What happened to standing by the club values. This is ****ing outrageous!! What happened to making us self sustainable? This is bad bad bad news!! I can understand they want to invest in taking us to the Premier League but i'd rather be self sustainable in the Championship than reliant on foreign loanees in that god awful league that HAS destroyed English football.
Bringing our own youth locally into our local footy club is (sorry was) a huge part of this club ,would rather develop our own to work alongside the pozzo scouting network , NOT be replaced by them , very unhappy at this , the club needs to explain this move in detail, keep our identity B*******.
The Pozzo's original statement: "Nothing will change in this respect. The Academy is close to the heartbeat of the club and this will continue to be very important to Watford’s future progress" Now 1 month later its become suddenly very unimportant
Unless the plan is to drop to Cat 3 and if/when we are promoted, we then change to a Cat 1. I don't know if that is something that could happen, would we write a letter?
Nobody could come in and pinch our youth players if we were cat 3. We'd get them to sign for udinese and come back on youth loans.
did liam henderson come through the wfc academy? u lot r making too much fuss - it's not being closed down! yet? i heard thery wanted to run a railway line through it anyway, to make it quicker to get to Newcastle or such like cold place. up da fulham academy!
I believe the plan is to use the Udinese system to totally circumvent the EPPP regulations altogether, so don't get too worried. Even so, I was under the impression we were going for Catergory 2...
Pair this with the statement that Duxbury put out earlier in the month about the massive debts and I think we have our answer.
MUCH less funding from the governing bodies and clubs in the PL can poach our players for even less than if we were a cat 1 or 2. How have we dropped to cat. 3? I'm in shock here.
This does seem like a very stange decision? Im sure our team of 16 year olds last night were playing people of the age 21+, and although only semi-pro, are a lot more experienced players. Whereas in the U 21 League for Level 1, our young players from last night would have been playing other kids the same age as themselves, which means I doubt they'd be stuffed every week. As for our team against Palace, surely it's not going to be terrible. I cant see why Yeates or Garner would start when we've got Murray and Anja to play. Plus Pudil, he's back? I would also replace Doyley with Hodson, with those changes we don't look that bad do we? If Yeates and/or Garner start, I just wont understand it 1 bit.
It's this statement that concerns me: The Pozzo family stated, upon taking control at Vicarage Road, that it intends to continue the Academy values and traditions of producing talented, home-grown players. “Nothing will divert us from this focus, but as a business we are choosing to pursue those goals within sensible investment parameters,” said Hornets’ Technical Director Gian Luca Nani." Suggests a cut in funding for the academy....?
i think the Pozzo`s did not do there home work when buying the club, i think they have spent to much money
What, he was softening us up for this? Balls. They will not have any significant debts that they didn't know about when they went in to ithe deal. This is a deliberate u-turn on what they have 'promised'. I await a credible explanation with incredulity.
Say we have a 15 year old wonderkid and Man City want him but Pozzo fella knows this and wants to keep him. Could he not transfer him to Granada/Udinese free transfer but keep loaning him back to Watford each year (or on work experience terms if he's too young) until we can offer a pro contract?
Exactly what I stated earlier. Nobody will be able to pinch anybody. It's not as if they come pick them up in a Taxi and are off with them. They will bid and it'll take time, in which we sell them to Udinese and get a youth loan back.
Like others, I'm shocked and disappointed at this. But apart from the cash outlay, is there any benefit to bring cat 3 rather than cat 2? I mean, are you outside of the EPPP a little?
Sorry Simms, I must have missed you posted that. But I don't see why the Pozzo's wouldn't have this covered.
I think this sounds far worse than it is. Firstly we have to guarantee £2.5 million to fund the Academy every year which isn't probably feasible at the moment as it appears the new regime have been left with a mountain of debt. Secondly we would have to keep all our youngsters to fulfil this U-21 League's fixtures rather than send them out on loan to gain match experience at first team level. It doesn't mean that we can't reapply for category one status at a later date.
We can't transfer players without their consent! And if their head has been turned by Mr Cash from faceless EPL FC, they aren't likely to agree.
:sign15::sign15::sign15::sign15::sign15: you are so right and with Zola coming out and saying that is it no more players in
There may well be sound reasons. Unfortunately other than referring to the cost in a very general way the rest of the statement does nothing to address them.
But we could do it before he becomes scouted if we thought he was going to be an asset. Or if they have some affinity for the club they could still do it for our benefit as the prem club may be willing to pay as much as before this category system anyway. Who knows?
If they were doing it for affinity with the club they could just stay put anyway. And we would have to sign anybody promising to Udinese/Granada before they were spotted - again, why would a young player or his parents agree to this? Might as well sign everybody to Udinese and be done with it.
And there will be sunshine, lollipops and rainbows for all! Mark my words, if we try to circumvent the rules we'll be accommodated for a season and then the other clubs will close the loophole. It's happened before with other clubs and it will happen again. They're not going to like us borrowing all of our key players from Udinese/Granada. Same if we start trying to avoid the academy system by registering our players abroad.