I remember hearing that Sir Alex Ferguson once said something to the effect (paraphrasing a bit) that you should never sign a player who sees you as a step down, as they think they are doing you a favour and you never get the best out of them. Pereyra was one of the players he warned about. Good player, but clearly saw us as a step down and never seemed to do his best while he was here.
It's definitely good logic, although a lot easier an ethos to abide by when you are arguably the biggest club in world football...
Usain Bolt might be among the best at running away from a grizzly bear, but that doesn't make it less good of an idea just because you're slower than him.
The arrogance of pozzo, never speaks to the fans. Holds the entire club in contempt while his dodgy deals makes him money. Absolute moron. get out.
Why do the Pozzos keep turning down these offers from billionaires who would bankroll us to our rightful place in the top half of the prem challenging for Europe ? Instead they continue to oversee us under-performing and struggling near the foot of the prem. It's clear they are holding us back. We've even had to spend 4 years of their ownership in the championship of all places.
Who the **** would want to invest in some poxy little club trying to brand themselves as a London club?
Everyone is up in arms about the Qataris, Russians and Saudis. Are any South American kingpins interested in buying a club?
The bloke is an idiot. Sorry, he's done a lot of good at this club, but he has no clue how to take us forward or even keep us treading water at this point. We are drowning under his incompetent ownership. He's an arrogant fool who won't adapt.
This is pretty much how West Ham fans, as well as others attached to the club, felt about him, isn't it? I feel like his leaving was much long-awaited and much heralded, when it finally happened.
The Pozzo's strategy was entirely based on getting us out of of the Championship by utilising their resources at Udinese and Granada and therefore reaping the instant benefits benefits of what came of that. That's it. That was very clearly their only mapped out plan for this club. Almost 10 years later, things have now been a declining mess for longer than they were progressive. A bizarre, lopsided, scatter gun approach to player recruitment, almost zero investment or care for the future of the club with the academy, and a ridiculous approach to managers at the club, have all left us a soulless, identity lacking, shell of a club. What is there to like about this club or really feel connected to any more? Genuinely? The board are brain dead and don't give a **** about the supporters, the players are mostly woeful, over paid mercenaries and the fans are becoming numb because of it all. We are a hideous excuse for a football club and it's only getting worse.
This January transfer window is probably the most important one of their tenor. We all know what’s needed and we all know it’s not happening Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They'll do what they've done in almost every transfer window. Ignore the problem areas entirely or sign cheap, useless dross that no one else wants. It's so, so painfully predictable. Welcome to Watford FC, Steve Cook.
Stop moaning, we spent more on a goalkeeper that won't join us until next season than we have on any defender since Janmaat. What more do you want? While you're waiting why don't you just enjoy our two substandard keepers rotating in and out?
The best bit is going to be when we loan him out in July because he doesn't want to play in the Championship.
Going to Udinese I heard. It’s ok though, we’ll get Udinese’s 4th choice keeper Danielle Backmiani. Well known for his silly moustache. Worth a punt.
I do remember how miserable it was under Bassini, but this is just dreadful. Every other team in the league has a player they have developed as a youngster. We just stuff our U23s with cast offs, pay minimal attention to them and then release them 2 years later. The first team is a hollow shell for Pozzo player trading or substandard players who they can tie to long contracts they would never be able to get elsewhere. There is no plan, no strategy and zero engagement with the fans. And all this with the bonus of Pozzo mortgaging every asset in sight to get external finance. I didn’t go today. I probably won’t go to the spurs game. Problem is I can’t work out if it’s because of the covid/ticketing system fiasco or if it’s because I simply don’t care anymore. As soon as I saw the penalty incident today I just started laughing. I’m sure someone will call me entitled but I’d rather watch L1 with a team I actually liked and cared about
Fair point about the youth team - if we had to field some not sure we could ! Mind you can people really complain about managers coming and going when quite often they have wanted that person out ?
Recognising that a head coach who was actually in place at the time was incompetent/could no longer affect the team positively/was a mistake to appoint or allow to continue in the first place is not inconsistent with a desire for a head coach to be installed who would actually be an appropriate/intelligent enough choice whilst being allowed to develop a vision (that they actually have) enough to stay for a while. Quite the opposite, in my opinion. There's no point desperately sticking to a clear dud who is visibly not capable of doing what they are required to in the utterly vain hope that just leaving them in place long enough will result in some kind of miraculous flowering despite all evidence to the contrary - the point is to recruit the coach well enough in the first place that they deserve to stay, and given the proper tools, are on some kind of upward trajectory whilst they are here.
Putting aside all of the off-field Bassini shenanigans I actually really enjoyed the Malky & Dyche seasons. Underdogs that seemed to outperform teams with far superior squads with all players leaving everything on out on the pitch. We had a lovely balance of experience with the likes of Eustace and Taylor and youth with Sordell and Murray not to mention utilising our academy to the max. We were improving year on year, then the Pozzos arrived and yes, they sped the process up, but I can't stand their recruitment approach. I actually think they have now made Udinese worse than when they started, they now have 2 teams full of crap. Bring back the Bassini team anyday.