Our opinions differ that's all. I believe Gray has been the worst signing in the history of Watford FC.
Didn't have Premier League money at the time tbf. Now Ellington had an even more woeful goal record, all in the Championship too, although in his favour he could at least kick the ball properly, and maybe if we'd played to his strengths he might have done better? Gray was just a huge mistake, a limited striker who had just had a hot streak
He took great free kicks in training, so we were told. My memory is of him hitting the wall every time
Ellington came to us at a huge price compared to where we were and if it was in today's market with inflation it would equate to about Gray's transfer fee. Pound for pound (literally) he was the worst transfer. Religion wise he had converted and I remember him fasting for a month (you can only eat when the sun is down during that time). He was unfit, overweight, slow and way past his best and had several injuries.
Ellington was much worse as a signing. When we signed him he had been awful for well over a season whereas Gray was still weighing in with goals in fits and starts. As well as being totally off form, Ellington had become a full on religious loon who was clearly so into his flavour of fairy tale that he wasn't focused on his game. This was all clear before we even signed him. Gray's fees and wages were a lot more, but probably affected the club less than Ellington's did at the time. Boothroyd was so far up his own arse that he honestly thought he could polish any turd he liked. Cack as he is, Gray is a goal threat of sorts and causes problems. A very bad buy, but nowhere near Ellington.
He just converted to Islam. Many footballers are Muslim and undertake the same religious rituals and practices as he did. Doesn’t make him a loon at all. Probably best to just keep it to his (lack of) footballing ability.
Plenty of footballers do it with little problem. Ellington was crap. His religion isn’t a factor. Bare in mind Okay Yokuslu is a Muslim too - maybe we shouldn’t sign him?
Not at all, Ellington was unfit and overweight and past it. Okay is clearly professional and cannot be compared in any way.
I knew he converted to Islam, I never saw anything about him becoming an extremist or anything like that. Fasting (albeit he didn't fast before away games) probably wouldn't have helped, especially back then. Seems to be a lot more awareness about how to get the best out of Muslim athletes during Ramadan, I know Sarr fasted yet you wouldn't know it, and I'm sure we've had plenty of others doing similar!
When we consider how bad a signing Gray was relatively, we do also have to take into account the subsequent effect that utter failure of expenditure had on the Pozzo attitude to striker recruitment from basically that moment to this present one. Immensely impactful.
He was new to the fasting during Ra He was new to the experience of fasting during Ramadan which had a big impact on his energy levels, making him even more of a liability then when he'd eaten.
Because he was always going on about it and was clearly the main focus of his life. Which religion it was is irrelevant, but his head was so far elsewhere it was another reason not to sign him. Please note that I have utter contempt for all religions equally.
Religion tends to be the main focus of religious people’s lives! Don’t get me wrong, I’m not religious and am equally dubious of all of them. But I don’t see how it’s relevant to the debate in question, that’s all. I don’t think he was ‘always going on about it’ from what I can remember. Sure, he mentioned it but so do many footballers. As I say, there’s plenty of Ellington’s ability to criticise without us having to go down the ‘religious loon’ tangent! Anyway, we are digressing massively away from topic!
The born again types are often more heavily focussed on it. Anyway, my point was that his heart wasn't in it and there seemed to be no due diligence around the psychological side of players we recruited. Mind you, that was mainly down to Boothroyd's misplaced self confidence.
Why are always ‘considering options’ etc? What have we been doing for the last few months? Get Yokuslu in, then if Chalobah and Hughes are off, move for one of the back-ups as well. Starting to suspect we want to bring in money for either/both of those before spending any more.
Presumably because it is a moving feast - none of those 4 players are going to sign contracts knowing they are certain to be back ups. If we have signed Will's replacement already, why would we offer Will big money to renew and why would he accept knowing he is likely to sit on the bench? Okay is leaving Celta for game time - he is hardly going to come here to sit on the bench. Financially it is a poor use of our limited resources to have two quite expensive players in the same position and one needing to sit on the bench. If Will renews then maybe we can use the money to sign a new centre back (in my dreams). Or maybe as you say we can't even afford Okay / Thorsby until we have certainty we are getting money in for Will /Chalobah.
