£10-£15 mill I reckon, though I'd like to put a £20 mill price tag on him. (not saying he's currently worth that, i'd just like to ask for that)
£15-20m or so as you're buying potential as much current ability. His ceiling is almost as high as Pedro's but he needs to naturally bulk out like Pedro did as he got older and develop more consistency which will come with game time.
Is Hurtado staying I wonder? If he has anything about him, then he takes Healey’s role as the wildcard bench option.
When is his contract until? If it still has a few years running, it might be worth keeping him for another year
We’re suddenly getting quite close to another banner window for the patented ‘seat of your pants’ philosophy. After the excitement and promise of the bolt from the blue Dennis signing and reported suggestions that it was part of a determined effort to push for play offs in the second half of the season, we’re rather close to being brought sharply down to earth once again with a squad utterly ill-equipped to handle such a task. Huzzah.
Realistically, though, he’s essentially never played senior football. He’s not going to have any kind of legitimate impact in the course of this season. The mystical promise of him might be another carrot dangled in a line dropped out by Duxbury or a secretly-sourced media report of some kind once the window slams shut, but that’s it.
Somewhat controversially, if the window closed tomorrow, I don't think it's been terrible. Never a fan of January business generally - you get the odd good deal sure but it's never been to my liking. And I like the way in which Ismael talks about the squad he wants to build. Sure, we could do with a couple of players in a couple of positions - but I don't see them being terminal issues over the next few months...and if we can't find what Ismael wants this month to plug those gaps, then that's okay with me. I imagine we saw Louza as expendable and worth losing given his attitude/application, without necessarily having to have a replacement. If I had to guess - and that's all it is, I bet we have a CB lined up but we won't bring them in unless Pollock gets a move. Outside of that, we will just see what dominoes start to fall on Deadline Day and act accordingly. I certainly think the club are pretty laid back about it and I don't actually blame them for that this time around.
If Louza was only going to sit on the bench or worse, then our midfield is no weaker than it's been since he's been demoted (not as if he was lighting it up before then anyway), likewise Healey was our third choice striker, to make a quick £1-2m profit on him is decent business (why he was brought in when he clearly didn't fit is another matter). I imagine Dennis is going to play out wide, but if need be, he can play as a striker. Fully agreed that January isn't the best time to do business, we've done well to get rid of some of the deadwood, but we shouldn't just sign someone for the sake of it. If there are still gaps in the squad, we should have dealt with them in the summer if possible
Agree about this window but for the reasons stated above I think we are back to a clean sheet of paper in the summer with minimal budget to work with. There aren’t many long term building blocks in the foundations. If Asprilla goes then Hoedt, Kone, Andrews and maybe Kayembe at this level. All other spots either need addressing or have veteran players that need succession planning. Edit: should have added Sema as solid building block if aim is playoff challenging squad.
Yeah, the squad needs more doing to it undoubtedly - I just won't be overly bothered if we believe it's best left to the summer. I imagine most clubs are looking at next season believing it's going to be a much easier division to get out of given the 3 likely to go down replacing the 3 likely to go up.
This season will be almost impossible to go up, the relegated 3 plus Ipswich are almost set in the top 6, West Brom are going well so the chasing pack (including us) will need to be almost perfect to even get top 6, and even then, the 'prize' will probably be the right to be battered by one of the relegated 3. Last January was our chance, Ferreira and Araujo were probably never going to suit England, but it's a shame that Kone (understandably!) took his time to adapt to English football, he looks a player now, but looked a bit out of his depth at times last season. Only problem is, if we are hard up now, we'll be even more hard up next season...
Araujo was all on Helena Costa and the only bit of business I think she was actively part of. He was beyond useless, which was a shame as he was touted to be the "next big thing". From what we did see when he did play, the only thing he will be is a flop. Have to wonder how our current squad would look now with Manga and Costa still pulling the strings...
Manga clearly knows his onions, even if he needed time to adapt to England (which we couldn't afford at the time), but I've not heard anything good about Helena Costa (not saying she doesn't know ball, but I seem to recall it's been suggested she and her pals personally profited from the Araujo deal)
Wouldn't be surprised if Asprilla and Kone both go to keep the wolf from the door in the summer if there's no more investment. The latter's improvement has been really impressive and he looks more suited to English football now than Asprilla, who I could see going to Portugal/Spain for a fee a lot of us would think underwhelming but is probably more representative of his current performances rather than potential.
Araujo wasn’t all on Costa, that’s just not true. Whether people like it or not, Bilic played a big part in that deal - the Portuguese connection just makes people think differently. The only deal Costa had her fingerprints ALL OVER was the Ferreira deal. And we paid what we paid because a number of contacts stood to profit handsomely as a result.
I can forgive Bilic for whatever deals we did in January, I can't expect he'll have an encyclopaedic knowledge of Portuguese football, and I don't think (unless you can prove otherwise) that he profited from any deal. He wanted Livermore, which ultimately would have been a shrewd deal, although I can forgive Manga for not wanting it considering perceived wisdom, even on here, was that he was past it!
Didn't suggest you did, he seemed like he wanted the best for us, but was let down by the board and a recruitment team who were at best naive about the Championship and at worst were willing to personally profit off us for a player not suited to England
If their tennis players are anything to go by,no. Whenever they enter the seniors world champs they rarely win games in matches.
Make him run like feck in training and put him into the under 23's for a couple of games to build his match sharpness and fitness up.
Yes, I agree, I hope that we are thinking long-term and I would rather we bring in the right players than bring someone in for the sake of it.
He's not going to be the answer is he. Looked nothing like the player I remembered. Unfit, bad positioning. Rancid. Clearly that decent spell with us was the exception not the rule. He will flop massively and won't ever establish himself as a regular starter. He'll leave us in the summer without a murmur. A dud. Bookmark this post.
Give him 40mins against Sheff Weds. Start him against Cardiff and give him 50/60mins. Start him again in the replay again Saints, so he’s ready to smash Leicester singlehandedly. He needs games. The more we play him, the better and sharper he will become. I could be wrong but isn’t there some well known managerial article or book that states it takes about 4 games for a player to get match fit. He’s already got one under his belt.
Dennis was utterly awful yesterday. Probably the worst performance I've ever seen in a Watford shirt. Not only that, but allegedly after the game he insisted on Jake Livermore's seat in the dressing room going as far as thowing Livermore's kit out the door. Jake was said to be 'visibly upset' but Val was under pressure to let it slide. Can we cancel this loan?