[SOLD] Cucho Hernandez

I’m sure he would be at the top if he wanted to stay. Unfortunately he didn’t want to. He’s been able to triple his wages by joining Columbus. I wish he would have stayed for the fight but he didn’t.

 

True, but does that mean Rob would not have considered using Cucho as non-homegrown second striker playing off a homegrown aggressive and physical target man who could lead the line? Vakoun Bayo is supposedly an aggressive and physical striker, but he is also non-homegrown and more than two years older than Cucho. Bayo failed at Celtic and his goal scoring record at Charleroi (7 goals in 15 appearances) is identical to Stipe Perica at Mouscron (7 goals in 15 games) in the season before he joined Watford.

 

You have to trust your own instincts in these matters. I’ve seen a lot saying Cucho wanted to go, but as far as I can see that’s just make believe. He probably wanted assurances that he was going to be a part of things, but that’s a world away from actively pushing for a move.

Nothing about Cucho tells me he’s a bad egg, a big ego or a problem player. I would say he’s probably the opposite.

He even did a leaving message to thank the club and fans. How many do that? I think this will turn out to be a huge mistake, and the club have undervalued him.

Had Edwards been allowed to work with him he’d have been impressed, I’m sure of it.

I think the reality of the situation is selling Cucho raises some money to pay for some of the club’s previous mistakes in the transfer market and helps reduce the debt the board has created.

 

It's just a lie full stop, isn't it? They wanted/desperately needed the cash, and he wanted the opportunity to go, surely.

 

It's probably somewhere in between.

They've obviously chosen to phrase it extremely favourably, neglecting to mention that the size of the fee was the main reason that they've sold him. Obviously, if Edwards was to write down his 1-11 of non-HG players to keep, Cucho would be on there.

But I'd imagine that when the club/Edwards were faced with a choice of £8-9m or keeping Cucho, in the knowledge that they need to sell plenty of non-HG players and very few will attract the size of fee, Edwards has decided that Cucho doesn't perfectly fit the way he wants to set up and would rather bank the money to spend elsewhere.

It also seems like the club have let slip that, until Edwards pointed out what a daft idea it is, they would've been happy to have non-HG players who can't get in the squad moping around.

 

We got relegated, we need the money and £10m is a lot for a player that is ok but not much more. The fact he wanted the opportunity to go just made it work for both parties. I would much rather he stayed but I don't buy in to the "he would tear the Championship apart" theory

 

Of all the players to lay that against, Cucho waited patiently for his chances all of last season. But now he has to clear off because Giaretta issues some gibberish statement? I know whose side I am on in this one.

 

Sorry, not sure if there are crossed wires - I'm saying the lie is the moonman nonsense about the club not being able to guarantee him enough game time.

 

My fault, misunderstood.

 

Lessons learned. It'll be different this year... or next... maybe the one after.

 

Poor decision by the club imo

 

Please say this isn't true! If it is there really are some mental people out there. I would rather they didn't bother communicating than coming out with this nonsense.

 

People will believe what they want to believe. It's this sort of thing that makes our fans buy into so much of Duxbury's nonsense.

 

But we are turning to youth (supposedly) - unless a player is a wonderkid, any youngster is going to be ‘okay’ and then develop.

Cucho has a bright future - and we are claiming we want to build a settled, young, athletic squad - Cucho ticks all the boxes and we’ve been happy to let him walk.

People can eulogise about the deal all they want - and I understand the point there. But it’s not a good deal. It’s for a good amount but the signals it sends out are concerning in the extreme to me.

And this 11-man HG excuse for selling is clearly a red herring - and it’s not surprise to see the usual suspects on social media lapping it up.

Claims of a culture change have got off to a bad start with todays bits of news.

 

I don't know why they just didn't come out and say he didn't want to play for us in the Championship and we thought the price was good. It's not as though that hasn't happened before with Estupinan and Suarez.

Giving this weird 'the rules mean we have to reduce the number of non home grown players so we had to let Cucho go' on the same afternoon we've got a Mogi Bayat non home grown special arriving is quite clearly nonsense. And even more amazing that some people think it makes sense and are praising Giaretta for saying it!

 

Its either utter negligence or dishonesty.

Knowing it has come from the pozzos it is probably a potent blend of the two.

 

I think that the reasons for Cucho leaving may be more complicated and have not been fully revealed. His farewell message does not give the impression of someone who was desperate to leave. He was - in my opinion - one of our two most talented young players and surely would have played regularly in the Championship if he had stayed. Cucho is energetic, robust and he has a great deal of skill with the ability to do the unexpected. He had the best goals to minutes ratio of any Watford player in the Premier League this season. Cucho scored a lot of goals in the Second Division in Spain, although that does guarantee that he would have had the same degree of success in the Championship. Was Edwards in a position to make a judgement about Cucho before he had actually worked with him? Perhaps the club need the money and maybe there is some concern that Cucho appears to be somewhat injury prone, but I do find Giaretta's explanation to be nonsensical.

 

I like my bullsh1t up front so I can get a good old whiff of it

 

Shame , I think he had talent but don’t really blame him, toxic environment , better wages etc

 

I have to say the fact we seem to have replaced him with a non HG player is very odd

 

The fact that a lot of our fans are lapping up the fact that we've sold one of our best young players - a player who most agree would have been very, very good at this level - and wrapped it up as "Edwards wanted a different profile of player" (Edwards, who has almost certainly never so much as met Cucho never mind have been able to assess him as a footballer and his potential suitability in his system) and "we have too many foreign players", whilst instantly replacing him with yet another Bayat client who's also foreign, is probably the least surprising thing of all time and perfect summary of our fan base.

Brain dead, clapping seals.

 

We're going to need a bigger clear out than we thought if Edwards only wants 11 non-homegrown players. Good news.

 

A good strategy, so when he is sacked in late September the new manager Juroslav Blokeski (who famously played 4 games for Bayer Leverkusen in 1998/9 and recently finished 3rd in the Thai second division after multiple spells as youth and assistant manager for countries not recognised by the UN) can work out how to get Sema provide assists to one of Geijo, Fletcher, and Victor Anichebe

 

I highly doubt it, no idea if that will include U21 non-homegrown players either. I'd imagine we can move ones like Samir and Masina to Udinese. Mogi might actually come in handy trying to shift the likes of Kalu and Kayembe. Although he's more likely to move Louza for a bigger payday and leave us with Kayembe.

 

Bayo scored 11 goals in 14 starts at Charleroi...

He is definitely a better player than Perica.

 

I've got a source who says Edwards was very firm that he wanted Cucho out the door to make way for a player he's much admired for a long time to come in from Belgium.

Absolutely certain this is the truth.

 

It's called opinions, you might not agree with it but that's all it is. It doesn't make them anymore right or wrong than you

 

Is this meant to be a bad thing? Those strikers are glorious

 

I’ve been told by my source that Edwards is only interested in signing players from specific agents to promote team harmony.

 

Er, yeah, all opinions aren't automatically equal. Some are really, really stupid and illogical. Evidenced very frequently by Watford fans.

 

I took the information from Andrew French's article in the Watford Observer.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/20224776.ivory-coast-ex-celtic-striker-agrees-join-watford/

However, the German version of Wikipedia does show that he scored 11 goals in 16 games for Sporting Charleroi. How do you know that he is definitely a better player than Perica? He may be better than Perica, but does that mean that he will be a success at Watford? I shall reserve judgement about him until I see him play for Watford, but his past career is not particularly encouraging and I suspect that Cucho is a more talented player if a different type of striker. I noticed that Medhi Bayat (Mogi's brother) is the Managing Director of Charleroi. Watford's close involvement with the Bayat family does concern me.