Ismaila Sarr

I’d love to see the fallout from us selling him without getting a replacement. No doubt the regime fan’s position would be ‘what a deal’ whilst we end up finishing 14th.

 

2m sale would have been about his value.

 

Almost surprised Gino didn't accept the offer, given the heady mix of it being reported that the hierarchy is dead set on/financially desperately in need of promotion whilst continuously making transfer decisions that do the opposite of helping increase the chances of it happening, and it being the only possible way on earth the 'matter of personal pride' making a profit on Sarr represents to Gino the genius could actually have been successfully snatched from the gaping maw of defeat.

 

I'm not going to knock the club for rejecting it. But I just don't see Sarr being the difference maker he can be for us either nowadays that they think he is.

 

I hope Sarr gets annoyed that we rejected the bid and puts in even less effort. If that's possible.

 

Also surprised we turned it down. A potential £36m is insane for an average player with 18 months left.

Everton will probably undeservedly scrape survival like they did last year too. Maybe we’d have done it 48h earlier when there was time to get a replacement.

 

That is an amazing offer - amazed we turned that down.

 

I smell a rat, absolutely no way any club end up paying effectively £34m for Sarr with a year left on his deal, not even Everton.

Wouldn’t surprise me if that story wasn’t at least partially made up to appease the window licker section of our fanbase.

Mind you, for as long as Dyche is manager there I doubt the £4m for appearances would’ve been in danger of paying out.

 

I have asked - loan enquiry is correct. But the figures quoted are wildly inaccurate. ( I don't know what they were though)

But it's a better source than Leventhal.

 

The only bigger basketcase on earth than us is Everton.

Desperation levels not seen since I was in Kudos circa1995.

 

I’ve got to be honest I’m not surprised we didn’t accept that.

For all that he is maligned by the fan base the powers that be clearly consider him a key player in our fight to get promoted. Although the AL fees might not be correct, any deal that was heavily weighted to Everton surviving would not have been in our interest.

 

You might be right, but he’ll never be a key player if he continues to ‘perform’ in the way he did at Middlesbrough.

 

Thank the Lord! The Beeb website tells me we DID get rid of Sarr:

“One player who moved between English clubs was Senegal winger Ismaila Sarr in switching to second-bottom Everton on loan from Championship side Watford. It is understood the offer included an obligation to buy the 24-year-old”.

Although it then contradicts itself in the next paragraph:

“Watford, who are pushing for promotion to the English top-flight, were only prepared to release Sarr, whose contract expires in 2024, if the offer was substantial”.

Where do they get these “journalists”?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/africa/64484715

 

This forum.

 

For the first time this season, Sarr has no reason to hold back. Avoiding injury for the Oil Cup was clearly a priority and you get the feeling he was of a similar mind in the lead up to the transfer window. Bilic, his agent, the rest of the management team and the players must now insist that he focuses on putting in the effort and performances that we need. He is clearly looking for a big move in the summer. He needs to show the bigger clubs that he is worth a punt and hopefully we get the benefit for the next 4 months. Wishful thinking, but you never know.

 

People like to complain that under-performing players are sulking or not putting in the effort for one reason or another, but I’m not convinced this is always the case. Sarr has rarely performed to his supposed potential while with us and none of our many managers has got him playing consistently well. I suspect this is down to what you might call a character flaw in that he lacks confidence in his own ability. This is the only reason I can think of to explain why he seldom uses his greatest asset, his speed, which has been the case over the whole of his Watford career. Perhaps he will suddenly blossom during the remainder of this season, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

There are numerous athletes in many sports who 'look good in practice/training '.
Yet they fail to deliver on the match court/pitch /track.
Players who have one good tournament,James Rodriguez springs to mind or choke at a vital time and then disappear,Ian Baker Finch and Guillermo Coria fit this category.

Perhaps Freddie's moment was home v Liverpool when everything clicked?

Whatever the answer is he needs to move in the summer.

 

Wingers are famed for being "inconsistent". That Liverpool game showed what he can do. The goal at Norwich that he created for goal-machine Bayo showed what he can do. That goal at WBA showed his skill/technique/quick-thinking. It's just so frustrating that these incidents are so few and far between. Bilic or someone else needs to get close to him and try to find out what really makes him tick and help him achieve his potential. He's clearly not ****. Maybe it's confidence ? Maybe he's still not 100% fit, or he's scared of repeating his recent injury if he switches the afterburners on given the hamstring carnage around him ? Either way, his current form isn't helping him or the club.

 

Sarr is good when Pedro plays.
Sarr is good when he has a decent fullback behind him.
Sarr is good when he has a consistent manager.

Sarr seems to have a lot of excuses peddled for him for reasons he can be excused for not performing. I'd expect a player who has cost the club £40m + could grab games by the scruff of the neck and not just perform when everything is to his liking.

 

I think the fact the Liverpool game was now three years, ago and it still gets talked about and recalled so easily is far more a demonstration of what he can’t do than what he can do.

 

No, it shows what he can do, but doesn't do.

 

When you can count every every good performance a player has had over the past four years on one hand, and recall them all in great detail then they really are the exception not the rule.

The fact we’re still taking about a one off game three years ago is hugely damning and quite frankly embarrassing.

 

...plus the other 2 games that were mentioned. Yes the Liverpool game appears the high water mark but as I say it shows what he CAN do, he just doesn't do it. It's not that the guy has potential but we have never seen him deliver on the pitch. The weird thing is that he just doesn't seem to try taking his man on. It's not that he goes for it, loses the ball a few times and then fades from a game. He just doesn't seem to even try to replicate those few magic moments in most games.

 

Sarr has been billed as this speedy, potent winger that is a real threat to the opposition and provides goals. My one real gripe with Sarr is he never takes a player on, he should be turning players inside out all game, playing on the shoulder, hugging the touch line. He doesn’t do any of this and when he receives the ball 9 times out of 10 he will play it backwards or take a dive. Martins has only played a couple of games and if and if you asked someone with no Watford knowledge who the 30 million pound player was I think the majority would say Martins. For a player of his apparatus calibre he should be by far the best player in the league by a clear mile. I doubt he makes the top 20

 

A stopped clock is right twice a day, having to repeatedly go back to one game three years ago very much proves the point he’s a dud and it’s just clutching at straws trying to cobble 4/5 games together where he played well, amongst a sea of 100+ where he hasn’t.

Time to give it up and move on.

 

Give up what ? I think you probably agree with what I've said, I think we're saying the same thing ? Has shown he can be brilliant on a few occasions, but 99% of the time doesn't even try to do what we know he can do, because we've seen him do it. If he tried each game to run at the FB and kept losing the ball, we could agree that perhaps those few moment were flukes and he is actually crap. But he almost never loses the ball because he never tries to beat his man. It is really bizarre. Must be a confidence thing, don't you think ?

 

Well you’re original point was we’ve seen what he can do, my point is when he does it so very rarely, he can’t really do it at all. Those good performances are so very rare, he’s clearly not capable of reproducing that consistently, which renders him fairly pointless.

 

Ok my last post in this little chat because we are going round in circles. We KNOW he CAN do it, because we have SEEN him do it. Yes he does it very very very rarely. But it's strange that he doesn't seem to even try to do it. It would make sense if each game he tried to take on the FB 5 times, lost it 5 times and faded from the game. But games come and go where he never even attempts to get past the FB. I can barely remember him ever losing the ball after taking a player on. That's what i don't understand. We know he has it in his locker but doesn't even try. As things stand I agree 100% with your last sentence, I just wish he'd try because when he does like recently at Norwich, one move can win a match.

 

He's gash. The evidence has been right in front of us for the last few years yet some people don't want to accept it. Lovely bloke I'm sure but he's got a completely undeserved reputation based on one good performance.

 

If he was a youth teamer who had never played before this season then more people would want him benched by now and consider him not yet up to the task based on most of his performances.

Somebody recently coined him as a "player of moments" and that is the best description of him I have heard. WBA this season was him in a nutshell - scored from the halfway line, missed a penalty and his overall performance was dreadful.

 

I have a load of QPR mates and I often think about the impact Tarabt had on them in the Championship. For me, it's not too much to expect similar impact from Sarr.

 

Can't believe there are people out there still pulling their puddings over that Liverpool game.

Astonishing.

 

There's years of it to come as we bumble around in Championship mediocrity.