[SOLD] Abdoulaye Doucoure

How is he suddenly "easy to replace"?

See Patrick Vieira. Still never successfully replaced. You've got to spend £50m to replace that amount of quality, physicality, consistency and somewhat overlooked... his ability to stay uninjured and away from red cards.

There are "holding midfielders" everywhere but box to box? Not many with his attributes. Could easily end up with Samba Diakhite MKII.

He'll obviously go but we'll be a much worse team without him. Our best bet is loan out Chalobah now and hope he gets back to his level for next season.

 

He is not easy to replace. However, if the money is carefully spent to sign a striker that actually looks like scoring, the squad OVERALL may not be weakened.

 

Wonder what the "release clause fee" is.
He openly says there's been no contact but it may be that there has been plenty of contact on the quiet and he doesn't want to shoot himself in the foot by saying that.

 

He’s definitely not easy to replace. But he’s also not irreplaceable. We may sign someone who has different characteristics and we may adapt our style. For instance, many would have said Spurs would get worse once they sold Bale - but they adapted and became an even better side.

I think the telling comment is that ‘Watford will help me move...’ - clearly the contract was signed in the summer with the agreement that we will facilitate a move at the right cost. There is a right way and a wrong way to go about getting a transfer - his comments are not the right way to go IMO especially if the club are happy to help him get a move. That can be done in private without him giving interviews left, right and centre. That’s just showing disregard to the club I feel.

 

To a degree... but Bale is a bad example because the funds from that sale were very poorly spent, only Eriksen worked out and for a few years they lost the plot. It was a change in recruitment policy towards English youth like Alli, Trippier, Kane, Dier that turned that fortune, none of which was from the Bale funds. In fact I think they are missing that superstar player to push them towards silverware.

Doucoure is the focal point of everything we do. How we nearly loaned him to Lorient I don't know! He needs to shut his mouth though. His mind will not be focused if he's thinking about a move. His performance against Palace wasn't up to scratch. If he wants Europe, he can help us finish 7th, which is much more constructive than touting himself out! Then he can have his big move, satisfied he's taken Watford as far as we can realistically go in life.

 

Not irreplaceable, we already have his replacement, it’s up to one of three players to grab it

I’d like to see a little bit of rotation now in his position where the game allows

 

I don’t find it that disrespectful, it’s just saying what we already know.

He says:

"I think I am going to leave Watford. The club know my ambitions and want to help me get to the next level.“

"My goal is to play well for Watford and then maybe join a Champions League team.”

He says think and maybe which is different from definitely and a little more humble. The key thing for me is he indicates that he and Watford are in synch and working to mutual goals which is hugely positive imo. I also think he didn’t have to sign a 5 year deal and could have sought to screw WFC over, so all things considered I think he’s alright and I wouldn’t begrudge him moving.

 

Bugger, I’ve just had his name tattooed on my ****.

 

I've no issue with Doucore issuing a come and get me statement as long as he speaks to the club first and they clear it (sounds like that;s what's happened) and he still gives 100% on the pitch when he plays.

We are a selling club, he wants to further his career. It's in both our interests for him to play well to obtain a decent trf fee. It's a darn site better than upping tools not performing and leaving on a free.

To be fair I think we can cope without him given our midfield strength & numbers. Cash in now, buy cheap in the summer to replace.

 

I thought he was pretty anonymous at Palace. None of the box to box stuff and very little in the way of positive passing. Palace had loads of time and space in midfield, especially in the first half.

 

If we get £50mil for him then we have to sell. Is he quality? Absolutely. Is he replaceable? Absolutely. We bought him for what, £6mil, if we sell him for £40mil+ profit to a CL team, then we will reinvest that money to buy another CM that no-one has heard of and do the same thing.

Until we have a billionaire owner with unlimited funds, we will always be a selling club. The only difference is, we are not losing our best players at cut throat prices anymore.

 

Hopefully we keep him to the summer, if we get in Europe who knows maybe he'll stay for another season.

He is our engine but every player has to be replaced in the end. Even Doyley.

 

Let's hope we don't follow the example that Southampton has set. What a shambles that club is and I would hate to see all my best players consistently leave to one of two nasty clubs in Liverpool

 

Yeah I know what you mean. But what I hope is the difference is our recruitment insurance policy. Southampton did alright for a while continuing to buy and develop talented replacements before it fell apart over the last few seasons. Hopefully the Pozzos have the experience to keep the recruitment and selling merrygound ticking over smoothly. It seems that they are simultaneously buying for both the present and future so that there will always be a pool of potential players ready to step up to replace the big sales.

The only cautionary note is the current plight of Udinese.

 

We won't. We will probably limit sales to 1 big sale per summer. Richarlison last, Doucoure this, Marriappa 2020.

 

I have the £2.50 for Mariappa in loose change. l will throw in a bag of crisps if it helps him leave sooner.

 

I don't think many players would be tempted by the Europa League anymore - its Champions League really. Obviously if the money is never right, then we keep him - but I'd be shocked if he was still here next season.

He's at the age where he will have eyes on CL football and a breakthrough to the national side...

 

True, just thought one season in a European competition puts him even more on the map but yeah you're probably right tbh

 

Hey now fella, don't diss Mapps, he's consistantly been dependable, even at his age

 

Up until this season you are right...but he has made some terrible defensive decisions this season so far. His sense of positioning and reading the game just isn't up to standard for where we obviously are aiming to be as a club. We've done better as a team defensively this season due to having a coach who actually spends some time and effort on the training pitch working on it clearly - but lets not kid ourselves that our defence wouldn't be better with a quality CB signing to take Mapps place.

 

True Mr Burns with your double negatives

 

Can’t wait to see how we spend the 50 million we get for Doucoure. I still get goosebumps when I think about how exciting it was signing all those players when we sold Richarlison......oh. Never mind. I think N’Dong is still available......

 

Deulofeu was quite good tbf

 

Doyley was never replaced. It's a travesty his number has now been recycled.

 

I don’t think he has been at his best this season and £50m could buy 2 decent players , or 25 crap ones

I also think that once it’s out there you just need to get on, accept it and move on. It would however be a mistake to sell in January and not buy anybody

 

Regardless whether he does for £40m/£50m/£60m, there is no way that gets reinvested in players alone. I’d be shocked if we spent anymore than £15m on a replacement...and that’s at a push.

 

Depends , I know a lot of people say why invest in January, but we are 7th a big push and a bit of luck could see us in Europe this year , don’t know how much extra revenue that brings

 

Think you get about £250 for getting knocked out of the Europa League qualifying round and minus £120 million for the subsequent relegation. Would be worth it for a European tour!

 

Always preferred League 1 anyway. Trips to St Mary’s or Anfield have become stale. I’d rather burn out with a trip to Lithuania and quickly head to Rochdale...

 

If he was truly irreplaceable he’d have a role named after him like Chalobah once did.

 

He did get an assist for Cathcart's first!

 

True though Chalobah has created a rod for his own back given he is currently incapable of playing the Chalobah role.

 

err...... you have been to Spotland, have you?

 

It would be possible to win the Europa League and get relegated. Then spend the next season in the champions league and the championship. You’d have games every 2 days for months!

 

Rochdale’s in Lancashire m8.