The Premier League - 2021-2022

Apart from the penalties, goals in open play against Villa, Bournemouth and Liverpool, assists against Everton (not his fault the team collapsed afterwards) and Liverpool, unlucky to have a goal ruled out at Man Utd. He only started performing like he has most of last season after lockdown (but then which player didn't perform noticeably worse after the restart?).

Compared to that what have Ivic and Munoz got out of him in a lower division? A decent spell at Stoke and OK performance against Barnsley? In fairness, again that may be more to Deeney himself than the managers.

 

50% of those were absolute ****.

 

3 goals and 2 assists is nothing for a #9. A decent #9 could do that in a week. Additionally, Troy was 31 under Pearson, he's now 33. How many other PL clubs will be fielding a 33 year old #9 who cant score from open play??? Other team's fans will be laughing in our faces.

 

Good job the other 50% were ******* magic (though not always at the same time!)

 

I have seen this said quite a lot, anyone would think they had won the league. Personally I think they will be far too poor defensively.

 

We don’t have the funds to keep us in this league unfortunately.

 

They're the latest little trendy team that all the bandwagon jumping sheep have decided to relentlessly rim lick for no apparent reason.

 

Nope. Running up £100m+ of external debt before relegation and Covid has made us potless. At least by bouncing back we won’t go bust but this season will be very tough.

 

Plus they have only made 2 signings . Far to reliant on Toney as shown by their massive drop in from when he stopped scoring and vulnerable and naive in defence although Ajer may help to remedy that .

They could do a Muff and stay up by playing attacking football but they don’t have the quality of manager and players Scum 2 had in 15/16.

 

Unfortunately you are spot on.
The best thing that Watford could have hoped for is that the “big 6” ****ed off to the Super league. Leaving a level playing field for the rest of us and 6 extra places. I don’t enjoy watching us play them even though we’ve beaten a few in the past. Of course that now won’t happen…unfortunately.

 

Never fear.

I’m sure the owners can reconsolidate the debt into 120m spread over a greater number of years and then pay themselves a hefty dividend for their troubles.

 

In my opinion Ajer is a poor defender, both my parents are Irish so I tend to follow Celtic as well and I have always thought that he is vulnerable defensively Celtic were atrocious defensively last season and he was very much part of that, I can't tell you the amount of goals Celtic conceded from crosses into their box and especially set piece because Ajer had not tracked his runner. He is good on the ball but I genuinely think he will be exposed at a higher level. I agree with your statement reagrding Brentford being vulnerable and naive and in my opinion defensively this sums up Ajer.

 

Good to hear, I know nothing other than Brentford spent 13m on him.

Lets hope he continues to dissapoint.

 

Madness really considering that he was in his last year of his contract.

 

#Moneyball

 

I feel that this not true.
Certain members on here are clearly offended if you criticise Watford or a comment they have made. You know who you are.
Then again, l am not a adult male wearing Watford pattern underwear and socks.

I hope for the best for this season. I have purchased the new strip for my son this season, though l think he is beginning to wear only because l bought it. I can't change who he really supports
I feel we doomed for relegation and the club is already focusing on season 2022/23. I am not the only fan who feels that this is the direction the club are looking at. In the end , reality bites.
What do l know? I am only a fan, nothing invested but endless hope, some elation, utter despair and stark realization. That is football.
Here's to a good season for us all.

 

Unfortunately I think results will see Xisco go before the clocks go back. It may be his inexperience but more likely the tools he has been given.
Someone elsewhere stated the Pozzos are treating this as a season to rid us of our debts rather than staying in the PL. I don’t Know how they work but nothing would surprise e with the owners.

 

There is negative like Nath and there is negative like him. It's incredibly tedious

 

Which is a fair approach. Won’t get rid of the debts though but might clean up 50% of the mess they created.

 

It seems at least some of the people who think we are doomed to relegation forget what a high points total we finished with. Much of it admittedly was down to an extremely good defence (though the very poor offences of much of the division helped) but it wasn't all down to defensive football like the West Brom and Boro teams of yesteryear - once Munoz took over and found his best team, we played very good attacking football and it was our poor strike force that prevented us from scoring more goals. And how often do teams go straight back down having gone up with 90+ points? Not often.

Starting from when it became 3 points for a win (relegated teams in red):

1981/82 Scum 88 points (equivalent to 96) - 18th/22
1982/83 QPR 85 points (equivalent to 93) - 5th/22
1983/84 Chelsea 88 points (equivalent to 96) - 6th/22
Sheffield Wednesday 88 points (equivalent to 96) - 8th/22
1984/85 Oxford 84 points (equivalent to 92) - 18th/22
Birmingham 82 points (equivalent to 90) - 21st/22
1985/86 Norwich 84 points (equivalent to 92) - 5th/22
1986/87 Derby 84 points (equivalent to 92) - 15th/21
1988/89 Chelsea 99 points - 5th/20
1992/93 Newcastle 96 points - 3rd/22
1993/94 Crystal Palace 90 points - 19th/22
1996/97 Bolton 98 points - 18th/20
1997/98 Nottingham Forest 94 points - 20th/20
Middlesbrough 91 points - 9th/20
1998/99 Sunderland 105 points - 7th/20
1999/00 Charlton 91 points - 9th/20
2000/01 Fulham 101 points - 13th/20
Blackburn 91 points - 10th/20
2001/02 Manchester City 99 points - 9th/20
2002/03 Portsmouth 98 points - 13th/20
Leicester 92 points - 18th/20
2003/04 Norwich 94 points - 19th/20
2004/05 Sunderland 94 points - 20th/20
2005/06 Reading 106 points - 8th/20
Sheffield United 92 points - 18th/20
2008/09 Wolves 90 points - 15th/20
2009/10 Newcastle 102 points - 12th/20
West Brom 91 points - 11th/20
2013/14 Leicester 102 points - 14th/20
Burnley 93 points - 19th/20
2014/15 Bournemouth 90 points - 16th/20
2015/16 Burnley 93 points - 16th/20
2016/17 Newcastle 94 points - 10th/20
Brighton 93 points - 15th/20
2017/18 Wolves 99 points - 7th/20
Cardiff 90 points - 18th/20
2018/19 Norwich 94 points - 20th/20
2019/20 Leeds 93 points - 9th/20

Less than 30% of teams getting promoted with a high points total have gone straight back down and several of those were close, and many of those that have survived have done very well even in recent years. So I think the omens look pretty good for us.

 

Yes, there's something missing in your equation though, isn't there...

 

That will mess with their Pre-season.

 

How we performed in the championship is totally irrelevant, especially considering we got relegated the season before with a significantly stronger team.

 

I like to think that I am a realist.

We are almost certainly going to be in a relegation scrap. That doesn't mean certain relegation though. Teams like Sheffield Utd and Huddersfield survived with squads with even less quality and squad depth than us.

We will need a big chunk of luck and at least 3 other teams performing badly but survival is not mission impossible imho.....not quite anyway.

 

We need a good start, both to give belief and also given the relatively benign first 7 games. If we go into game 8 with only a handful of points it could be pretty miserable viewing this year.

 

Strangely though I'm fairly relaxed about this coming season.

Obviously I'm dreading the possibility of total humiliation on the pitch. But, unlike last season, I don't think our future depends on success in the league.

Obviously staying in the EPL will make growth possible. But I think Gino is preparing for the possibility of relegation this time and that, to me, is a huge positive.

I would have enjoyed last season a lot more if I hadn't had the feeling that promotion was life or death for us (which, based on the accounts turned out to be true).

Obviously I want us to stay up this season (and there is every possibility that we will) but relegation, imo, won't be the financial threat it was 2 years ago.

 

This is not me replying to counter and say 'we will be relegated' at all - what you're saying is a fair point, but I do think we also have to recognise in it that what both of those teams had (Sheffield Utd in particular, to a great extent) was a system and a defined style of play that they went out to execute and take to their opponents. That is just not an element that we possess, at all.

 

I accept that but I think a lot of promoted teams feed off the positivity from their previous season.

I think we do have that at the moment but, as @Jumbolina said, a good (or at least decent) start is crucial to maintain that feeling or it could go bad very quickly.

We are one of the favourites to go down for a reason. But every year at least one team normally defies the odds and it could just be us.....with a big chunk of luck.

 

Mmm, it's true, although I feel that positivity might well be being chipped away at considerably by the combined Hughes and Chalobah contract situations, and from an outside perspective I'd bet Brentford would be far more driven by it given their narrative and the fact that there don't seem to have been any outgoing links to Toney so far? Obviously, their current lack of experience/quality at this level might turn out to be a stronger factor, but then they do have quite a decent coach as well.

 

Win our first game at home to Villa and I think we can all relax , play a few of the nippers and cruise our way to mid table safety .

 

Yes agreed. Worse case is relegation with relegation clauses in place, Gray finally gone. Sell Sarr and reset. I was hoping Deeney was gone as well but unbelievably apparently he has an option of another year. What a burden he has become.