At least 4, maybe even 6 new signings still to come. I'd say that's about right. Left back, right sided winger, striker, keeper, left sided winger and central defender would be areas I'd say we need to strengthen. http://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/sport/...ing_busy_month_before_transfer_window_closes/ Also good to hear his views on everyone having to speak English on the training ground. A refreshing change from last season's ridiculous antics. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...lva-eager-Watford-speak-English-training.html
I'd agree with the positions you have suggested. I hope it's quality not quantity though. We need improvements not just numbers
Yup we already have players in all those positions who are generally decent but not brilliant. We gonna have to splash some cash especially now we ve saved on Chal , Hughes, Femenia on the cheap.
Getting excuses in quickly. If you don't get the signings don't blame me if we struggle ! Mind you I'd rather he said that than "that's it. The jigsaw is complete"
So we just need to strengthen both flanks, the spine of the team and get a new keeper then we should be ok? I don't disagree, just brings home that there's a fair bit still to do! In order of importance, I'd go: winger, striker, second winger, left back, keeper, centre back.
BUY Winger - Ghezzal - Free ( but 2 mill extra in wages) Striker - Simeone/Ineacho - 20 mill Winger - Carrillo - 2 mill loan fee LB - Gibbs - 10 mill CB - Vermalen - 7 mill GK - Dunno - ???? mill SELL Capoue - 12 mill Behrami - 2mill Generic CB - 4 mill Dje Dje - 3 mill Deeney/Okaka - 20 mill for Deeney or 12 mill for Okaka Pantillimon - 4 mill Arlauskis - 1 mill Berghuis - 6 mill Roughly balances the books. Cant see what the problem is Gino, pull your finger out you lazy ****
Don't forget the "hidden" cost for Cleverley. That £8m transfer fee is coming out of this season's budget. Having said that, the club were willing to commit to £16m on Niang, and I believe they wanted Lemina for a similar value, so I don't think they will bulk at committing £15-20m on the right player. We've spent around £8m Cleverley, £5m Chalobah, £4.5m Hughes, Femenia free.....so that's around £18m already, with some add-ons which could take it up to around £22m. We'll sell Berghuis to offset some of that cost, but I don't see us raising too much from moving on other players. Mostly loan fees, which will add up of course, but not significant. It's tough for the club though. Even though we have a fantastic budget in "real world" terms, in the EPL it doesn't go far. We have to be smart, but patient, in order to get quality in at the right price. But even with those rough calculations and no stadium commitments this year, we do have a decent amount left for transfers.
Yes....there is a lot to do. With the style of Silva, we do need quality in wide areas. This is vital. It wouldn't surprise me if Deeney and Okaka are the only central strikers on the books this season. I think we'll look for wide players with a good scoring pedigree (a bit like Niang potentially) just to make up the goal threat. I would say a left back is much higher on the list. We have no backup for Holebas at all and that will have to be addressed in this window.
Admittedly it does sound ridiculous but I quoted that because there was a rumour that a Chinese club bid that for him a few weeks ago.
nor £12m for Capoue, and definitely zilch for Behrami, he'd barely pass a medical with his legs The only players we'd get anything for is Deeney and Berghuis, and why would we sell Deeney and leave ourselves back with just 2 strikers anyway
Capoue is one of those players who people think is good until he actually plays for their club. Classic YouTube illusionist. We paid 8 mill for Cleverley ,Id put him at roughly same level as Capoue, and he scored 0 goals in half a season. Capoue got 7. Defo could see someone pay 12 mill for him. Im not sure Id agree that all of the others listed arent worth anything at all.
Sort of agree but Capoue is a bit of an enigma, he weighed in with a number of goals last season, I think his main problem was that he was too comfortable in his slot as there was no competition for it. In Arlauskis' case I think that we may end up tearing up his contract, paying him off and sending him find another club. Behrami will probably go but I suspect towards the end of the window.
Totally agree about Capoue. He plays like a player who is too comfortable in his place. He covers this up by running around a lot (and he is far from lazy ) when he should apply that energy into to the mental side of his game. Watching Chalobah move the ball quickly and incisively forward, in his cameo last week, was so refreshing to see after witnessing Capoue and his slow sideways and backwards passing.
Don't disagree with most of the posts on here. Quite apart from getting in a decent striker (e.g. Simeone or similar) and wingers (would luv Ghezzal and Carrillo) Silva confirming that Abdennour is not a targets got me worried about the defence again. Would ship out Britos if we could get Samir from Udinese as he looks the real deal and plays either CB or LB. They can have Behrami on a free in exchange along with Kabasele as not sure if he will ever be consistent enough in EPL. Cathcart concerns me in respect of injuries but fine if we can keep him fit. Prodl of course is a beautiful man mountain so he stays. Happy enough with Kaboul so long as we play a 4 and not a 3. Don't understand loaning out Hoban yet again? We should sell if not going to make the grade or get a chance to prove himself. Happy with Mapps for pretty reliable cover, his loyalty and experience. To get Samir I would even consider Capoue going to Udine. Think his style would suit Seria A more than EPL. His recent goalscoring record makes him fairly valuable so would get a decent fee of at least 10 - 12 million. Players like Parades, Arlauskis, Amrabat need to be shifted out for modest fees. Not sure about Brice Dj Dj - is he decent or not, fit or not, versatile? Best to let Silva and Gino decide. As for Bergy if he definitely wants out its best to say many thanks and get decent fee and sell-on rights. Would anoy me if Feyenoord are giving us grief now but sell him on for a big profit in a year. I'll finish my ramble now. We now need to start sorting the squad out. Exciting times ahead and if we land some pacy and technically better upgrades we should be OK. COYHS
I'd definitely prioritise a Striker. We need an alternative option to our 2 lumps upfront I.e. Gray, Simeone, Andone, Perez Winger - (2 if Berghuis leaves) Ghezzal, Carrillo, Grosicki, whoever else is on the Pozzo's radar, I'd also have Niang back here. I don't rate Amrabat, I think this could be a big season for Success, but remember he's only young. Prefer Pereyra in behind the striker even tho he's still very good out wide and not sure Zarate will still be here either. Left back - Holebas is good but needs competition. 1 of our many RB's could compete for the LB spot if we can't find anybody with the quality to challenge for a starting place Centre back - We have plenty of decent enough options. Ideally we'd look for a player to start alongside Prodl, but again we could manage without if required. Cathcart, Kaboul, Kabasele, Britos, Marriappa can all do a job (despite being an injury prone bunch) Goal Keeper - I worry that mistakes will start creeping back into Gomes' game more and more now he's getting older, especially with a lack of competition. Not sure Pantillamon will want to stay either so another keeper should be high on the list as well as I can't imagine Bachmann is ready to compete yet. Hopefully we have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us. Pants, Aurlaskis, Britos, Behrami, Watson, Berghuis, Zarate are all players I can see leaving.
Great press conference. Such a difference already between this season and last season. You can just sense that the moral in the camp is in a much healthier place. Few things I picked up and I may be reading into more than what he meant but here we go: 1. I liked is Silva saying that they are looking for players who work hard first. Clearly would rather a player who will give 100% and run for 90minutes than a player who can pull of a few tricks and flicks. To me this is probably why the media have very little clue to who we are actually after. He wants players committed to the cause, not players who are here for a paycheck. 2. A 95% roster tells me that he wants to save a space or two for the winter window. I like that because he is already thinking ahead. So I would imagine a 23 man squad with a couple u21's making the first team but not having to be registered. 3. Obviously the whole comment on 4,5,6 new players coming in. What I liked is that he said "we need to do," not "we would like to do." This changes everything because he is clearly making it a point that our squad right now needs improvement. He obviously thinks that what we have right now will struggle to stay up. With that being said, I am expecting the next 2 weeks to be huge for us. Probably setting myself up for disappointment but, I would hope that out of that 4-6 new players, 3 will be announced between now and next Friday. 4. Out of that 4-6 I would hope that the minimum of 4 is a ST, LB, CB and a LW/RW. If we manage to pull of 6 signings then I would hope that we are adding another LW/RW and GK to the above list of 4. 5. Clearly has a better relationship with the board and Gino than what Mazzarri did. 6. It looks like they are trying to sign 1 or 2 more English players out of that list of 4-6 new players. You would think (hope) that Gibbs would be one of them. 7. The winning mentality is a breath of fresh air. No longer will we hear ridiculous excuses as to why the game was a draw or why we lost. He wants winners. This is what everyone saw at Hull and had he been in charge of them the full season it would have been us going down not Hull. Thankfully that didn't happen and we can look forward to Silva's winning mentality rubbing off on our team. Vicarage Road will be a fortress this season. 8. The goal is improving on the last two years not just last year. That excites me because rather than just trying to stay up this season, we are actually going to try and attack teams. I think we will surprise a lot of teams and pundits this season (once we sign those 4-6 players). Early prediction 8th-13th place finish and a league cup final. Anyway, that's just my thought on the whole thing. No apology if I bored you reading this because I don't care.
Good assessment JK which largely echoes my thoughts. There seems to be alot of consensus on here. What we are thinking seems to chime with what Silva and Gino are trying to achieve. That was not the case last season as several decisions by both Mazzari and the club left us all rather baffled. There is already a positive and determined vibe at the club that bodes well. COYHS
Good analysis and summary. Already feels like a proper signal on a radio channel has been restored linking the club to the fans via the media. Last season we all felt left in the dark. The cult of the manager/ coach is so strong now with the media that we became a 'non-club' with the lowest profile in the EPL. It was embarrassing talking to fans of other clubs as we did not have s clue what was happening most of the time. Just final thought about Silva - not frightened to call owner Gino rather than Mazzari's 'the President' suggests that already there relationship is a much better one with proper discussion and clear decisions being made. It definitely gave me a positive lift ahead of new season. COYHS
Speaking in really general terms, we need to improve attacking with pace, and our ability to put in a good cross. I'd also like better distribution from the back. A quality quick striker and quick winger, if good enough, would probably be enough to secure a safe EPL finish. A leftback with good crossing ability would also be helpful.
i see the club have put up a report of the press conference, but is there a video link anywhere to watch ?
I would be very surprised if Capoue was sold. The Pozzos show no desire to sell players who are considered to still have value to the team, because Premiership quality players are hard to bring in. Capoue is like Berghuis in reverse. Each year the new coach looks at him, says 'yes' and plays him every week. At the moment it doesn't look like this will be any different.
Overall I doubt we will sign more than four for the squad (we may sign other players for Udinese, or to lone/develop elsewhere). We won't get two wingers and a striker, maybe two from three, we will probably get a left back and central defender but it may be as you were with keepers.
Does also seem like a slow window all round. Lot's of players who will move yet to do so. I think some clubs, including us, are waiting out daft wage demands and maybe there are a few big club moves to happen before things move further down the food chain.
But it's completely true and understandable though - it's reassuring that he is openly addressing the obvious rather than being deluded or lying to us.
Maybe players don't want to come to Watford with Silva in charge. Hardly got an impressive record recently. His team bottled it in their most important games vs Sunderland and Palace last season. Think the love in with Silva is not going to last long.
I think this could be the first official recognised instance of Silva Out. Surprised it took so long tbf
