Valerien Ismael - Manager

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by Cthulhu, May 10, 2023.

  1. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Can I interest you in a 26 year old bench that looks like it's a 46 year old bench but honestly isn't ?
     
    Hornets81 likes this.
  2. Hornets81

    Hornets81 Academy Graduate

    That depends on whether you've negotiated me a higher than fair price, I refuse to pay sensible prices for your benches my friend
     
  3. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    I think you know full well Kalu is contractually unavailable at the moment because he's out on loan.
     
    Hogg-DEENEY!!! likes this.
  4. Ilkley

    Ilkley Formerly known as An Ilkley Orn Baht 'at

    I reckon we should plant some trees now, so in the future we can have some homegrown benches.
     
  5. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Rule of 11 ;)
     
  6. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    The best trees would be logged by bigger rivals.
     
  7. Hornets81

    Hornets81 Academy Graduate

    Taken as wee saplings, but left to wither under the broad canopies of bigger trees. We should probably sack the guy organising the tree growing and start again...
     
    Ilkley likes this.
  8. CarlosKickaballs

    CarlosKickaballs Forum Picarso

    According to “playmaker_en” on twitter we have had, jointly with Oxford, the least shots per game against us in the EFL
     
  9. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    Fewest.
     
  10. CarlosKickaballs

    CarlosKickaballs Forum Picarso

    Leastest
     
    domthehornet likes this.
  11. Supertommymooney

    Supertommymooney Squad Player

    Fewerer.
     
    CarlosKickaballs likes this.
  12. Teide1

    Teide1 Squad Player

  13. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

  14. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

  15. Hornets81

    Hornets81 Academy Graduate

    I've had enough of Ismael. He's completely changed the club and made it something unrecognisable.
    Before he came we didn't have any of this team spirit nonsense.
    We didn't have hopes of something as stupid as "stability"
    We didn't give managers new contracts
    And we most certainly did not come 12th (Top Half!!!) of longest serving managers.

    Ismael out
    Pozzo out

    I want my Watford back
     
    Watford Gav, Happy bunny, hjw and 2 others like this.
  16. Lubaduck

    Lubaduck Reservist

    The clapping was strong after 20 minutes against Norwich !!


    For sure I don't think last season's squad could have recovered from Tuesdays awful start
    Maybe a seasons defining moment ?
    Let's hope so
     
  17. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    This is no longer “my club”. We have forgotten what made us so successful and entertaining for almost a decade. Can we honestly say we are still “everything that’s wrong with football”? When is the last time we exploited a “Pozzo loophole”? (Kamara value was independently audited and signed off given we turned down an offer of £20m from a R Riva of the Chinese club “Shanghai Rovers”).
     
  18. Hornets81

    Hornets81 Academy Graduate

    We want our Mogi back!
     
  19. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    He'll be back in full swing in January when we give his tombola of sh!te another spin.
     
  20. Hornets81

    Hornets81 Academy Graduate

    Is that where Kalu's gone? Or does Mogi offer a seniors' bingo night too?
     
  21. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Not clever enought to swap the "O" for an "I"....:(
    upload_2023-12-1_9-51-39.jpeg
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  22. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Either that or he's been shipped off to a loving home where he can sit in front of a warm fire with his pipe and slippers, telling people of his tales of when he used to play for Watford many, many, many years ago.
     
    Hornets81 likes this.
  23. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    Supertommymooney likes this.
  24. Hornets81

    Hornets81 Academy Graduate

    It's a shame for old grandad Sam that no-one will believe him and just dismiss him as a rambling lunatic.

    And it's a shame for us that Pozzo picked Roy because he wanted to get someone Kalu knew to help him settle in
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  25. hjw

    hjw Reservist

    He's been tearing it up in the swiss league for FC Lausanne. 2 goals & 2 assists in 9 starting appearances
     
    The Voice of Reason likes this.
  26. Loyalhornet

    Loyalhornet Reservist

    It all does feel like a good fit for what we currently need and that there is something to properly get behind . The decision to extend his contract and really back him appears to have worked so far and the club seem to be backing him and listening to what he asks for ( smaller squad , players who have the right attitude etc ) . Even the injury record has improved beyond recognition from last season.

    I am hoping maybe Val has learnt from mistakes he may have made at Barnsley /west brom and is using that experience for out benefit here . At this point I’d love to see him backed in January and the summer to see what he can build . It’s a very different feel to the usual short termism. Our current position in the table is an added bonus .
     
  27. leighton buzzard horn

    leighton buzzard horn Squad Player

    I don't think we need much to achieve the aim of mid table stability this season. We don't have a lot of depth but our starting 11 and current bench is capable of a mid table finish. Our injury record this season is a lot better than the previous two seasons (mainly due to a mentality change) so the lack of depth might not even become a problem.
     
    hjw likes this.
  28. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    I’m sure the pre-season helped and there must have been some better conditioning work going on to see such a massive reduction in muscle injuries thus far.
    But we’ll have to see how the injury situation develops after Xmas to see whether too much work was done pre-season.
     
    PowerJugs likes this.
  29. leighton buzzard horn

    leighton buzzard horn Squad Player

    Better conditioning and a group of players who actually want to play - a winning formula.
     
    wfc4ever, PowerJugs and hjw like this.
  30. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    Still wasn’t quite convinced by him up until Saturday because we hadn’t beaten anyone good but a win at a top six side (if achieved with some luck) and a now half-decent goal tally suggests we can be more than competitive - up until not long ago I feared it was going to be a grim season in the vein of Lewington, early Mackay and Dyche where we would be scraping enough points to survive while being far from play-off contenders. I suppose like many I was worrying unduly about the possible chance of a relegation battle because last season’s squad while not massively better would’ve made the play-offs with just a bit more effort, but it was still a challenge reversing a collective loser’s mentality after such a dispiriting end to last season and losing several key players. I don’t think we’re good enough to challenge with the usual and expected teams at the top, as shown by some of our encounters with them, but we could finish top 10 and not too far from the play-offs, and with some entertaining football of the kind we’ve had at times (especially of late) that would constitute a more than satisfactory season for a club in transition.

    Technically the squad is quite limited but we knew that from the start but scoring goals is looking to be less of a problem with Rajovic a respectable 7 from 16. It does generally look like though that the goals and assists are going to be quite spread out, but better that than being over-reliant on a couple of key performers and the team getting into a collective strop when they’re not on song.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2023
  31. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Much like the team moving up the table now.

    Up to 11th.
     
    lendal and hjw like this.
  32. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    In the top 10 now Mowbray’s been sacked by Sunderland.
     
    hjw and wfc4ever like this.
  33. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    Need to knock Mark Robins off his perch then it's wide open.
     
  34. Malteser2

    Malteser2 Reservist

    By next weekend Ismaël should have become our joint 3rd longest serving Head Coach since the departure of Javi.

    He’s currently been in charge for 20 league matches, two short of both Ivic and Pearson.

    He needs a further four in charge to catch Bilic (26).

    Xisco remains way out in front (by our standards lol) with 36.
     
    Otter, SkylaRose and PowerJugs like this.
  35. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    If we make the playoff final, whatever the result, the man deserves a statue next to GOD. Of course, I am joking, but the team are really clicking as of late, something that not many other managers have managed to do since Gracia. Ok, we had a totally different squad, but the general vibe and mood around Watford has shifted a lot from the dreary and 'cba' mood of most fans. He has stuck to his methods, and as many have stated is getting better at picking the right subs to change the impact we have on a game. Even Leicester who generally score for fun, had to win by an enforced error and Bachmann being a clown. Whatever he said at Sunderland really must of hit home.
     
    Happy bunny likes this.

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