinis to the club, but I am sceptical of Vida's ability to adapt to the Prem at this age (although I will concede Nkoulou played well in the few games he played for us before his injury and he's both over 30 and hadn't played for ages)
Well Cathcart seems to do ok for NI alongside Jonny Evans but yes generally they haven’t played at the top level. Don’t mention Switzerland to @nornironhorn !
My Dad supports Northern Ireland and he thinks Cathcart is a bit of a liability for them as well. Although that may be because my old man is also a Watford fan and has witnessed him in our defence.
