(25) Emmanuel Dennis

Of course he is. He's a hornet through and through. His grandad used to stand on the terraces. His great great grandfather was a founder member of the 1881 club, so don't give me any of that old flannel.

 

Yeah that’s kind of my point, him staying and helping us is more likely to be a by product of his overall ambition. Fantastic for us in the short term of course, if that is the reason. In the long term it’s more about him staying in the shop window and probably getting a better/bigger move than if he went to AFCON.

 

Yep, it's all about the shop window, which is certainly not a bad thing for us as we'd have been extraordinarily lucky to keep him past this summer anyway

 

But that would have happened anyway so nothing is lost. In fact, we may gain if we get a bigger transfer fee than would otherwise have been the case.

Unless he’s going in January, of course.

 

‘Nigerian football’ Twitter is almost as funny/tragic as ‘WD18 acne-ridden-virgin Watford’ Twitter.

Almost.

 

Maybe, but he may see it as important to build up a significant period of success in the PL and going to the AFCON would interrupt that.

The PL has seen plenty of flash in the pan players before, our very own Igahlo for one, so he may view it as important to build a body of work in the PL as big as possible.

 

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The man does play for us and he no doubt has a mind of his own and as I have already said I do not consider it unreasonable that we ask him to choose his club teams possible PL survival over playing for his country on this occasion.

He is still very young and hopefully, providing he does not suffer a career ending injury, he should have a fair few more opportunities to play in the AFCON tournament, but possibly only this chance to help WFC to achieve PL survival.

Therefore IMO "what that could actually achieve" is the difference between us surviving in the PL or not, which as a fellow WFC fan I would hope you would prefer too.

Furthermore as I have said all along the final decision should ED's and whatever he decides is fine by me.

 

Is it ‘unreasonable’ for us to ask him to not go? Perhaps not. But it’s certainly a slippery slope to start going down with players.

And to further your other point - Dennis has been overlooked by his country for a long time. Now that was down to their previous coach - but still, this call-up was a foot in the door at last for him. And for whatever reason he’s not taken it. There may not be a ‘fair few more opportunities to play in the AFCON’ for him - more so given African football federations seem more volatile than their European counterparts and often think nothing of not selecting star players over trivial disagreements. Dennis won’t be looked upon favourably for this either way and will be jeopardising WC hopes and further call-ups by having this happen.

As a Watford fan I’m delighted he’s not going. But it’s fair for us to also be a bit fearful of the role we may have played in that given how the club loves to behave at times.

 

Either way, Ranieri press conference at lunchtime so sure we will find out more.

Dennis probably has Covid or something.

 

I think this reads differently. Watford found a technical loophole to prevent Dennis from going. If there's a loophole, we'll find it that's for sure.

Now, the crux of the matter is whether Dennis is unhappy about that. It appears not as he was not given the assurances about playing as he would have liked. So, the way I'm reading it is that is suits both Dennis and Watford not to go. Dennis has the excuse of saying to Nigeria "my club wouldn't release me", which is all true. So he shouldn't be blighted for future call ups. At the end of the day, Nigeria dragged their heels and didn't submit the precall in time. They didn't abide by the rules, so it's their fault they left the door open for Watford to close.

No one to blame but Nigeria. Watford are entitled to keep their player, so that's that. As long as Dennis is ok with the decision, and it appears he is, then there is no issue as far as I can see.

 

I am glad he has decided not to go, but as for your suggestion that he is on some sort of valiant crusade to help us avoid relegation why do you raise that scenario?

ED has almost certainly made his decision based on what is best for his personal career and I expect the club helped him to come to that decision by having a chat with him.

The club probably would have discussed different scenarios that would be best for his personal career and for WFC, and thankfully he seems to have chosen club over country as he thinks it is the right thing for him to do at this stage of his career development, and not because he is on some valiant crusade as you put it.

 

If it weren't for the Bonaventures we wouldn't have a club to support!

 

Danny Dyer’s lot f*cked us a few days ago.

 

He gets blown up tonight, along with all other cast members apparently. Should be a good one.

 

That would indeed be perfect if it means the end of this fading soap.

 

I suspect he was worried about losing his first team place to summer bargain Fletch ....or Baah.

 

Quite, he's on a crusade to try to score another 10+ goals in the Prem to get himself a bumper deal at a top club this summer...which is obviously good for us & is probably the reason he signed for us in the first place.

 

How does it compare to Mexican football Twitter? They were proper butt hurt when we marginalised Layun.

 

Personally just waiting for Chilean Twitter to have a meltdown when we realise Sierralta is cack.

 

I suspect the immediate threat after the Nigerians get bored is from Turkish Twitter…

 

Hilarious seeing Watford fans wind them up because the Nigeria **** themselves.

 

I always thought they were called mandibles.
‘Upset us bro and we’ll bare our mandibles’ - obviously scary enough for any football federation to shjt themselves..

 

**** me all of our official social media pages have Africans yammering on Ratner than people discussing what the club has posted about.

 

Really? I thought the club hated Luther?

Was it posted in a sarcastic tone? At least tell me it wasn’t well-wishy enough. There must be something for people to moan about…

 

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-59820280

 

I sure hope we didn't threaten him, not only is it morally wrong, but it's also bound to backfire on us! Ranieri is saying basically the opposite to what the Nigeria delegation are saying, I guess we'll found out the truth in the coming weeks in Dennis's performances!

 

It has to be sensational doesn’t it. The club threatened him!! Seriously.

What a horses head on the pillow, cement shoes, say hello to my little friend?

Nigeria messed up the paperwork. That’s the story. Anything else is just Hollywood.

This is what Dennis thinks of it. (Credit Louorns for the clip)
https://twitter.com/Iouorns/status/1477039998272741378/video/1

 

Yeah whatever the scenario, that seems as though it has to be a pretty clear example of bullshyt. It seems like an inflammatory and stupid thing to do on their/his part, to be honest - perhaps the interim coach trying to make a name for themselves...

 

I'm extremely bored of the whole story already. That is until Dennis scores tomorrow and takes off his shirt to reveal a message saying 'Being held against my will. Please help." Then it gets juicy again.