[SOLD] Nathaniel Chalobah

That’s the thing, they’re all mostly cesspits. You being called a troll is just somebody in themselves trolling by calling you that, in an attempt to wind you up. I remember my younger brother, when he was a teenager, used to deliberately post ‘fake’ on videos of things that obviously weren't fake just to wind people up.

 

People inject their own tone and inflection when they read things. You can make even the most innocuous thing sound bad with the right (wrong?) imagined tone.

All it takes is for someone to be in a bad mood or poor state of mind and they can find offense in almost anything someone else writes.

Removing facial expression, tone and body language from the equation makes a heck of a difference.

 

Strange that that happens so often in YouTube though and not nearly so much on here - there have been a fair few spats and some posts have had to be deleted/threads locked (mostly of a political nature), but generally I find people here quite civilised without the need for the mods' intervention.

Also I don't think this girl/woman who called me a troll was necessarily in a bad mood, she was just being a silly bitch for whatever reason and didn't want to respond to anything I said seriously.

 

It suspect it's a matter of exposure, really. Youtube has millions of people using it, whereas this is a relative small site.

Message boards with a lot of users that don't have very strict moderation get just as bad as Youtube. Even on Youtube, channels with a small number of subscribers often have healthy comment sections.

I think the problems tend to arise when the small percentage of really unpleasant types add up in a larger community and then start creating walls of unpleasantness. It drives away people who aren't interested in that and then becomes a self perpetuating cycle. One nasty comment is pretty easy to scroll past, but when you get dozens of pages of it...

 

Wait what... We sold Chalobah for free?

 

If true, that's genuinely hilarious.

 

Didn't Chalobah get his England cap at the end of the season when he got the bad injury? #fakenews

 

It's irresponsible, is what it is.

Gino putting ego over the team.

 

for free, for zero, where we don't pay anything... yes Marco, we got it at "free"

 

F*** off?! We’ve had a bit of a shocker with regards to outgoings. Not necessarily the players going, but that we’ve made almost no money from any of them and have had to pay most off!

 

It's all the more galling in that Chalobah, while not in our first XI in terms of quality, is clearly a saleable asset. At least £3million, you'd have thought.

If we've genuinely just handed him to Fulham for nothing, then it is monstrous incompetence.

 

But he was so very ill. Frankly it was an act of mercy to let him go, to slip away with dignity intact, so he could drift peacefully into that good (transfer window deadline) night.

 

Yep....this is why I posted something yesterday about our transfer dealings. Chalobah is yet another player we've lost money on. Even though we did get something from him on the pitch, to have absolutely no return financially is another example of how poor Watford are in selling players. Like I said previously, it's a bit of a myth the Pozzo's do so well in the transfer market. They don't. They make money on a select few, but the vast majority of players we sign, we actually lose money on.

I hope they become a bit smarter in this area, as this has big bearing on why we are struggling financially now.

 

Got wages off the books. What more do you want?

Gino and Scott only do good business.

#NEW POD KLAXON!

 

The club must have really wanted him out, I wonder why that is...

 

I don't think there's anything sinister in why he went. They did offer him a 5-year contract after all.

It's a surprise that Hughes and Chalobah appeared to want out, especially after a promotion. It's odd to see players wanting to go, one back to the Championship and one to another Premier League struggler. I can only think of one time when we lost a player we wanted to keep after we achieved a promotion. That was Darren Bazeley, who decided to leave us and join 2nd Division Wolves.

I doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of this particular mystery, but I think it's something the club probably forced. These two players flexed their muscles, probably thought they were more valuable than they were and tried to make a stand against the relegation clause. The owner was never going to give in to that, so once that course was taken, I can see Gino taking a pragmatic approach and saying if you don't what to sign on these terms, then go somewhere else. I think he's also quite emotional and would see the refusal to sign a contract as a bit of an insult.

I think it's a case of you're "all in", or you're not going to be part of it.

 

We may never know but I suspect Chalobah and Deeney realised they were way down the pecking order as far a first team selection was concerned. The only way they can be competitive is to drop down a division.

Hughes was, I think, a case of a negotiation that went wrong for both the player and the club. With the new recruits, Hughes was far from guaranteed a starting place either.

As with all transfer dealings, it's not my money so I don't really care what transfer fees are involved. I just want the club to be competitive while being financially viable.

 

I hate this ****** though, “we” did not sign Chalobah in the same way you had absolutely nothing to do with signing Richarlison.

 

Something really doesn’t add up here though.. surely Gino would rather let Chalobah rot in the reserves for a season, than actively sell him to a manager he presumably hates, for free?

I don’t see what point it proves from Gino’s point of view at all?

 

We couldnt offer contracts last season not knowing the division we were going to be in ..... so contracts ran down more than usual - we then offer terms that the players didnt like, couldn't guarantee them minutes etc so they look to move on - that is their prerogative..... then they leave be it for a fee or a free .... I dont think we can have ago at Gino for not getting a fee for Nate.... we just move on with our new players - who may prove to be better than those departed ... at least that must be the hope

 

Yes, we should have just accepted one of the much higher bids we had from all those other clubs ? Silly old Gino for getting him off the books for zero instead of selling him for millions. Why do you think that was ? There's clearly a reason. Or just maybe Silva has no idea what cost was incurred and is having a bit of fun at the expense a club he hates ?

 

I think you can absolutely have a go at Gino for not getting a fee for Chalobah, irrespective of the circumstances are you saying he’s completely worthless? Literally worth nothing?

 

But non league players move for fees, is Chalobah simply worthless?

And what fun is Gino having by giving an asset presumably worth something to a manager he presumably hates?

Who exactly is having the last laugh?

 

Gino doesn't seem to hold grudges. I do think he's emotional, but his business head always takes the lead. We sold Richarlison to Everton, even though there was bad blood after they tapped up Silva. We also sold them Doucoure and I do believe they genuinely want to place a player at a club he would like to go to.

So, in Chalobah's case, it was a question of do we keep a player, who is not fully committed to the cause? Nope, so then it's a question of offloading and saving a salary. If he wants to go to Fulham, and no one else is putting up an offer, then we do the deal. Silva being the head coach doesn't really come into it. The same as selling Hughes to Palace. Was it the wisest thing to sell to a relegation rival, potentially weakening us and strengthening them? Nope, but Hughes wanted to go. Palace was the only offer on the table, so again, we take the money, move on a player who is not fully committed and life goes on.

 

Surely the eventual fee will rise depending on bonuses, sell on fee etc? If not, that's almost Arsenal levels of incompetence. Someone would definitely offer a few million for him eventually.

Definitely one to raise at a fans forum.

 

If no-one want to buy him what do we do ? If he stays and remains "ill" and unable to play he effectively has a negative value. I agree it seems odd, IF TRUE, that we just released him and that no-one was prepared to buy him as happened with Hughes but Gino is not stupid enough to give away if there was any prospect of a fee. I'm sure there is a story behind this because he wasn't even put in detention as Hughes was. Maybe there is a long term health issue ? There's something we are missing. Didn't leicester or Newcastle want to sign him last Jan when he was genuinely playing really well ?

 

I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

 

I agree that something just doesn’t add up. I do get your point about getting wages off the books, I just struggle with the concept that he was essentially worthless and there wasn’t a club at least willing to pay something.

 

His contract was worth something if someone was willing to buy it. Looks like they weren’t.

The question then is do we want to continue to pay his nearly £2m per year wages if we don’t think he’s the player for us anymore and he can leave for nowt soon anyway?

It’s not good, but it’s not unimaginable either. Maybe we could have sold him the year before, but we needed someone in the Championship and he was ok for us in that, promoted, job done.

 

There are still some question marks. We supposedly offered him a five year deal? Not sure if there is any info on whether that was better or worse than his current weekly wage, but he turned it down anyway. So he either really wanted to leave or it was less than he was currently getting so wanted to try and get the same or better elsewhere. I doubt he’s that stupid to turn down a five year deal at the same or better wages than he was on with us to earn less elsewhere on a shorter deal, so it’s seemingly very unlikely he moved to Fulham on less per week, so Fulham were at least happy to presumably match his contract with us, if not better it.

If not, the player has presumably lost his marbles.

It’s therefore strange a championship club would match his wages, but no other club would and/or pay a fee for him.

There is a disconnect somewhere, he’s either a totally atrocious footballer and none of us but the rest of the footballing world can see it, or there is something else going on.

 

Yep. We probably spent more on outgoings than incomings this window.

 

Fulham are rolling in cash. I think it's highly likely he will earn more at Fulham than he would have earned with us (esp as it's costing nothing to sign him), and that will be part of his decision-making, as will working with Silva, plus staying in London. If we had agreed an offer of say £3m from say Newcastle, I'd assume he'd refuse to go.

 

The likes of Hughes and Chalobah (and Deeney for that matter) would have realised that the Watford squad would be strengthened for the PL and that they wouldn't necessarily be regular starters. It was then up to them whether to stay or look to move. If they had decided to stay and sign new contracts I'm sure Pozzo would not have sanctioned as many new midfield signings as he has done. So they wouldn't have been so far down the pecking order as they seemed nearing deadline day.

 

Most footballers are like cars, they rarely make you money when you sell them. The value is how you use them. After his injury, Chalobah was like a car thats had a lot of welding. every year you expect more downtime and cost on repair work.

I expect he made it clear he would be off for nothing at the end of his contract. the judgement would be; is he going to make a difference between staying up or going down this season versus what’s our salary commitment. Say he was on £2million wages for the remainder of the season, and we spend the same on a loanee from turkey. what tips the sporting balance in favour of staying up. Retaining or getting a fresh face in the squad.