[SIGNED perm] Rey Manaj

Rey Manaj, Manaj
He came from Barcelona B
The fee is not ours to see
Rey Manaj, Manaj

 

I wonder how many Manajers Rey will work under this season.

 

50% sell-on fee. So even if he turns out to be good we would need a massive fee to class him as a saleable asset (although I think there is a slim chance that will be our biggest worry with him).

 

I remember Hot Shot Hamish scoring the 3rd goal with his chest, in a comeback hatrick for Princes Park after recovering from a concussion.

 

The days of 4,000 crowds…

 

Hey Guys,

Spezia fan here, I like to follow ex-players post-Spezia and came across this thread for Manaj and just wanted to give my opinion having followed the majority of Spezia games throughout the season.
Manaj is a typical all-rounder, the best way to describe him is a 'jack of all trades but a master of none'.

He's fine with the ball at his feet, can hold the ball up relatively well and has a standard footballing IQ, however I'd say he struggles a little bit on his reading of the game in the attacking third, he's not the most creative player when trying to pick out a pass but he has pretty decent off the ball movement for a striker. His finishing again is just par for a striker but has the odd occasion where he fluffs a shot going for the spectacular, when this comes off however he has been able to score a couple of 'pretty' goals (as shown with the goal against Cagliari, linked below)

He is quite good on set-pieces, he was one of our main penalty takers and took a few free-kicks for us as well, I believe he has only missed 1 penalty in the last 2 years, he was Barcelona B's penalty taker as well so technique-wise he is not too bad. He's good with his head and had a couple of headed goals for us.

I think where he really excels in is his grit, determination and off the ball presence. Half-way through the middle of the season Motta began playing him in attacking mid in order to utilize his ability to hold possession so his goal tally ended up not being so impressive (5) but we always played on the back foot so having a prolific goal-scorer is never really on our agenda when we set out before matches.

Having read some of the comments throughout the thread I can see you guys are a little disappointed with the signing but in my opinion it's not as bad as you would think. He was hailed initially as a 'wonderkid' when he was a teenager and I think Inter Milan paid 1 million Euros for him as a 17 year old and he made his Serie A debut as an 18 year old. His career never really took off and he ended up being a bit of a journeyman but he still boasts 7 goals in 42 Serie A appearances in his career which is not the worst. He had a decent season in LaLiga 2 with Albacete where he scored 9 goals. I think all in all the Championship is probably the right level for him for the moment being but good luck and I hope he does well, looking forward to seeing him in action.

 

Needs a cuddle

 

Thanks for the post.

What kind of attacking midfield role did he play exactly? In what formation?

Do you reckon he could even play as a slightly more box-to-box central midfielder in a 3-5-2?

 

I have been convinced we’ve found the next Ibrahimovic or Wooter.

All aboard HMS PTL *honk honk*

 

Menaj et un. Na ah.
Menaj et deux. Bleugh.
Menaj et three. THE TEAM FOR ME,
Na na na naaaa etc.

 

He was used mostly as a wide pivot, kind of linking midfield to attack, he linked up really well with Gyasi and they complimented each-other really well.

We mostly played 4-2-3-1 but sometimes we would play 4-3-3 and switch between the two throughout the match and Manaj would occasionally play out wide or in behind the striker with his main duties being holding the ball up, linking play and arriving late into the box to get on the end of crosses.

I think he has the personality and mental qualities to certainly be converted into a makeshift Box-to-box if given the opportunity, would be interesting.

 

A little reachy roundy cuddle

 

Thanks for the well balanced , informed and researched post .

Unfortunately such qualities hold little value on here. Try your hand at some relentless , hyperbolic negative ranting and you ll get showered in love from the click brigade .

 

Good to see your chastening from being proven utterly wrong consistently lasted about 20 minutes. Back to the unprovoked whining, hypocrisy and victim complex it is!

 

Completely unnecessary and OTT response. Made yourself look a bit of a **** for no reason.

 

To be fair you could copy and paste your response to most of Little Ross’s posts and it would make sense 90% of the time.

 

I’m genuinely intrigued - how have you read the initial post that was clearly written to bait people and be generally a bit bitchy…and then totally ignored that aspect and said that the person replying to it was completely unnecessary and OTT?

 

You ve got to be a troll. Surely somebody can't be like that for real .

 

I think I’ve got the person in question on ignore (not Chumlax) but let me guess they said something like “there is no room for sensible posts like that round here”

 

Very much appreciated. I believe that's a decent well rounded opinion on Rey. The main thing as a supporter of Watford is we don't quite understand why we have got him in. We've supposedly just paid 5m for a target man, what we needed was an out and out goalscorer. But he's here now and needs our backing hopefully he proves us all wrong.

 

Wish we'd have signed his froglike, neo step father, Nigel Faraj.

This wasn't the one I was thinking of, but similar.

 

But basically free. I think I'd be happy if all signings were £0 with a 50% sell on, but I'm not the Pozzos who have a player trading model.

 

No Colin Murray, massive shame as he got what the EFL was about and is a great presenter.

 

We've had pretty good relations in recent times onion, so I'll just say that I disagree (shockingly, I know!) and that, as Burnsy says, I find it a little difficult to see why you've completely ignored and/or excused the clear tone and intent of the unprompted post I was replying to in assessing it.

 

Woozencroft doesn't come over amazingly well during his Talksport shows, either, when it comes to his knowledge and awareness of the leagues - he presents as a fairly typical Man U fan who isn't aware football exists outside of about 6 clubs.

 

I was probably (definitely) a bit grouchy due to lack of sleep - see time of my post. Probably jumped in with a two footed tackle so apologies

 

Your avatar would be proud.

 

And if you were a bit late they'd delay kick off for a few minutes?

 

Yes i got a few run outs as well

 

Understood, we've all been there!

 

I'm not that mad at it to be fair, could be good, could be a total dud, anybody who says they know for sure is a liar.

I'd take 10 goals from 25-30 starts and some sub appearances. If he's first choice then maybe slightly worried but let's see.

 

For me it’s not so much the player it’s the approach and what else is available. We’ve apparently spent £5m on Bayo and a fee on this player (even if it’s small) and neither of them have any sort of pedigree at all. Meanwhile Armstrong is available on loan and he’s a proven Championship goal scorer. Nobody can say we can’t afford him because we’ve spent £5m+ on these two. It’s always a question of buying cheap and buying twice with us, rather than just going for the very obvious better option. Gino tries to be too clever for his own good, and most of these players end up as complete duds.

Nothing against this player, there are just many better options available that are also easily within our means.

 

Presumably we will be in for Armstrong & Archer but so will many many others and no guarantee we will get either of them ?

 

We should have the means to get them over any other Championship club, I question our inclination to though, especially when there is an Alabanian international from Barcelona B for (nearly) free to tempt Gino instead.

 

I don't see why we would be in for Armstrong and Archer when our signings so far have been Vakoun Bayo and Rey Manaj. It happens every window, linked with players we should be signing but end up with cheap tat from all corners of Europe.