[SIGNED perm] Francisco Sierralta

Believe it or not different clubs have different requirements and standards they attain to. Presumably you think we still have Acuna, Geijo, Neuton and Yeates still on the books?

Trying to drum up interest in one of our weak center backs from last year, and trying to identify a single more dynamic replacement is hardly revolutionary. The replacement doesn't need to be a world beater to improve. Just a bit of pace and composure would be an upgrade. Even someone on loan perhaps given our financial contraints.

 

The line in that article that grabbed me was:

“Ivic is known to sit on 1-0 leads and take control of games.”

Hopefully he can improve the mental resilience attributes that have dogged this team for as long as I can remember with defending leads and conceding late goals!

 

I had such high hopes for Belkalem.

 

I see 2 problems with this master plan

lower league clubs who might want players too cack for us are likely under similar financial pressures from covid, L1 and L2 are financially on their knees

why would a player on a good contract at a top of the championship club choose to accept a demotion, in club and probably wage?

 

Has this bloke actually signed?

 

Your logic is so defeatist. We should never try to upgrade the squad marginally and just keep players in perpetuity? Only sell a player if he outgrows us and has clubs beating down the door to sign him? This is the mindset that got us relegated. And ironically the mindset that gave Cathcart a 2 year extension when he still had 2 years remaining which makes him harder to move on now.

Kabasele will have suitors in Belgium and Italy. Dawson is my preferred CB (not saying much) but he'd probably have suitors at higher championship level. Business is still possible. If we only bring in this backup from Udinese and keep the rest it's just more of the same poor squad management, and you seem to applaud it.

 

Never mind the merits or not of defending a 1-0 lead...after going behind in each of our last ten matches, I’d just be happy to actually have one to defend!

 

75% of Watford fans view the club as a theatre-like hobby. They'd accept any level of **** shovelled up in front of them.

As long as they can go.

 

Yes....it will be announced on the official site in December, as part of their Christmas promotion.

 

And what do you view the club as?

 

Tbf at first glance it looks like I could be a better option

 

A decent coach will get a tune out of them. Cathcart needs to get his confidence back.

 

The fact remains he couldn't get into the first 11 of a Serie B side. He can't be anything but carp.

 

I do agree. This particular signing does not inspire confidence. The club just cannot spot a good centre back. They never have, it's such a bizarre thing. Seems like they're only tuned into attacking wingers or forward players.

Even though it's cost them relegation, it appears they still don't get it. I give up really, but we can only hope he's not a crap as he appears to be.

 

Top class CBs won’t drop down to the Championship. The time to have bought them was last summer. You won’t get any now. And you will find it very difficult to sell what we have, Wilmot is the only one who could be easily moved on and that would be counter productive.

I’d say I’m a realist rather than a defeatist.

I think we’re going to be promoted. I think the CBs we have are just about okay for that task. We need goals this year, goals will get us promoted, if there is money around that’s where it should be spent. I think we have to strengthen the defence next summer.

 

Prodl and Britos, and I guess Angella for the Championship, showed that they occasionally (albeit rarely) find someone.

 

I never rated Angella. No idea why others did. Good looking guy who scored some great goals and was clearly very pashunate but really couldn't defend. Hence he was quickly removed when we got promoted and his career has fizzled out since that date.... Prodl and Britos at their best were superb.

 

I don't think we need a top class centre back to improve. A loan arrangement would be an improvement, even if we keep the older duds. Get a bit of pace back there and few defenders can be as afraid of the ball as ours are. I'm not looking to pay millions. I certainly agree not to move on Wilmot. This is why this signing dispirits me - wages spent on him mean we can't pay loan wages/fees and use Cathcart as the back up.

 

Prodl was good for a season, and was POTS, so I have no issue over that signing. But he rapidly declined, to the point where he couldn't even get into the matchday squad, even when he was fit. They respond to that by giving him a 4 year extended contract.

Britos was another decent enough player at the beginning, but he also declined quickly and they held on to him for far too long also. Angella was quality for the Championship, and I have no issues over that signing, or Ekstrand either. But it's more in recent years where they've constantly got it wrong.

I wouldn't say the majority were terrible players, but they were just not Premier League players. In 5 seasons they did not sign ONE Premier League standard centre back....not one. Ok, that's just my opinion, but I think that's shared by a lot of others.

Kaboul was always going to be an injury on legs. Dawson, Cathcart, Kabasele and Mapps are all solid pros, but none of them are Premier League players. Wague.......terrible (although he did score against Leicester). They did actually have a decent one. Young with promise, but they binned him off too quickly - Savic. Certainly they should have kept him.

Another great central defender they could and should have signed permanently was Nathan Ake. We didn't even recognise he WAS a centre back. We thought he was just a left back.

The only one I give them any credit for is Ben Wilmot. A very good young player who is developing nicely. But overall it's a pitiful story when it comes to centre backs under the Pozzo's.

 

I think Kabasele was a reasonable acquisition. He was fairly young and had shown a good amount of promise, albeit in a weaker league. He just hasn't kicked on as I guess we would have hoped. I still think that on his day he is a decent player, he just makes too many stupid mistakes.

I think if we had signed one or two of of Prodl, Britos, Kaboul, Dawson, Mariappa it would have been fine. Old, solid (excluding Mapps), experienced centre backs. The issue is that we signed so many of them, and filled our squad with players who have 2-3 years left in them tops.

 

We could have got away with most of the above if they were alongside someone better. The mistake was thinking we could fashion an accomplished pairing out of any of those combinations.

 

I can't argue with that.

Feel like we will end up doing the same this season when we should be doing all we can to get someone like Matt Clarke in on loan.

 

Yeah, looks that way, started following us on his insta

 

Let’s not forget when we had Wilmot for any length of time that we tried to turn him into a CDM. So even when we spot one with potential we do our level best to mess it up.

 

I think Nyron Nosworthy was a decent defender.

 

That really is a shocking statistic, isn't it?

 

Neuton was dead weight in the squad.

Let's hope this guy is better.

 

The one player we should of bought 3-4 years ago was Lewis Dunk. I remember him scoring a last min goal at the vic in the year i think we went up and I was impressed with him then. Solid unit and good in the air. Could of got him 3 -4 years ago for a few mill now clubs are looking at £30 mill for him. If they keep him & Ben White next season Brighton have two excellent CB's

 

Has this **** signed yet?

 

Yes, just hasn’t been confirmed yet.

 

No chance would we have got him for £3m-£4m. He’s always been very highly rated down there and was earmarked for the captaincy at an early age. I’m reliably told by my Brighton supporting mate that they’ve turned down many, many bids over the years and Dunk loves it there. Has turned Arsenal down previously which would back that up.

 

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ose-signing-francisco-sierralta-loan-udinese/

Reported in the Wobby now. But, it's not done yet.....still time for it to fall through....so fingers crossed he fails the medical or something.

 

How much of that is mental and how much of that is because our team last season was really old?

 

But teams will often try and close defenders down anyway, best to have players who are comfortable with the ball at their feet rather than cloggers.

He looks...interesting, I thought he'd be absolutely immobile but if anything he's probably quicker than our other centre backs! (Barring possibly Wilmot, I can't remember how quick he is). I have no idea why he didn't play that often for Empoli last season, I kind of hope it was injury problems as that would at least be a valid excuse! Really don't know what to expect from him, hopefully he's good, in which case great, but I guess worst case scenario is that he struggles, in which case we're left with Dawson partnering Wilmot, and he's...still OK at Championship level