[SIGNED perm] William Troost-ekong

Giaretta hasn’t worked for Udinese since 2016. Neither of the two CB’s of theirs that we are linked with played for them when he was there so I doubt they have anything to do with him. What’s more, if there’s substance to Leventhal’s claims of wider restructuring, recruitment won’t come under Giaretta’s remit.

 

Talking of Nigels, how long before Ivic is sacked and Pearson returns?

 

The Gibsons. What a life eh?

 

Not really. He was just breaking through but had been loaned out to Reggina.
2008–2010 Empoli 48 (0)
2010–2013 Udinese 22 (4)
2011–2012 → Siena (loan) 0 (0)
2012 → Reggina (loan) 19 (1)
2013–2016 Watford 75 (9)
2015–2016 → Queens Park Rangers (loan) 17 (1)
2016–2019 Udinese 26 (1)
2018–2019 → Charleroi (loan) 22 (2)
2019– Perugia 0 (0)

 

His Icelandic daughter is Nigella Gibbsdottir.

 

If he should go go go go go go go, Que Sera.

 

Do, do, do the funky Gibson.

 

Yes but Giaretta will still have good contacts at Udinese that he would trust over recommending their current players. He’s probably watched them too. You can’t tell me he left in 2016 and hasn’t seen them in action since?

There’s far too much negativity around. Moan moan moan. Nobody seems happy.

 

No it isn't. The Icelandic use the father's first name, not his second. So she would be Nigella Nigelsdottir.

However, I suspect that Nigel/Nigella is not an approved Icelandic name, so would not be allowed by the Naming Committee.

 

It was a bit of out the blue. I gather he's an electric youth.

 

You are correct. It didn’t fit with the joke and I got all giddy and carried away.

 

I don't do jokes, I'm more comedy characters.

And I lie a lot.

 

Sometimes they take the mother's name, like our very own Heiðar

 

That's because he didn't want to be associated with his father, the infamous cowboy builder Fred Vestmannaeyjar*



(*A little joke there for you, but I did it in a funny accent, for the reasons I mentioned above)

 

I mean, I don’t think it’s all negative. But you should know from how you (and I) felt when we hired Gracia and thought it was a mistake - sometimes you think something isn’t right so you post about it.

My personal opinion at this point is that the signs are that we are incapable of scouting a decent CB for ourselves. That doesn’t mean I’m negative about everything, far from it.

And frankly, while we can’t wallow, we have had a dreadful year as a club - some fans feel negatively about things and, if they are like me, want to see the club earn back some goodwill before they see everything in a positive light again.

 

I loved Gracia. You’re muddling me up with the original Malteser. I’m number 2!

 

Are you equally appreciative of a less fattening centre forward?

 

Boris?!

 

Yeah that is the way that I interpreted it, I think that they may be concerned about cover so I am wondering could we swap Kabasele for this guy? Admittedly I have never seen Troos-Ekong play but he looked fairly decent on the YouTube video then again so could anyone, however it does seem a very good signing he is 26, he played quite a few games for Udinese and has 40 odd caps for Nigeria who are not a bad outfit and a load of caps for Netherlands under 21's. If its true that he is classed as home grown as well then it is a signing that makes perfect sense.

This would be some signing, I thought he would be involved in their first team next season.

 

If he flops, he'll be Donk-ekong.

 

At least make the characters believable ffs

 

Would rather have Troost-Ekong in all honesty, grew up playing in England (not sure if he's HG for Championship purposes but would be in the PL in the best case scenario of promotion!), but is fairly experienced and seems pretty good. Branthwaite could be far better than anyone on the Pozzos' books in time, he may well be better now, but he's played about 15 games at pro level, so you don't know what you're gonna get from him. Would be happy with him for squad depth mind you, it's a long old season...

 

To be fair people are negative due to the gross mismanagement last season, the same clowns in charge and finances hammered by relegation! I'm reasonably excited about next season (Pedro, Suarez, possibly Esputian) but I don't trust the management structure's ability at all.

 

I second this. I was excited about the appointment of Ivic but the length of his contract took a lot of the excitement away for me - I just don’t see it as an indication that they are willing to learn from last season or improve the image of the club.

And I hate how everything is ‘unknown’...is Giraldi still here? Eric Roy? Why have two long-serving players in Mariappa and Gomes not been given a send-off from the club? I’d say Holebas too. All gave a lot to the cause and the club is silent. Why no interview with Ivic yet? He’s been here a week. Why have the club not confirmed his backroom team and said thanks Mullins and Stack and informed people they are back with the youth sides? At this point, I don’t even think it’s lazy communication - I think it’s wilfully poor. They seem to revel in being opaque and secretive.

My excitement for next season also comes seeing Joao Pedro, Suarez, Estupinan and Sarr...and hopefully Quina too, all playing regularly every week. But I have to be honest, I don’t expect it to happen - I feel a bit brow-beaten in all honesty with the way that I fully expect Deeney, Cleverley and any combo of our CB’s to be regularly in the starting line up and the 2 loanees to be farmed out somewhere.

 

Dear I’m not telling you not to moan. If you wish to be unhappy about things (that you have no control over) that’s your total right. It’s a pity because you will feel gloomy inside and I’d rather you be happy, but it’s totally up to you.

I’m not like Captain Positive myself. We’ve been relegated. It’s horrible logging on each morning and seeing the latest stories about who wants to leave. It’s hard when it sinks in that now we aren’t in the PL, our days are over for now at least of attracting the likes of Deulofeu or Sarr type signings. Our quality of signing will be lower. It’s not started promisingly with talk of a Udinese loan in defence or unknown foreign names for midfield. It seems the players we were looking forward to welcoming to the club from their loan spells don’t seem very keen on actually playing for us. There are a lot of reasons to feel negative if we let them.

But we haven’t kicked a ball yet. The window lasts another two months (give or take). We’ve yet to see our exciting new coach in action. No big name has yet left. No crap replacements have yet arrived. Keep the faith if you can. Football should be an outlet for our optimism during this gloomy period of our lives, virus wise.

 

We need to sign Lewis Dunk to play alongside him...

 

That would be just the biscuit.

 

Now that would be funky.

 

These are both very good posts!

As for me, I'm in a bit of a strange place in my Watford-supporting life. I wasn't downboat or gloomy after relegation was confirmed on the final day of last season. In fact, I had no emotion at all really. There is a part of me that is looking forward to life in the Championship again and the flurry of games and excitement (and actually fighting for something realistic), but a large part of me is just struggling to care at the moment.

Maybe it's because there's a major global pandemic going on, maybe it's because attendances will be greatly reduced next season or maybe I've just become desensitised to football or my interests are just... changing? I have many interests outside of football and I have always fundamentally refused to allow football to dominate my social life. However, I just don't really feel anything towars WFC at the moment and it's not just because of relegation. Like you highlighted @Burnsy , the bits in bold leave a really bad taste in my mouth and I feel like we have been disrespected as supporters (not to mention Gomes and Mariappa). Fans are the lifeblood of the club and Pozzo would do well to remember that.

I have paid the £20 so I can renew my ST when its ready to do so, but I'm not sure if I should. It's so expensive after all and I just don't feel that excited about it at the moment. Perhaps that will change, perhaps not. However, i can really see myself falling out of love with football in the coming years.

 

Bring back Prince Bourbon

 

Wow I had totally forgotten about him!

 

As with all clubs supporters will find certain things that the management do frustrating or disagreeable, but for me whilst communication between club and fans over players and staff has always been surprisingly poor, I still find lots of things to be positive about on and off the pitch.

Remembering the sheer distance the club has come in the past 8 years, the fact that even with relegation we're a good transfer window away from having an incredibly exciting side to set us up for another 8, continued affection for the GT legacy, the relationship with the hospital etc. etc. These are all things that keep me incredibly positive about Watford Football Club regardless of a particularly challenging 18 months.

I have friends who support clubs such as West Ham, Arsenal, Spurs, all of whom have been treated with much more disdain and quite frankly are an embarrassment to them at times. I don't feel like that at all about our club, even when other fans and so called sports journalists show themselves up with ignorant criticisms of managerial sackings and loans from Udinese. No one likes getting relegated but I'm still a proud hornet.

 

Exactly. Some perspective is needed. All these bedwetters should give their head a wobble. We nearly went bust under the last owner. We could easily be in Charlton, Wigan or Granada's position. Anyone who criticises the owner should be careful for what they wish for. In 1881 we didn't even have a football team.

 

Give it a rest. The poster made some well argued points and you come up with the same sarcastic comment you seem to have been posting since 1881.

 

Don't tell me what to do.