Who Stays, Who Goes, Who Needs Signing?

I think you're right, and we've got to be looking at another young CB to come in with the aim of bringing him along with Pollock as ones for the future. Pollock sounds decent, stick him behind Sieralta and that could work next season.
(I remember when Roeder was skipper and played (whilst on field coaching) a good up and coming youngster) can't remember?? Was it Holdsworth.???

I know our defence has been ropey but I still tend to think there's more to it tbh. If your FBs can't defend their corners, or if your 2 CMs go missing then a CBs job can be a nightmare....

 

I was checking whether you were right about that, and yes in the 33rd game we did edge past our current points total to reach 23 points after the pleasant surprise that was the 4-2 win over Portsmouth where Bouazza scored a brace and Priskin scored his first goal for us, with Mahon adding an unlikely one on the stroke of half time. They were a good team and narrowly missed out on a UEFA spot as a result of that.

Nowadays even if we did manage such a victory out of the blue and managed to recapture that vibrancy and attacking quality against Villa that for some reason has been sorely missing the vast majority of games since, I imagine it would be hard for many of us to care (might feel differently just after the actual event though).

 

I was at that one, it was great as it was totally unexpected. The Mahon strike was incredible.

 

It was, which was ironic, considering he was complete and utter crap overall.

 

Excuse me, but he is exactly the kind of plodder us Watford fans love.

 

Nothing quite like an over-the-head aimless lobbed ball and praying that your striker can make it look like a good pass.

 

Still better than Sema and Cleverley.

 

(I remember when Roeder was skipper and played (whilst on field coaching) a good up and coming youngster) can't remember?? Was it Holdsworth.???

Was it Barry Ashby?

 

Mahon was very limited but had more fight than most of this current mob put together.

 

Yes. No one's that bad.

 

I think Aidy should be blamed more for making him play that way, summed up our style in the 2006/07 and why we had so little creativity in our team when Henderson was leading the line.

He was similar in some ways to Cleverley - a polarizing player, sometimes a fan favourite and MOTM material in some games, never gave less than 100%, good leadership qualities, had the odd good shot on goal that went in once in a blue moon, but it became increasingly apparent in the Aidy Prem season that he wasn't up to the pace and quality of the top league. Still preferred him to his midfield partner Francis though, who may have been technically better and contributed a few goals and assists, but too often went missing and shirked tackles in games when we needed every player to be fully up for the fight. The young Bangura was arguably better than both of them, but clearly none of them were much cop in Prem terms otherwise we wouldn't have finished ten points from safety.

 

Anyone else have the title of this thread automatically play itself in their head to the tune of 'Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story' from Hamilton every single time they see it?

 

Garvey was probably the better of the two when at his peak, but by the Furphy promotion season he struggled at times IIRC.

 

Clearly.

 

Who should go?
All of them, throw in Duxbury as well.
We lose 2-1 at home to an awful Burnley side.
Can we get any worse?

 

He will go to Brentford

 

His free kick today epitomised everything he is about.

 

I predicted live at the game that he would shoot. He clearly plays just for himself, not the team. Even so, he still contributes more than Sarr or King.

 

I contribute more than Sarr and King…

 

Watford need a radical change, not just a tweak here or there. We are so bad, at every level. Men's, U23's, U18's, even the women.....the entire culture of losing has to be eradicated. We're now just a joke of a club, albeit still in the higher echelons of British football, but a joke none-the-less.

So, for me, to have a chance of serious change, this is my list if events that have to occur.

New investment. Someone from outside of the Pozzo group has to come in and invest. Watford have NO CHANCE of ever establishing themselves as a Premier League club without it. It's a billionaires playground, and we need that type of backing in order to compete.

Director of Football. We need to have a "football expert" in the building. Someone we can run the football side of things by, who is not the head coach/manager. A combo of Scott, Gino and Giaretta are not qualified enough.

New CEO. I think the time has come for Scott Duxbury to move on. I think he's done a decent job until around 3 years ago. There have been far too many poor judgement calls, lack of communication between club and supporters, hire and fire culture of the head coach etc. Too much reactive, rather than forward thinking. In business, if the CEO was consistently making decisions over a three year period that cost the company money, he would be gone. This is primarily what I'm basing this on.

Category One Academy. We need to be "best of class" as SD puts it, but we really need to be best of class, rather than it be just words. Watford have to be a Cat One academy. The cost is high, but look at all the money we waste on agents and paying off managers. Get the academy right, then the reliance of agents and firing managers greatly reduces.

A "project" first team manager. This goes hand-in-hand with the DoF. Get the DoF right, then you can afford to employ the best young, up and coming British coach around. He can then lean on the DoF during the difficult times, and have a strong support structure around him. This will help to establish a longer term managerial tenure.

New head of Supporter Communications. Sorry, but Richard Walker is appalling in this role. We need a new stadium announcer too.

I believe, if we got all this in place, within three years we'd be a strong Premier League club who could establish themselves as a mid-table side.

 

Quite extraordinary for a team who until only a few weeks ago were guaranteed to overcome the odds and avoid relegation.

What a remarkable turnaround in just a few weeks from a team more than capable of surviving in the Premier League to one which is "so bad, at every level" and "needs a radical change".

Is it not enough that all the club needs is just a bit more positivity from its fans?!

 

Cards on the table we overspent on Sarr at a time we needed to upgrade the back line and we've been paying the price ever since.
Now we go down with that debt, a worse (and now shell shocked) defence plus more over 30 deadweight on the books.

We are going to have to do a Stoke/Swansea and it might take a while but a full reboot is the only way forward.

 

Agreed. Dennis would score goals for fun in the championship.

If I could keep 3 players it would be Dennis, Louza and JP. But I feel Kamara should be in there somewhere.

We may even keep 3 out or 4 of those players.

 

I'm getting bored by the lack of movement, or even speculation. Feels like we're having (or choosing) to wait until moves start happening and maybe we've shifted some players before we look at replacements. The issue there is other clubs are more proactive and are signing players that maybe we should've looked at.
I fully expect King, Sissoko, Femenia, Samir, Sarr, Dennis, Hernandez and Sierralta to depart, meaning our best XI would look something like:

Okoye; Kabasele, Troost-Ekong, Cathcart; Ngakia, Kayembe, Louza, Kamara; Zinckernagel; Joao Pedro, Fletcher

And of those, HK, IL, PZ and JP leaving wouldn't shock me either. I'm not buying what Edwards has said about only minor squad changes being needed - we're AT LEAST 4/5 first XI players short.

 

Hahaha, did he say that? I've not even bothered to read it.

Fantastic. Another season of Cathcart/Cleverley/Sema beckons. Kill me now.

 

I reckon we should go the full Pol Pot ground zero.

Sack (or execute ) all the staff from top to bottom.
Demolish the ground and London Colney ( might as well include the Red Lion whilst we got the builders in).
Sell all the players and terminate all the youth contracts .
Wipe all statistical records of the clubs existence from 1881 onwards .

Then and only then can we properly take stock of our situation, assess what our core values are and rebuild ourselves from the ground up .

 

There is very little going on anywhere at the moment due to a lot of players on holiday or international duty. We're also hardly likely to say we want or need to sign loads of players is he

 

Even if we had a chance to keep Dennis for the upcoming season he should be moved on. The bloke has talent but his demeanour and attitude are pitiful. We need a team/squad who are united and in it together, not just for themselves.

Get him and Sarr gone.