Another new alias? Can you just list all your other aliases so I can confirm they are all on my ignore list, and let me know your new ones in advance, so I can ignore those too. Thanks
Some of our squads from the past must shake their head when they watch us, we used to be the bully boys of the league , I remember we used to boss the field , can you imagine what Doyley would say to Sarr ,Dennis and the other lightweights in our squad
The miss from Louza is even worse than I remember - absolutely terrible. Glad he’s a free kick specialist to make up for it though.
The way I see it, as Eiré said is that we have too many confidence players but also a few players in the XI who actually don't care. Less than I think most would think but still. The few players I genuinely don't think care about how we as a club in the regular XI are Foster, Sissoko and Sarr. Foster has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of sincerity or awareness of the situation we are in. Combine that with his sideshow YouTube channel and although it's much of a muchness I would much rather have Bachmann in goal as he doesn't at least look distracted on the pitch. Foster regularly mis hits simple punts up field and has become intolerable in recent weeks, let alone that Wolves gaff. In a few years time he'll be welcome as a Watford guest but he won't be remembered in the same light as, say, Gomes was today or even Cleverley. Sissoko is a case for me where a player drops down a club level and thinks they're better than the rest. We saw it Pereyra and we're seeing it again. With Capoue, he did at least earn the right to that (Look at his European escapades recently for vindication if nothing else!) while Sissoko since Xisco left noticeably dropped a gear and never recovered. He'll be one of the first players looking to leave when we go down as probably already has his agent looking for a way out. He'll occasionally carry the ball well but then just goes missing without doing much off the ball which contrasts to earlier in the Season where he would at least put himself about to force errors. Sarr looks mentally checked out. I don't hold it against him that the quality of team mates are not the same as Senegal and it's natural his performances to an extent would suffer. I do however hold against him the unwilligness to even look interested and routinely poor decision making which has not developed at all whilst with us unlike Deulofeu who showed a relatively linear progression in both work rate and decision making until he left. He has the most weight to pull but routinely shirks it instead. When he inevitably moves to a Liverpool type club it will be "Why couldn't he do that with us?" as he terrorises the defence as we know he can. Then there are players who I think care for their own Career's but not necessarily Watford's. Those would be Dennis, King, Louza and Bachmann. Dennis is a mercurial talent. This has been something repeatedly demonstrated throughout his career, but when he sincerely wants it he is a force to be reckoned with. I think he does care somewhat about Watford (It appears to be one of the few clubs to get a genuine tune out of him) but he also knows that his own stock depends on us doing well to then get a better move elsewhere. Fair enough, we knew what we were signing on that front and most games he does at least try and force the issue even if in more recent games he struggled and was dropped for Cucho. I don't have hard feelings if he left as he did at least put a shift in. King I don't think is invested in Watford's future but he would be hoping to do enough to earn a move back in the Premier League should we go down. Unfortunately for him, he hasn't done that enough. Although I don't put it down to a lack of effort he has struggled to influence games enough as a striker and I don't see clubs going up or already established who think he's worth taking a punt on. Whether he will stick around in the Championship or not remains to be seen. Could go either way and in fairness I think he'd be a top end Championship striker. Louza I think does somewhat care about Watford's future but if push came to shove, if he could avoid playing in the Championship he'd take the option. He's the only CM of potential PL quality who is at least doing everything he can. If we had one or two more Louza's we'd be comfortably a lower PL club now and be laughing as Everton and Burnley went down the plughole. I don't think he's done enough for clubs to take a punt on him and instead I'd do all I can to keep him and build around him as one of our lynchpins. Bachmann has always been vocal about wanting to play. Doesn't matter if it's with us or elsewhere but he wants to play as for a keeper his age he has remarkably few games under his belt and it shows in certain situations, especially in the air. That being said, I don't think you could ever level at him that he doesn't care unlike Foster. He strikes me as a driven player who would right now be rightfully be asking why he isn't playing given Foster's inept recent performances. We have nothing to lose now and will at least try to save a shot occasionally so I say let him play. I think he'd stay if we went down if he was guaranteed the starting spot but with Okoye coming in he'll force a move. So, who then do I think does care about the club who's featured regularly? Cathcart, Samir, WTE, Kabasele, Kamara, Cleverley, Kucka, Pedro and Cucho all give the impression they are fully commited to this relegation battle and are doing all they can to keep us up. Obviously while quality is a different issue here for some in this list but you can't question the application from these players nor their willigness to try and fight for the ball at every oppurtunity that we aren't seeing from others in the squad. Ngakia, Masina, Sierralta and Kayembe always seem ready to fight while Kalu remains to be properly seen. Femenia is a classic confidence player and unfortunately just doesn't seem to have the heart for a full blooded scrap even though I think he does want Watford to do well. Etebo has indicated in the past he wants to stay at Watford, so assuming that's meant in either division I'd sign him for the £1.5m outlay. Based on who we have on the books, this would be my squad next Season for those who would want to stay and are good for the dressing room: GK: Okoye <New GK> Elliot RB: Ngakia Femenia LB: Kamara Masina CB: Cathcart WTE Samir Sierralta <New CB> CM: Louza Etebo (If he wants to stay) Cleverley Dele-Bashiru Kucka (A surprising choice but you can't question his drive nor motivation and a player who can scrap. Strikes me as a player who just wants to play and will happily accept a drop down a division if given reasonable minutes. Also good role model for younger players with his longevity and commitment to tackles) <New CM> ST: Pedro Cucho Dennis (If he wants to stay) King (If he wants to stay) Zinckernagel Kalu Hungbo Baah
Yes trouble is the players who probably care more are either old or not up to it at this level like you suggest. Whilst the other more talented players aren't consistent or seem to play for themselves and not the team at times. Although like you say Dennis has at least got some goals. Sure a few agents will be busy this summer. I think Sissoko is a good player but not a captain - but who else is there? Will Kiko for example fancy another season in the Championship this time? I can see a Samir going back to to Undiese tbh with WTE and Sierralta going. if they aren't going to get games. As for those coming back from loan moves - well we've had 3 managers since they left so probably come down to what Pozzo and Duxbury decide to do with them. The next manager will have as much say as we do in the squad selection! BTW Don't know what Tommy Mooney has said but it rattled their supporters before the game and now he looks a bit silly apparently.
I wouldn't even go as far as good overall. OK I will accept, but has been an ever increasing passenger as things got tougher. Certainly a confidence player but unlike Kiko he doesn't even attempt to get involved when we're against it. A fair question. There was interest when we went down last time and 2 years have passed. Samir, unlikey but possible. Less likely due to Pussetto already being under that arrangement and we need to make sure we finance ourselves accordingly. WTE and Sierralta I think will both stay. Sierralta missed the Pre-Season with injury, then got injured again for Chile and never recovered. After that the new managers will only play those match fit and with games in the bank so was always going to be a bad season for him. WTE isn't a bad defender and just, if not more importantly, is a good character who in the Championship at least is a strong asset. If anything, Kabasele is the most likely to me to leave as I also believe he's one of the more wage heavy players on the books. Duxberry and Gino will only be too happy if the new head coach wants to use existing assets than recruit new ones. If he said I can get promoted with Zinckernagel, Quina, Dahlberg, TDB, Asprilla and Hungbo they'd be more than happy to acquiesce and additonally means increasing the value of existing assets to put it in a colder light.
I guess as usual it’s a case of the unknown and unpredictable with us ! No one can say for certain who definitely will be here .. WTE and Sierralta will certainly hope for more games which won’t be guaranteed till the new manager comes in As you say they did a good job in the Championship before . Sissoko’s wages will be high and I agree we could have got more out of him - particularly with passing and shooting !
Second game in succession that I've checked the score on my phone during my break and just laughed. Not angry or upset, but just amused by the predictable sh1tness of it all. Maybe it just seems a more hopeless state the club is in than ever before because it's now, but I can't ever recall feeling such apathy towards the whole shambles that is current day Watford - and I sat through the Bassett days as an impressionable young lad. I never thought I'd be glad that working unconventional hours would be a blessing in disguise in taking the decision not to go to the football out of my hands.
Okoye is not good on crosses and is slow off his line. No change from Bachmann really. Looking at the rest it makes you realise just how awful we are, truly dreadful. Louza always had the talent. He had respect in France. He will go to a European club if the chance comes along. Zinc and Kiko will be off if possible The rest of the squad? I can't see any other English club coming in for them. Who would want them? A league one or two club perhaps? It is a very limited squad and getting out of the Championship will be a tough ask. Sorry, but that is a s**t squad
@PowerJugs Did you use Cleverley and Gomes name in the same sentence? Cleverley is not a Watford legend by any stretch, he’s a good honest pro I’m sure. He’s not got the personality Gomes has and you could probably count on one hand the amount of 9/10 performances he’s had for us. Foster has done more this club than him, it’s the YouTube channel and old age that’s done for Foster but he’s had a few outstanding seasons for us.
King has been regressing since 2019, that’s how Gino came to find him in the bargain bin at a Bmuff petrol station along with an Oly Muirs CD….
King and WTE likely will stay as they help with the ‘home grown’ quota having been at United and Spurs respectively in their youth. And of course, we have very few home grown players of our own….
I had accepted relegation a while back due to the lack of effort shown by the ‘team’. 30 minutes of the second half gave me a tiny bit of hope but as soon as we missed 2 easy chances in the 93rd minute it was inevitable what was going to happen. Few (several) thoughts. Foster should’ve come for the first. He’s been bad for ages but Bachman is worse, give Elliot or Angelini a go Femenia was alright before bottling it, Kabasele was surprisingly ok, Samir is worse with the ball than Doyley and Kamara cares and tries but had his weakest game for us since he joined. Louza comes to the defence and tries to play it short which we haven’t had for donkeys, thought he played ok overall but the chance he missed was obviously shocking. Sissoko and Kucka are basically the same player, run around a lot and do the odd bit but offer nothing going forward, thought Kucka has proved himself at the very least capable of something last couple of games, Sissoko done sod all. Sarrs utterly useless and just seems scared of doing anything, anytime, yes he deserves credit for staying with us when we were relegated but he’s been despicable this season. Dennis thinks he’s Messi and Pedro, despite trying, offers nothing as a striker. I don’t fault the effort as they all do try (in my eyes at least) but there is no team there. No cohesion. We’ve been battered by recruitment over the last few years but I’ve just lost the love for the team I fell for 20+ years ago. Don’t care where we end up, just give me Watford back.
The fact that Kucka was one of the better performers in the last few games, says it all.(don't mean to dissrespect Kucka, but he's old and slow with poor stamina and has been pretty poor for most of the season). Haven't watched the first half, but in the second half we just didn't create enough chances and I think that Hodgson has to take a lot of blame for that. Yes, King and Louza had those two chances in quick succesion, but that was it apart from the goal. We can't create 2 chances throught the whole second half and expect to score from both of those chances. Our finishing isn't good enough for that, and our morale is very low at the moment. The team looked very disjointed as well, some players could have put a lot more effort too and our defence made schoolboy errors yet again. This season is much worse than the last relegation season, where it always looked like we could still somehow stay up,which now isn't the case.
I'm hearing that our lot made a real game of it for 30 minutes of that 2nd half. After all the criticism this season I think some if our fans need to take a step back, hold their hands up and acknowledge that our brave players bothered to show up for nearly a full third of a home game against a team we absolutely needed to beat. True grit.
The rest of the Premiership were hoping we'd play a part in helping get Everton relegated. That ain't happening now.
Hodgson is just ghastly. There can be no defending him. He’s now had 12 games and yet his team are still making awful errors at the back, such as we saw yesterday. He continues to talk as if he has no say or input on our performances, so in that case why are we paying him? Yesterday’s post match interview was another good example. He praised himself for all the work he’d done in getting us ready for the match, then admitted our first half showing was below par. Well guess what mate, the blame for that must lie with you! But you wouldn’t think so, to listen to him talking about our match as if he was a match summariser on a tv channel rather than the man responsible for it. We all knew our attacking intentions would suffer under him, and that’s indeed been the case as we’ve failed to score three times in a match under him and only scored twice on two occasions, but for somebody renowned for at least making his team’s defend better, he has been an unmitigated failure. The worst Pozzo appointment in a long running series of absolutely ghastly head coaches. Clearly the players don’t like or rate him either. Diego M can’t arrive soon enough. Happy Easter to you all!
Hello Scott and Gino Is there a remote chance that you could see fit to replying to one of my half a dozen emails please? If not I'll prepare the large garden gnome. Yours in a white wine sauce with shallots, green beans and potatoes Bassett.
Think I have seen why Mooney upset the Brentford fans. Maybe he should be more worried and angry about the state of the he works for than if a team celebrates a late winner at home as any side would . https://mobile.twitter.com/bfcgpg/s...ads/watford-a-last-laugh-fiesta.137098/page-2
Had to let the dust settle a bit before writing about this game. The way it ended was totally in keeping with this season. Glorious chance to win it in the final minute, followed by losing it with the last kick. We've done that twice to Brentford and also Spurs at home. That's 3 points, (or an extra win), just from being professional and seeing the match out. You could argue yesterday should have been a win, and would have been had Louza taken a simple chance. How he's missed an open goal. What a difference that would have to made. Watford turning defeat into victory. The Vic would have been rocking and everyone goes home with a little bit of belief. But not a bit of it, The team want to give the fans another kick in the teeth. But we'll have the last laugh on them when they take their 50% pay cut next year. Has Hodgson done enough? No.......I think it's clear now, he's sadly had very little impact. But we don't look a total shambles, which we did under Ranieri, so maybe he has improved us a little, but certainly not by the degree we needed. I don't see the point in keeping him now, and only respect will keep him in his job. I think SD will be loathed to sack yet another manager. There's going to be very little gained by it, unless the hierarchy still believe we can get out of it with a new manager. If they think that, then Roy has to go today. If they've accepted their fate, they'll keep him and shake his and Ray's hand at the end of the season and they will leave with heads held high. The farcical manner in which the supporters committee was handled, is a big indicator to the poor the judgement of those at the top. Far too many obvious mistakes are being made and it's really hurting the club now. It could be time for SD to go. Only Gino can do that though and I'm sure he's not too bothered about supporter committee's or management churn. If he sees SD as keeping the bank balance in-check, that's all he'll care about. This season can't end soon enough. I'm done with it now. 10 home defeats on a spin is about my limit. Sitting next to gloating away fans, and each time they have the last laugh on us, is too much to take really. Did Duxbury really not know the Family Stand is right next to the away fans? Seriously.......apparently so as that's what came out of the committee meeting. It was news to him that families run the gauntlet after every match mixing with the away fans. That's unreal he wasn't aware of that. There have been a couple of good moments this season though. That opening day win. Destroying United and winning at Everton for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and win at Southampton, but there's very little else, in terms of moments, to take away from this season. But one thing that shines out to me are the fans. Even after 10 home defeats, they are still trying to support the team. There are no demonstrations over the owner or board. This is to our credit. Fans of most clubs would have turned by now, so this shows me what a good environment being at Watford is. Our tolerance levels are extremely high, and this is a strength which is often much maligned.
Agree with the goalkeeper position. Foster seems to be coasting to retirement now and is now at a level just marginally better than Bachmann - who overrates himself wildly - which says all we need to know. Foster's now nailed to his line for crosses just like Bachmann is permanently. Both have run their Watford races. I'd test Elliott and Angelini from here and trust that Okoye has now got over his wonky patch in Holland and can be our number 1 next season. I expect to hear Foster will be on his Fozcast with 'Rhinolegs' (what sort of world do we f'ing live in?) joking about how he was amazed collecting his state pension for the last season early courtesy of Gino. "Hmm, look at my salary slip from WFC, better than a Premier Inn brecko Bazzler!". Spare us please. We need a more complete overhaul at centre back, Cathcart and WTE cannot be anywhere near the team, age and inability in their respective cases. We desperately need a strong leader, with a physical presence to organise us. Neither fit the bill. Pontus Jansson, limited as he is, is the sort of template centre back required. The lack of clean sheets this season if we make do and mend could spill into a Championship season and derail us by October. Along with Kaba or Samir (I know, but if paired with a new decent, experienced player I think he has the raw material to cut out the silly errors) we must raid a fellow Championship club or the Scottish league to get a youngish CB. Right back worries me. Kiko (just still) plus one new one for me. Ship Ngakia out on loan. He simply looks nervous and prone to bad decision-making, getting worse if anything. Cost us a goal at Newcastle and rightly hasn't been seen since. There's possibly a decent player in him but until he has been tested hard elsewhere he'll never make it. Midfield then. Like most I instinctively like the 'idea' of Louza, he could turn into our version of Buendia, if handled well. I do think there's more to come from him but he needs to produce. Cleverley? Sadly not for me now. He's not ageing well and I'd prefer to use Kucka, like you PJ, but subbed when his legs give up! Etebo, if signed, would be a strong option (when fit). Up front I generally agree - Sarr has departed mentally, Dennis too post AFCON decision (although if no takers I'd happily have him as long as he really wants to stay which is doubtful) - Hungbo's Scottish loan could have been a good decision, he's seems up for the challenge. Kalu and Baah again appear to have potential to succeed. Zinckernagel, blows hot and cold, not sure. Ashley Fletcher = no. And the enigma that is Josh King. Next season if he stays either 15 goals or 1 goal. Tough one to answer. Not sure whether he'll be motivated or not. Will Pedro be motivated? Again not sure, we need to refresh him over the summer - build around him - and really persist with him and Cucho. Our Colombian could be the key next season, he seems like he would be up for a midweek Papa Johns Trophy game away at Scunthorpe if asked. Thankfully he won't be.
Brentford are hardly full of superstars, although Eriksen is excellent and Henry was impressive, but they are well coached and have a clear style of play. Frank has even managed to change their style from the Championship and they are certainly more streetwise than us in terms of game management. Their recruitment set up is better than ours and they are proof that giving a coach a few years in the job can pay off. Should we be trying to emulate Brentford? I don't know but I'm just off to throw up.
