Rob Edwards Sacked

He comes over as a little starstruck to be managing at Watford (almost as much as the WD18 guys were interviewing him). But that might not be such a bad thing.

 

"It's a propa club, innit?"

 

I’m with you, unless you work in sales, talk by itself has little effect however eloquently expressed and whatever lofty intentions it carries with it. It’s going to take many weeks to get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste of last season, for me not so much because of all those home defeats, as the simple fact that a season that started with a lot of promise ended up being our worst ever in the top flight, with hardly anything to redeem it from Brentford away onwards, completely wiping away any feelings of goodwill created from a creditable bounce back at the first attempt. Probably it won’t be until at least October with a more settled and confident squad, hopefully plenty of wins under their belt and crowds finally seeing us win at the Vic and in the Championship following the zero crowds promotion, that the good vibes will return in abundance. If I remember rightly even in Aidy’s first full season it took a long time for the club to win back many fans following that summer of discontent.

 

I thought he spoke well without saying anything. The sort of performance that gets you through an interview, but maybe not the end of year performance review.

Of course I hope he achieves to the level that Everton start tapping him up before the start of 2024 season.

 

To pass an Ucko/Culshaw grilling with flying colours like that is deeply encouraging, this guy has balls of steel!

Can't wait to see our boys out there playing attacking football, working hard and making us proud to support Watford FC Football Club FC (a huge club, an honour)

Seems to me that lessons have been learned and if we work together, we can achieve great things

 

That's AS Watford Balompie FC Calcio to you.

 

Came across well in the interview lets hope he comes across well when the players are on the pitch too.

 

A great interview where he said all the right things. Now we need to see those words become reality.

I need to listen to it again, but in regards to incomings, it came across to me on first listening that he wants to assess, and sit down with all the players first before we bring anyone in. Again, I need to listen to it again, but did anyone else get that from the interview?

So I’m not getting my hopes up of any incomings even though the window is open. Think the next 2 weeks will all be about getting rid of the players that don’t want to be here before pre-season. Can’t have what happened last season.

So hopefully we will see Dennis, Sarr, Sissoko, Masina, Kiko, Samir, King, Bachmann (I know we will keep Bachmann, but I hope we don’t), Pussetto, and Rose all go. Hopefully get around £55-60mil for that lot.

Then it’s just a matter of getting rid of deadwood. Ekong (whatever we can get), Kalu (sale or loan), Baah (loan), Penaranda (sale), Elliott (hopefully retires), Hungbo (loan), Cukur (loan), Mebude (loan).

Give Edwards and Build from;

GK:
1. Okoye
2. Dahlberg
3. Angelini

CB:
1. ?
2. ?
3. Sierralta
4. Pollock
5. Cathcart
6. Kaba

RWB
1. ?
2. Ngakia (we’re not signing 2 RWB’s)

LWB
1. Kamara
2. Morris
3. Sema

DM/CM
1. Louza
2. ?
3. ?
4. Dele-Bashiru
5. Kayembe
6. Gosling
7. Cleverley

CAM
1. PZ7
2. Asprilla
3. Quina

ST:
1. Pedro
2. Cucho
3. ?
4. Fletcher

Pollock, Asprilla and Pedro not taking up a squad place.

That’s not a bad place for Edwards to start.

 

Did he say anything about the players being people first and foremost? That is the most important thing.

 

A bit harsh to call those young players “deadwood”.

 

Good analysis, although not sure how Rose doesn’t count as deadwood!

It’s all about who they can bring in. The centre backs and the midfielders are old and dreadful even by championship standards, especially if Sierralta leaves. Keeping at least two of Louza/JP/Cucho is also key. If a few things go wrong we could easily have a lower mid table squad and a huge amount of debt.

 

I'd rather Fletcher never be mentioned ever again.
Again Baah, Hungbo, Cukur and Mebude are certainly not deadwood.
More than happy to keep Bachmann unless a crazy offer comes in.
Hopefully WTE and Samir both end up back at Udinese.
The rest is a start as you say.

 

Damn! I wish my stubble is as good as Rob Edwards. He came across as pretty damned honest which is a breath of fresh air.

 

Seems to have a good personality for the job. Shame he'll be canned in November when he hasn't managed to transform Cleverley, Cathcart, Gosling et al into title-winning material.

 

This time reminds me of Ivic two years ago. Granted he was more miserable and steely in demeanour but his appointment was welcomed by most and we had high hopes that he'd be backed by the club, take us up and stay with us the following season.

Instead, he had an utterly shambolic start to pre-season with only eight players to work with, loads of people hanging around London Colney's departure lounge like a bad smell and we left him with a squad with no left back and only an 18 year old Pedro as a vaguely competent striker. I feel Ivic was failed by the club rather than the other way round.

Guess we'll find out if lessons really have been learned in the next few weeks.

 

The funny thing is we as fans don't really know what the 'lessons' are. The lesson could be that Dux wants to polish his shoes more so that he can see his own reflection in them for all we know.

 

To be fair, I think that’s more likely something Edwards would do.

 

What I'm most pleased about is the fact that he seems like someone who can actually communicate with our players. Seems like a small thing but under the Pozzo regime that's been very uncommon.

 

I'd like to see one of the interviewers ask him why his team only won 4 of their last 16 games last season .

It sounds similar to Zola second season where we got found out, went on a horrendous run and he had no answer .

 

I would say it had something to do with them being 14 points clear of the highest play-off place and therefore all but certain of promotion already.

 

Don't blame him. If you got it, gotta flaunt it.

 

And to be fair, we only picked up 5 wins from our last 17 games in 1997/98 (2 of them in the last 2) en route to the title after being 19 points clear of Oldham at the end of January.

 

Still struggling to believe this absolute nobody is our manager.

Are there really no Italian managers who want to join us? The one good thing the Pozzos should bring to the party and they can't even do that. No Italian players in the team either.

Phuck them and phuck this chump in charge.

 

He might be a nobody but just wait until you see him in a tight-fitting polo shirt on the first day of the season.

 

Never seen anyone so excited about reporting the weather before.

 

This is most likely the case, but I still agree with @BigRossLittleRoss that it'd be a very good question to ask.

 

I would keep Hungbo around...?

 

I like him, but if we’re playing 3 at the back, he doesn’t fit anywhere in the squad. Unless we can convert him into a wingback, which is asking him to do something he’s rarely done, if ever, then I think we have to send him out on loan again. I would like to see us loan him to a championship club if possible.

 

Well thats not good either.

 

Hadn't thought of that tbh. I tend to forget that playing WBs negates the need for wingers...

 

Didn't they have an extremely small squad as well?