The Championship 2020-21

It’s almost as if having no discernible style of play for the last 18 months has come back to haunt us.

 

As if Blackpool being 2-0 up after 43 minutes means anything!

 

Double-edged sword, of course, with us lumbered with a large bunch of very highly-paid lazybones.

 

Which is why only 1 in 5 relegated teams finish in the top 2 the following season. Too much squad restructuring goes on....

 

I think you are right: Our defence reverted to hoofball in the second half because the mid-field display was increasingly untrustworthy.

 

Yes, that's where we have to hope the club put relegation clauses in most of the contracts. Rumour is that is the case (pretty sure Leventhal reported it), but there's nothing concrete.

 

Derby signing Ibe, Jozwiak, and trying for Vydra.

 

Didn't we dodge a bullet there with the (at the time) expensive Ibe?
Vydra, scorer of several of the best goals I've ever seen in the Championship. But he just doesn't seem to fit in anywhere.
Never heard of Jozwiak.

 

Watched the Championship highlights earlier. Agree with your statement minus Godfrey. I honestly can't see what all the fuss is about. Cantwell was class and clearly should of seen red for the forearm smash but he certainly stood out. Clever player. Aarons looked excellent too.
Bournemouth looked good going forward but will struggle to keep them out. The keeper looked shocking and he was against us last season.
The coloured fella up top for Reading who scored and assisted looks like he will be a handful.

 

Except in his true home, here at the Vic.

Come back to where you belong MV!

*sob*

 

Sadly that bridge was torched a long time ago. Just think how badly he wanted to score against us in that game. He hates us.

 

Everyone hates us. Even we seem to hate us.

 

“Coloured”?! Really?

 

Yes really.

 

I have a colleague who says this.
The safeguarding chap from the LTA nearly choked on his custard cream when he said it in a meeting.
My colleague puts signs up on the equipment store that say ' any intruders will be shot and survivors shot again'.I take the signs down.
It's still in use in different places.

 

Well Ivic has stated that he wants two quality players for each position.

So let's break that down, omitting who will go, and deciding what's required:-

GK
Foster, Bachmann

LB
Masina

RB
Ngakia, Femenia, Janmaat, Navarro

CB
Kabasele, Dawson, Cathcart, Wilmot, Sierralta

MF
Hughes, Quina, Cleverley, Dele-Bashiru, Chalobah

LW
Pedro, Sema, Penaranda

RW
Pussetto, Sinclair

FW
Gray, Perica, Murray, Success

It's a pretty depressing squad to be fair. No chance that will get promoted IMO.

I would say we need 1 striker, 1 right winger, 2 midfielders, 1 central defender and 1 left back

6 more players, all of whom have to be better than those currently in the squad. Not going to happen I'm afraid. As I said all along, our big hope was to keep those quality players we already have. If we lose them, we're not going to attract anyone of high enough calibre to replace them with.

I would also remove some deadwood. Success, Navarro, Sinclair, Penaranda & Sierralta. Would probably also look to sell Chalobah too.

 

That's great and everything but you can't just get rid of players even if you think they will leave. So far only three have left

 

You should not confuse the situation by including players who are going to be sold. That just gives false hope, and I'm sick of everyone pretending just because they've not been sold yet, they should still be included. The head coach is not picking any of them, so already they've gone in terms of availability to the team.

Look at the squad and drink it in. This is what we'll be left with.

 

Well sure: if we sell all of our best players and choose not to replace them at all then promotion may prove tricky.

Your point about attracting players of a high calibre is a more interesting and substantive one, though. Not sure it equates with struggling to improve the squad - either by rebalancing the squad (e.g. selling Deulofeu but bringing in players in other positions which address a clear deficiency in the squad like Jake Cooper or Ryan Manning) or by replacing 'high calibre' talent directly with championship proven talent (e.g. selling Suarez but bringing in Karlan Grant).

 

It's the hardest thing to do, improve the squad to a level where you can get promoted. Right now we have this, but trying to attract it from scratch is nigh on impossible for a club like Watford. Udinese do not have any little gems they can give us either, or we'd have them by now, so we don't even have that to fall back on this time around.

I want to be pleasantly surprised and the club have this all under control. We'll have a great squad by the end of the window, but I just don't believe it will happen. I'm hugely disappointed in what I'm seeing.

We could sell everyone, then be in a position to buy, but prices will go up because now clubs know we're a bit desperate. We're either going to lose out financially because we're selling low and buying high, or we'll sell low and buy no one of any note to improve the squad. Either way, the end result is not what we want.

 

Given the pandemic, a lot of clubs are as desperate to sell as we are to bring in new players. Other clubs also have players excluded from squads because they're on the market or have contracts expiring soon (e.g. QPR and Ryan Manning and Bright Osayi-Samuel)

 

That's your opinion, I don't believe it will be

 

Who will stay then? I think you’re just ignoring what is happening. Everyone wants out and the club is making no effort to retain players.

 

My view has always been that we need to sell some players to balance the loss of income this season. It's fairly obvious that those who are sold will be the better players as this makes more money. We have £37m(?) from sales so far and I think we would try for one or two more, maybe Pereyra, and Delefeou as they have openly stated a desire to leave. I think that would be it but could be wrong. I suspect every member of the squad is available but that doesn't mean they are all leaving

 

We have players we need to sell but the issue is that a number of our "valuable" players have been utterly ***** and so the offers coming in are presumably not what was expected / hoped.

The fact they have been tellling all and sundry they want to leave also significantly weakens our negotiating position.

 

It's looking more and more like L**** plus 2 others to go up this season. 3 wins out of 3 so far.

 

Deulofeu, Pereyra, Welbeck, Capoue, Deeney will all clearly never play for this club again. That's about £40 mil in transfer fees (+ £40m for Doucoure and Pervis) and millions in saved wages. That is where the buck has to stop - Sarr and Suarez are still potentially huge assets at this level, there is absolutely no need to sell this summer. Give them a year to try and take us up, give Vlad something to work with. If we don't go up, that's £50 mil in transfer fees for next summer to plug the next gap when parachute money dries up. Whilst it's here we need to give ourselves some chance. Keeping these two, plus some clever loans and frees can be enough. Sell them and we've essentially given up.

 

I'm still not completely convinced Capoue or Welbeck will go. No point keeping Pereyra as he didn't want to be here last year. Sounds like there is interest in Delefeou which will be the main source of money coming in

 

Not doubting it, but what's the source for this?

Given that Ivic has been playing 5-3-2 so far this season, why have you broken down our options by the positions required for a 4-3-3?!

 

I think Welbeck might.

If fit he'd be amazing in this league, but can't see that no one will take a risk on him.

 

The club has to sell because we have to lower the wage bill.

In the Covid-19 climate this is particularly bad news because clubs are going to be looking to offer smaller contracts than usual, as income is reduced.

We don't know which players other clubs will ultimately pony up for, but the reality is that any sizeable, halfway-realistic bid is going to be accepted for all of our players because we have to take the money that's on offer as we cut our cloth accordingly.

It's all well and good saying "sell the dross/deadwood but keep the good ones", but practically speaking that's just not going to happen. The in-demand players will be the ones we most want to keep.

We will sell a few of Deeney, Pereyra, Capoue, Gray, Welbeck, etc. but inevitably we won't sell all of them. Those who are left will reinforce the squad and have to prove they can perform, because they'll have to if they want to secure a move away.

Incoming transfers have been limited because we can't buy until we know who we can sell. If we somehow beat the odds and sold every single one of the above players, that changes the picture significantly versus where we are with them still on the books.

The problem here is that the transfer window extends so far into the season; if the window had closed before we started we'd have started the season with a known, settled squad without the need to hedge against injuries in the face of needing to raise money.

As it is, the club has to be sensible and ensure that none of the players who might be sold get crocked. The club doesn't know who will ultimately move, so preventing the high wage players from getting injured is a short term financial necessity. There's no way we could survive the season with 0 gates, reduced TV money and a Premier League wage bill.

 

Even if nobody signs Webeck, I’m not sure we could afford to play him, given his rumoured appearance fees.

I can see West Brom etc making a late offer

 

Tbf when going for Deeney I think they're going after the wrong Watford striker, Welbeck has more about him these days than Deeney, and even though there'll always be injury doubts (though he did prove his fitness to some extent after lockdown), Deeney isn't exactly a picture of fitness these days

 

In that scenario, you'd have to assume both parties would look to renegotiate the contract. It wouldn't do Welbeck any good to rot in the reserves because the club can't afford to play him, and it wouldn't do the club any good either.