To be honest, I don’t know. I didn’t check. They were the first names that came to mind when I thought of the ‘dross’. Re: your point in bold (hopefully it works, writing on my phone), as said in response to RS2 I’ll happily be proved wrong if he turns out to be a good addition. It wouldn’t be the first time!
Obviously, is that not required to become a Watford defender ? I think they check with some sort of footballer IQ test at the medical just to make sure. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Don't care how we came to know about him if it turns out he's a good defender tbf, cheap option yet again (not sure anything else is possible now!), but I'm giving him a chance
I have no problem at all with your positivity. I hope it’s well placed. I just personally think these names being thrown at us in recent days are nothing but signs of a recruitment team who won’t change. I think it’s a disgrace - and I always feared fans would get seduced by numbers and positions, not quality.
Tbf, as I've said before, we don't need world-beaters, even somewhat competent players would improve us and give us every chance of staying up. Kamara at left-back sounds promising, the others sound like punts, not impossible those punts could turn out like Rose and Tufan, but then again, Dennis was also a punt too
Imagine if we announce all four at once tomorrow. Forget about whether they're **** or not, I think it would really put pressure on the teams around us to start doing some business quickly.
Good grief, at least give him a chance to kick a ball before deciding he isn't up to it. If he then isn't then fine, fill your boots. Probably didn't need to scout this one as they know him, presumably CR70 came across him a few times as well, who knows maybe he has asked for him (first time for everything I suppose) or maybe it is just a lazy internal move. We all know we need a centre back and he is one so let's see if he can do the job for us. Suspect it will be undisclosed fee as usual so then there can be ongoing debate about that as well. Keep up the booing maybe they will listen one day.
Doubt there'd be any moaning if we'd signed a CB that'd started 17/18 games for any other mid table Serie A side. And as you mentioned we likely know more about Samir than any other CB we could potentially sign. Added to the fact he's apparently left footed, which we've needed in the centre of defence for a while now.
Thanks. I will. From my side of things, it beats being placid about our lazy repetitive recruitment strategy.
I’ve been clear about this over the past week over many posts. I’ve given names. And the ‘position we are in’ in terms of the squad composition is one entirely of our own making that we have had months to look at - I’m not going to apologise because I think they’ve had months to come up with better than they are coming up with presently.
Samir compared with Cathcart and Troost-Ekong as they've all played a similar number of games this season.
Presumably a lot more high press in the prem than Serie A so these comparisons may be a little favourable to Samir ?
Are we upset that he's coming from Udinese? Lost track a bit of the thread but if so I don't think that's reason to write him off straight away. Abdi, Forestieri, Vydra, Ighalo, Angella, Ekstrand, Pudil & co plenty of capable players have come from Udinese with mediocre records and done well just like Pussetto and WTE have not. I am aware those were mostly in a division below but I'd say players from Udinese have served us pretty well over time.
I suspect the reputations of a lot of those players would be very different if we had been promoted and they had been relied upon as starters in the PL. Despite his obvious flaws, WTE was a constant in a promotion winning and record equalling defence. His flaws have just been thoroughly exposed at a higher level. Udinese has proved a pretty useful resource for us when we are in the championship, but save for a 6 month spell from Ighalo I am struggling to think of a PL quality player we have signed from them. Samir is very likely better than most of the total and utter ******* dross we have at CB, but on the basis of the rest of the Udinese panic signings, I am not holding out hope he is the answer to our problems.
Udinese would need a lower quality squad to finish in the same position in Serie A, as we would in the PL. They don’t really have any really decent players they could give us that wouldn’t potentially weaken them to the point their own league status would be jeopardised. This guy may well be a slight improvement, but it stands to reason that we aren’t going to see the same impact we saw from players coming to us 10 years ago when A) they were a much stronger team in Serie A back then, and B) we were a lower level championship team mostly filled with cloggers who had been managed by Sean Dyche.
Tbf, as I've said before, we don't need world-beaters, even somewhat competent players would improve us and give us every chance of staying up. Kamara at left-back sounds promising, the others sound like punts, not impossible those punts could turn out like Rose and Tufan, but then again, Dennis was also a punt too I do wonder with WTE whether part of his horrendous form is just that his brain has been fried by some of the more calamitous moments he's had (not being helped by who's around him too). If he'd managed to have a relatively calm start to his Prem career, or had someone alongside him who could hold his hand, would he be able to look like a somewhat competent defender in this league by now? I get there's a gulf between the Championship and the Prem, but I have a hard time believing a professional footballer can make some of the mistakes he's been making on such a regular basis!
I dont think he is significantly worse than some of the other dross we have had over the years, but his confidence is clearly shot to bits. It probably also doesnt help that the defenders and goalkeeper around him change every other week, and our midfield seem to lack the fitness and/or concentration to actually track runners so opposition players frequently wander into our box totally unmarked. Mariappa etc had the good fortune to play with Capoue in front of them rather than Kucka and Tufan.
The warning signs were there with WTE, though. He just could not pass the ball in the championship, but the standard was so low it didn’t matter, and the frequency of it happening was that much lower. Increase both the frequency of him being in those situations, and the quality of those that can benefit from them, and you have a recipe for disaster.
