1) with all these strikers west ham are in for surely now he is not disillusioned enough to think he will ever be in the first XI. Aidy has wanted him before, hes a good, still fairly young player with a point to prove and he has raw pace which none of our strikers really have. I think its worth a go, maybe even a loan or something. 2) With Aidy being quoted saying he wants to trim the squad who do you think will go, for me cavalli and macca will probably be on their way, if it wasn't for the injuries some center mids but maybe not now, and he's go to release one of moses, hoskins, priskin, henderson, king if he's going to bring in another striker and out of them lot it would probably be moses (on loan) or henderson. Anyone reckon hes regretting his double buy from rotherham in january?
I think Cavalli, Macca, Francis (at least if he wasn't injured), Shittu could be sold as we have a number of CBs, and I would think either Priskin or Kabba out of strikers. Williamson and Hoskins are both too young for him to judge they are not good enough - mainly because of the hefty price tag. We will see more of Hoskins next year methinks.
forgot about kabba, again though i spose all those striker may be able to do a job in the championship.
The current squad lists 35 (THIRTY FIVE) professionals on the books Of those to go / be released / to be sold / aint good enough / dont want anymore, my oppinion is as follows Mackay Francis Mahon Kabba Diagouraga Osbourne Avinel Ashikodi Hoskins Cavalli The big "juries outs" for me are Jackson Williamson Williams Carlisle Henderson Stewart Lee Priskin Congratulations to all those who made the cut, to those shortlisted.. WE ARE WATCHING SO PULL YOUR BLOODY FINGERS OUT.. And to those who IMO SHOULD be on their way... thanks very much! What worries me is that there appears to be a lot of very mediocre players being given a second chance all because weve now been relegated back into the Champ. Remember it was a number of these players that took us down in the first place. Im all for giving second chances but not when weve got squillions in the bank to spend!
Francis Avinel Ashikodi Cavalli Jackson Williamson Williams Carlisle Henderson Stewart Lee Priskin Those are the ones in your list that I find ridiculously harsh.
Slight problem is no players want to come.(not just because we may not offer as much)..and have we actually got millions to spend or have the club used it on other means? I presume you don't mean sell Mahon or Francis straight away as that will not happen and the young French defender needs to settle in and probably get another chance with more experience. We have a big squad and some of those listed are fair enough if there is no improvement by January but we need to keep some reserve players KingJames! What if Shittu and Bouazza leave for example whilst Macanuff turns out to be a flop? As for players leaving.... Latest rumour on GH is that Henderson will go...lets hope we can find somebody then to replace his potential 10-15 goals at Championship unless Hoskins and Priskin live up to their potential.
Osbourne has been injured for a year. Should feature tommorow I reckon. As for players how do you know players dont want to come? Harewood, Chopra, Sharp, Eastwood and so on that everyone on the forums / papers / nak said we are in for we havent been actually been interested in and are completley out of our price range. Whose to say Helguson wont join us? I dont think we will ever spend a large some on player anyways.
Being fans, we are always going to believe in our own more than regular footie fans hence the reason why we were all so hopeful LAST YEAR. Fact is we were demolished for most of the season and finished BOTTOM There's no excuses, sure we put up a fight SOME OF THE TIME but for most we were APPALLING Bringing in players like Cavalli and Ashikodi and Hoskins and Williamson last January has proved to have been a complete waste of time. WE NEED QUALITY.... PROVEN QUALITY WHY THE F*** CANT WE JUST GO AND GET IT? Im fed up with the "but why would they come to Watford" line..... Watch when Cardiff sign Robbie Fowler..... wouldnt he have been worth a punt considering he actually played a bit last year for Liverpool AND looked half decent?
Remember it was a number of these players that took us up in the first place, but also brought us down in the 2nd place along with the injury to MK, really bad refs and some bad luck as well. we were 13 points off survival the season before we were 27 points or so of top place. KJ - this is the sqaud that beat Reading away and drew with Newcastle at home in the last two games, this is the squad that gave Manure a great 60mins in the fa cup semis and took chelsea to the 93rd minute. tHis is also the squad that beat every championship team it played last season ( albeit not convincing due to confidence but they over came the fear of losing) How you see such a negative state of affairs is really beyond me. trust you are keeping well mate. I've slapped £60 on wfc to win championship and will stack a lot more on before season starts. You need to realise and look at other squads as well - we have thus far retained all our big players. Charlton have lost bent, sheff utd have lost jagielka, west brom have lost 2 top players, preston have lost nugent.
I absolutely agree KJ. We have a lot of quantity but little quality. We have the money, at least we should have the money but that will be another story if it isn't used to strengthen. It is a myth that players won't come here. Of course the top ones won't but there are many good players that will but, like it or like it not, we have to splash the cash. Our "wage structure" is bollox - no one tells us what it should be and we can change it if we want. We dont need to go back to the V.iaill.i days but we have to be realistic and if we want to be taken seriously we MUST spend more money. And we should have plenty.
But if we break it for one player mate they'll all be wanting wage rises. Particularly if they've had one turned down recently 'because of the wage structure in place at the club'...
So Robbie Fowler would please you - he really is one for the future - yes he could possibly do a job, but then what - we go up and we need an experienced and quality striker again. A bit like having bozo in goal, now we were stuck for a goalie,ok we got Poomy, but Rich Lee had no chance to develop his potential. Ok RL may not develop and jobby and the like are corrct that he is a circus clown over the course of a season, but we would have kown that by now as proven fact had we not had a loanee or mercanary as would be the case of Robbie Fowler.
By 'proven quality' (for the Premiership I presume as we have a few guys who have proved themselves at Championship level) who do you we can get in a realistic world? Why not give young players like Hoskins,Williamson and Moses a chance rather than just flog them after 6 months and make ourselves look silly afterwards? If they have not performed in 1/2 years time then move them on maybe but remember Mr Young/Bouazza etc probably didn't set the world alight at first but they improved after time. They are not the reason we went down...it was the lack of form from far more senior players and yes if we did go back up we would need to improve the squad a lot. I known even as a fan of Henderson and Mahon they would not be good enough for the Premiership but they'd do a job at this level.
I personally think there's a balance to be struck here. On the one hand I feel we have to accept right now that the vast majority of the squad is not and never will be good enough to maintain a place in the Premiership. It's not a great leap of faith to state that given the season we've just had and the low turnover in the squad. However, I also believe there's no harm in keeping the majority of the squad together for now. Many of them were involved in promotion last time round (a season when I don't think we were out of the play-off places from October onwards) and actually it's plain to see the squad is much improved on the one which started the 2005/6 season. There's no guarantees any replacements would be better if we sold our few players of value. I also dispute the fact that having a Premiership calibre squad guarantees you anything in this division. The Championship is an odd league and often requires a level/type of physicality not catered for in the Premiership. History shows that teams who drop from the Premiership soon dump the majority of their flare players - even if they're content to stay. The key isn't having a squad that can survive in the Premiership now, it's having one at the start of our next season in that division.
Building a squad that is capable of staying in the Prem is not a one season job. Reading is the perfect example of having to acquire, develop and blend a team. We have to be able to keep our best players that come through the academy and attract better quality players - we are doing neither right now because of a mixture of mis-management and short-sightedness in the transfer market. With our wage cap we are destined to stay in the Championship. We try to run the club on the budget of a Championship club so we can not expect more. UEA I agree that paying more will cause others to ask for more as well - that is human nature and what I would expect and hope. But then it is up to Aidy to run a tight ship and a slimmer playing staff - something he has blatantly failed to do. Also the more you pay gives you a wider choice - we are not talking about breaking the bank here. £20k per week for your best players is sadly not big money. What has happened to the money that Aidy had at the start of the season, the Ash money and parachute funds? It certainly hasn't been spent on quality players.
You missed out a crucial word: 'yet' It'll be interesting to see if you're saying the same thing on August 31st. I hope not!
Remember when Adie first turned up, kept us in this division, then sold 80% of the team? (at one stage I thought I'd have to bring my boots to the game) He then brought in new faces, some on the last day of the transfer window, (and with a much smaller buget) and only went and got us promoted!! The season before last Bouazza was on loan at Swindon, the one before that Young looked lightwieght and tackle shy. I predict Williamson, Hoskins, Priskin and possibly Ashikodi will surprise a few people given the chance. Keep believing people, even if we buy no one else we have a decent squad, 2-3 more signings and we have a bloody good squad.
I'm of the party that beleives that whilst we have a reasonable championship squad, we seriously lack in the extra quality that we have missed for 2 seasons. Now that we have the funds, this is the time to bring in 2 or three players who are not only the cream in the Champ, but can potentially make in the Prem. As someone said earlier (KJ?) we should be building now for the Prem.
This is precisely what I am talking about. No more excuses.. we have the money and quality DOES make a difference. Lets not pretend that certain players at the club will suddenly become world beaters.. cuckoo land that is! We need quality and we need it now!
Paddy i have said it before and i will say it again... i really do admire you if only for the way you present certain arguements. Your right in many ways but for me relying on being positive will see us outside the play offs come May 2008. At the start of last season i was ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED we would stay up, so much so I staked in excess of £300 to various friends and colleagues. I made a mug of myself and was taken in by Aidys "finishing in 17th will be a dissappointment" Like Aidy I was VERY NAIVE! Paddy, fact is we've spent F*** all last summer We spent F*** all in January when we really needed too Better still we flogged our best player for a fortune Come this summer we've spent F*** all again and INCREDIBLY people think thats ok Your line about us hanging onto our best players is LAUGHABLE We dont have players here as good as Nugent or Koumas or Bent or whoever Bouazza £5million.... what a joke Who, in all honestly, would be attractive to a Prem club right now? Marlon? Shittu? Bouazza? After that we're struggling arent we? Face facts, we're an average side at best right now... the FACT that Palarse werent crying over Mac the Muff says it all Let me get one thing very straight.... to everyone else, we're going up this season. Ive already waged £100 with more bound to follow but between us fellow Horns, Im concerned as always. Being concerned isnt a bad thing... someone needs to be!
i quite like him but aidy obviously values bouazza, smith and mcanuff over him and said he wants to sign another winger, suggesting cavalli isnt in his plans
Yes you were navie to waste £300 betting we would stay up and then £100 now to say we will stay up! Now I can see why you want us to spend millions in order to TRY and get promoted....so you have a chance of winning you bet rather than throwing it down the drain (I think anyone might in that case!) I presume you must have a good bank account then. Do you believe Aidy's view that we will be a top 10 side by 2010!? No-one else really does I doubt.... Bouazza is not worth 5 million at all. I'd make him stay and prove himself that he can do the business over a whole season. I haven't seen King or Shittu be sold (yet)....thankfully I would say. Lets not rush out and spend millions like some deluded and unrealistic fans expect us to just because we got 9 million forf one player (are there fools out there who actually believed it would all be spent on transfers?..lets get players who want to come (not many at the moment) without being victims of the summer over valuation of certain players. We can spend,spend (and potentially end up like under ******) once we get into the Premiership.. Not too many Preimership players are keen to drop down a league (unless they are young wanting a taste of footbll or totally out of favour) sadly as they'd rather sit on the bench or in the Reserves picking up 20k plus a week than the 10k-15k (which is a good wage for a club our size btw at our level) they'd get here. Loan moves might happen but apart from Foster we haven't had many great ones. Is Helguson worth 2 million and 16k a week...not really but that if people are happy paying that then fine.
- Yes its true, thanks for being concerned, that can leave me free to be optimistic and joyful. Have a wonderful Wednesday KJ
Mackay - yep but we've known that for some time Francis - Will do a job in the championship, Mahon - Fantastic 1st half of season, don't write him off yet Kabba - Just might suprise a few - scored goals in CCC - impact player Diagouraga - out on loan to impress Osbourne - back from horrendus injury, a good player Avinel - 1/2 a game is hard to judge, still young and settleing to new country Ashikodi - young and has something to prove, make or break year Hoskins - Needs to prove he can step up Cavalli - 1/2 a season in a new counrty, decent good squad player Chamberlin - Deserves the rest Jackson - only ever 4th choice Williamson - why ? Looks decent, will do well in the CCC Williams - Injured but will do OK Carlisle - Missed a whole year, when fit will be 1st choice Henderson - proven at this level , played prem season chasing long balls Stewart - Did very well in prem will be OK Lee - not a lot of other options at the moment Priskin - I agree, I'm not yet convinced
