Our current squad would struggle with a lack of goals and couldn’t rely on our watertight defence at a higher level. We could possibly squeak 17th but could easily go down. Fortunately we are allowed to sign new/better players before we have to play next season.
Definitely 20th, although Norwich went up on roughly the same amount of points as this season, didn’t strengthen, got 21 points, went down, didn’t really lose many players, went up and we still beat them twice. So by means of some very rudimentary extrapolation our team would probably be good for at least 20 points in the PL as it stands, so realistically we need to find the players to get us another 17+ points.
Interestingly people compare Tevez & Cucho quite a bit, the former wasn't that prolific in his younger days either. If Cucho can have a Tevez type trajectory I for one will be delighted.
It would be more fair to say ‘we could’ rather than ‘we can’. Sarr is without doubt our most dangerous forward player, to lose him and gamble on a cheaper replacement being as good would be risky indeed.
I’ll just do the first team for now. GK - Would love someone better but not a priority. LB - First team player desperately needed. Preferably good enough to make Masina a cameo next season. Young, fine but not sure he’s the answer. RB - Someone to challenge Femenia would be good. A more defensive option. CB - Sierralta has had one of the best seasons at Watford I’ve ever seen a center back have. Is he prem quality? Probably and obviously worth the risk. Like the idea mentioned earlier if someone with more experience alongside him. CM - Yes we’ll need one more. Preferably better than what we’ve got. Might just get away with another midfielder at Chabs or Hughes level. Striker - This has been done to death. Will be almost impossible to find but essential. If not 2. Wing - Maybe controversially but between Pedro, Zinc, maybe Cucho, Sarr and Sema, could be enough to get us through. Only if we really do invest in a successful striker.
Last time we were promoted, there were eight signings that had regular places in the first team - Nyom, Britos, Prodl, Jurado, Behrami, Ake (loan), Holebas and Capoue. A few regulars from the promotion team did not get a sniff and were loaned out, like Vydra, Angella and Pudil. Others like Tozser and Munari left altogether. Last time it was a significant churn, as the new money roared in. This time i expect there will be just tweaks. It’s the strikers that will need the greatest bit of work to upgrade within our limited budget..
The thing is you’ve got the Premier league money, which is a bit of a myth as to keep getting it you need to spend it, but then you’ve also got Gino’s player trading model which in reality requires us to be a PL club for it to be able to work. So although I think we won’t be going mad spending money, Gino will want to keep us up compared to the alternative of doing a Norwich and just pocketing the cash and seeing what happens/being relegated. Without PL status there is no shop window to maximise profits on players that do come good.
News from The Athletic. Munoz is staying as first team coach. Here's a run down on what they are saying will happen. GK Bachmann will continue to be number one. Foster will stay for one more season. Rob Elliot will be given an extended contract and Dahlberg will be sent out on loan and will return at the end of next season when Foster retires/leaves. Defense No plans to add the the CB. RB will remain also. Lazaar will leave however and Ashley Young is likely to be brought in. Midfield Sanchez will not be retained. Hughes and Chalobah will be offered new contracts and its likely at least one more midfielder will be signed to add to the competition. Forwards Big hope that Sarr will stay but there is strong interest in him. Watford hold all the cards, so it's thought he will stay for another season. It's hoped Cucho will be joining but it may be the end of the road for Success and Perica. Talk of Vydra coming back and he's in the final year of his contract at Burnley. Geri and Bobby P will not be coming back, but we may sign De Paul from Udinese. Jayden Braaf, who is on loan from Man City with an option to buy at Udinese is also considered to be an option for Watford next season.
Leventhal was suggesting that if no club stumps up the required offer, he could join us “to showcase his talents” for a season. Would make sense in some ways but I suspect a UCL club will be willing to meet the £50m asking price. He’s that good.
De Paul and Sarr plus Vydra and Cucho would be very good. Obviously defensively we need to add as well.
We need to add quality rather than numbers in the window I'd say. Squad is strong at Champ level, but needs more guile and skill on the ball. Would rather like to see more of Pedro playing deeper behind another no. 9. He has the skills if it ever fits the formation. We definitely need to upgrade Sema whether with pace or skill. Perhaps they will try Pedro or Zinc to do so. Zinc might be better suited to the Prem than the Champ once he's settled in fully.
Leventhal, as much as I like him, clearly has very little actual information so I wouldn't take this article as gospel.
I'd be ecstatic with this. The tease of hearing De Paul and Braaf being mentioned is effin unbearable.
The only problem is that it’s likely to be much, much worse than Levanthal’s musings. This is a man who is paid to get or keep subscribers happy. If they do all Levanthal suggests they are considering and wake up the fact that we’ll need a quality CB. Then it won’t have been a bad window imo.
The Pozzo group need to keep us in the Prem, if achieving that requires getting De Paul for a season, we will get De Paul for a season.
Interesting you mention him. Was thinking that he provided more goal threat than our current midfield!
Doesn't a metric of "prevented goals per 90" essentially just favour keepers who sit behind fairly porous back lines? If you're not facing many shots your score there is going to be lower by because the opposition has fewer opportunities to score so you have fewer opportunities to save a goalbound shot. By way of contrast, if you're a good keeper behind a leakier back line you'll have more opportunities to save a goalbound shot every 90 minutes.
How depressing. Gray and Deeney will expect to start. No central defensive reinforcements unless it’s an experienced back-up or a young player we can fail develop. Not a chance we end up De Paul. Down we go.
Braaf has only ever played 115 minutes of first team football. It's reassuring that the Athletic piece claims we're looking to bring in a new left-winger, but I'd be surprised if this guy would join us and make the required impact.
I don’t think so because, as I understand it, it compares each keeper’s performance against some modelled ‘average keeper.’ In that sense prevented goals per 90 is a bit of a misnomer, really it’s prevented goals above/below the average keeper per 90. I suppose that still gives keepers behind the most porous defences the chance to excel in the metric, but they could equally perform much worse in the metric as a result.
