Hamer gave probably the most assured Watford GK performance of the season despite letting one in so softly. Andrews did well and didn’t look uncomfortable despite being hung out to dry by Sarr on a number of occasions. Kamara, Sarr and Araujo were awful. This weak and feeble squad needs ripping to shreds.
Pollock does not have any pace. He will be exposed by any forward who just decides to put a jog on. His total lack of pace will hinder his career.
It was noticeable that with louza and choudhary playing deep with us playing on the break we looked decent enough, but from the first minute of the second half we went on the front foot with good forward possession (but did nothing)... Almost taking the P out of Cov, then they seemed to get angry and pumped up and took the game away from us. Basically our midfield can only play deep but get in a right mess if the game opens up.... (which games always do....)
We're in the realms of this debate now at the heart of our defence for next season... A plea, we might have managed to extricate the one in the goalkeeping gloves, let's not call for the return of the one that created the carnage that was Millwall at the Den as well.
Thank goodness we didn’t hang on. Would have been so frustrating to just miss the POs by 3 or 4 points at the end of the season.
Seemed to get on well with players like Vardy and Nugent when we had him so I’m guessing he’s a top class banter merchant. God awful ‘keeper though. I’ve seen the clip of Cov’s first goal and it sums Hamer up for me. The way he moves just looks wrong.
He was signed as a third choice keeper for us, and as long as that remains the case, he’s absolutely fine. Having him as backup would concern me, and no way should he be considered number one. That would be a real statement of decline if that was ever to happen.
Yesterday was a carbon copy of the Reading away match. We were 2-0 up and cruising, then we let in a cheap goal and totally collapsed. Riding our luck in the end to keep hold of a point. It's just bizarre that this type of thing happens to us so frequently. We can play good football. The first half performance was right up there with the best we've seen this season, albeit a small selection to choose from. The same thing happened against Birmingham at home. Playing some great stuff in the first half. 2-0 up and should have been a lot more, but then in the second half we collapse, only this time we ride our luck as Brum missed two clear cut opportunities within the first 7 minutes, which would have changed the game. Its a huge problem. We just do not have any leaders, not one. We don't have players who can manage a game. The key for me, is the midfield. That's the heartbeat of any team. If you control that area, then you dictate matches. This is where Watford got it so horribly wrong. Watford cannot compete when teams press us. We get flustered and lose the ball cheaply. Louza and Pedro are the only players, in the entire squad, who can play in tight areas and can be trusted not to lose the ball. This needs rectifying in the summer, if we're going to make any impact next season. I like Choudhury's battling qualities, but he's far too weak in possession. Bacuna is actually not too bad, but he's a limited player. He rarely does anything of note, good or bad. Kone needs developing and he will be a player, but right now, we cannot rely on him. All the others are just far too injury prone to bother with to be honest. Give me a younger Kucka type any day. That would really make an impact. So next season, we need a lot of sorting out. Sarr will be gone, but won't be a big loss. Pedro will be gone and will be a huge loss, but even he hasn't been consistently good. Apart from those two, I don't see a queue of clubs wanting to take our players. But all the loans will go back and that takes care of Davis, Choudhury, Kamara, Martins and Araujo. Cathcart, Cleverley, Britt, Gosling and Bacuna are all out of contract. So that's 12 players gone pretty much immediately. Always a question mark over the viability of the guys we've sent out on loan. Are any of them needed? That's Bayo, Hungbo, Quina, Barr, Pussetto (yes, he's still ours), Pollock, Hurtado, Fletcher, Forde, WTE. Of those loans, how many have impressed. I'd say Forde and Pollock most certainly have, but at a lower level of football. Hungbo, apart from one wonder goal, has done very little at Huddersfield, likewise Quina and Fletcher at their clubs, which is a good indicator as they're playing in the same league as us. I'd make a special exception for Bayo. He shouldn't have been signed for £5m, but since we did that deal, he should have stayed with us. So, for next season, I can make a case of having Pollock, Forde and Bayo being a part of the squad setup. But that's still another 7 who are currently out on loan, who wouldn't be part of things IMO. That makes 19 from the current squad gone. I'd go further than that too. We don't need Kayembe, Okoye, Bachmann (not as first choice anyway) and Kabasele. TDB, Sierralta, Ngakia and Kalu are all far too injury prone, but if they could get over that then they are worth keeping, if not, they need to go. The total of outgoing players is now 27. That's incredible. But I could even go further. Do we need Gaspar? Probably not, so for me, I could justify clearing out around 28 players. The only guys I would say are safe from any culling are: Hamer (but only as a third choice option), Porteous, Hoet, Ferreira, Morris (backup option only), Louza (hopefully we'll retain him), Kone, Sema, Asprilla, Adeyemo, Andrews, Forde, Pollock. Depending on fitness I'd keep TDB, Sierralta, Ngakia and Kalu, but only if they can prove they are robust enough, which I very much doubt. So, as you can see, an entire new squad is needed. It's the only way to progress. The current team have proved all season they are not good enough. Mid-table at best, but on current from they are a relegation side (currently the worst team in the league, apart from QPR).
A new squad IS needed but we have just loose change to spend on >10 new players. Unless Manga performs miracles we will be back to the days of hoping a few minnows are promoted from League One to occupy at least a couple of the relegation slots. Sadly looks like Ipswich & Sheff W and maybe Derby/Bolton too this season.
We're presumably back to relying almost entirely on whatever crumbs Udinese can throw us on loan. Sadly unlikely 2014 their fringe players are largely our former duds who we either wouldn't want back or who wouldn't agree to come back.
Selling/releasing 28 players (not really going to happen I know), but that would generate a lot of money, especially if you include Sarr and Pedro, plus all the salary savings. We wont have a bloated squad, but we could easily get 5 quality loan players, plus invest in some young prospects. There are bound to be quite a few out of contract players too, who might be tempted to sign for us. I don't expect much to be spent on incoming transfers, but there is still a lot of scope in a summer window if you have the right people making the choices. Can we have a major overhaul in one summer and create a winning machine? Unlikely, but it will be an interesting window for sure.
All that you can say is thank god we had what now looks a decent set of results pre World Cup. Can you imagine this lot having to "fight" to stay in the league?
We can't spend the Pedro/Sarr monies unless we accept we can never repay the loans and accept that we are playing that exciting game called "promotion or bust". The loans are secured against future income and we know future incomes will fall through the floor in this league so the loan balance will have to come down significantly, unless we can find other assets to secure or achieve new investment.
I missed that Ipswich conceded a late equaliser keeping them out of the top 2 despite the mighty Argyle's defeat to the even mightier Lincoln City. PA's lead has slowly been eaten away and I'd bet on a 3rd place finish for them but of course might still finish top 2.
Could we? What exactly gives you that idea? A badly run club with a continuous turnover of managers/“style” hardly screams a haven of development for any quality younger players for example.
This is going to be a balancing act. There are options open to us though. We could restructure the loans so the monies due this year are delayed, we could get outside investment, the Pozzo family could inject more funds, a combination of those options, or the Pozzo's could sell completely. I think there will be some major change in the summer. We could raise over £50m in player sales, which would be a significant boost. The Macquarie loans are secured against future payments, such as the parachute money, so that take care of some of the money we owe them. I think we have one more opportunity to gain promotion next season, although I expect it could be a lot harder, as you'll have three new ex-Premier league clubs joining the party. But if we get it right, I can see no reason we should not make the playoffs. But a lot relies of Manga being very good. He's our last hope really, as Gino, SD and Giaretta's judgement cannot be relied upon. This summer could be the most significant the Pozzo's have ever had at Watford.
Tommy Mooney made a point before the match yesterday that the difference between an academy player and first team player is the first team player is able to keep concentrating for 90 mins of a match. That watford team cannot keep concentrating for 90 mins as in the second half of most games they can't seem to keep with the play at all
And our relationship with so many other teams must be pretty ropey that we won’t get any that good either or totally unsuited to the league .
The parachute monies will come to an end, and before they end, the loans will need to be repaid or dramatically reduced. The only way the loans can be "restructured" is if they can be secured against something else. If we secure against 5+ years champ TV income we basically accept that all income in those years is reserved for the loan, not operating costs and we are insolvent without promotion/new investment.
The parachute money will be going to Macquarie bank, but by restructuring I'm saying lengthening the term of repayment, not securing against something else. I'm putting it forward as one of several options open to the board, nothing more than that.
So we are happy with a keeper that watched a goal go in (windy my ar5e) and virtually every save is pushed out in to the middle of the goal. Two good goals, nice to see Andrews and Araujo play. Happy that it seems likely I won't have to watch Britt waddle around the pitch again. The two penalty claims, first one I would have been upset had it not been given, the second (described on here by somebody as stonewall!) is definitely not a penalty. In normality that would be a decent point but in all honesty, I couldn't give a sh1t
The current TV deal in the championship is worth about £5m per club (although that should hopefully go up a bit with the new deal from 24/25 onwards, although at most it would double from the sounds of it, so maybe £10m per club) it’s not at all merit based like in the PL. Our last accounts show match day revenue at about £7m, our peak in our best PL season was £9m. So once our next and final PP of £35m is received for next season our income (excluding any profit from player sales of course) goes down to approximately max £15m per season. I’m not sure what options we’d have to restructure any debt, and if we did any interest payments/repayments would leave us pretty screwed in terms of managing day to day costs like paying players.
