He's on 40k a week to June 2026. Not named in the Forrest squad & rotting in the reserves. He wants all the money due (fair enough) and Forrest aren't prepared (currently) to heavily subsides his wages if he goes to another club.
As I understand it, he can either have his contract paid up or make an agreement with Forest about his wage, i.e. if he's on £40k/w, then if he signs for another club for say £10k/w, then Forest would have to pay him £30k/w. Therefore the latter would usually make some sense to the club wanted to terminate his contract. However it's usually not that simple, as paying up a contract would mean the player would get less than their remaining wage, so therefore the latter could mean if he signs for another club for £10k/w, Forest might only have to pay him £25k/w instead of £30k/w.
Could you imagine Dennis running into the space Chak and Baah can get the ball to? Getting a shot off first time and outpacing most defenders? I can. I can also never see this happening...
I've never understand this mindset. Saving e.g. 10k a week on a player who you aren't going to play is better than nothing, and if you're lucky he'll get injured and insurance kicks in.
It’s all a negotiation isn’t it. The player can insist on his contract being paid up. The club can prevent the player playing for the contract duration. They will have to meet somewhere…
Forest are paying that money and getting nothing, surely it makes sense to loan him out and at least recoup a % of his wages.
It really doesn’t. For all the criticism of the Saudi’s (justified), they still want players who will perform for the multi-millions they pay them, and they have to represent the league and country well. They also have restrictions on the number of overseas players each club can have, and most of them (certainly the ones owned by the wealth fund) have those slots filled. I really can’t see Dennis being taken by any Saudi side. Far more likely he goes to a club in somewhere like Greece IMO.
Latest I’ve heard is that TC is unlikely to want him - but he is an option and with Bayat and Gino, it could happen.
The danger with Dennis is we are in danger of seeing it through the eyes of people who play FIFA etc. The best version of him is always there ready to play on a Saturday and we never have to deal with him training etc. I think the reality is there is many reasons why some at the club would be reluctant to bring back a player who clearly has talent but can be very disruptive in other ways. With what TC seems to be building, and knowing he’s not keen, I’m just not sure it’s a risk we should be taking. Should we be obstructing Baah’s progress for instance? Or stunting what Chak offers in ball carrying? As that’s what would likely happen before we get into the issues behind the scenes. And I really don’t believe the club would see Dennis as an option at No.9 as it’s clear the profile TC wants for that position.
So you mean sack TC and bring back Dennis? I agree entirely. There isn't a Watford fan alive who wouldn't be happy with that trade off. (Cue all the Arsenal fans on here saying they wouldn't be happy).
As @Burnsy says, he would probably replace Baah or Chak rather than be a #9 so you still get to enjoy Bayo.
Just wait until we loan Bayo back from Udinese in the summer and the club pretend the comments they made about him wanting to play at a ‘higher level’ didn’t happen.
He would provide a better end product than Chak though. Bearing in mind we're not going down, it might be worth the risk and his few extra goals could push us into the play offs.
I’m not sure I’d favour a player who is unlikely to be fit, isn’t owned by us and often flatters to deceive, over a player who has amongst the best stats in the division, is owned by us and is very likely to be our next cash-cow. I’m not down on Dennis - if the terms were right, he was fit and motivated, then I’d do the deal and find a way of getting him in the side (I’d play him as a striker personally in the circumstances). But I’d be very wary of bringing him in to the detriment of Baah, Chak and Vata.
This is the key for me. I rate Dennis and think he has that ‘maverick’ streak in him, but realistically if there’s a deal to be done it’ll likely be short term. I’m not as high on Baah as some but he needs time and it wouldn’t be fair for his progress to be hindered by someone who would only be passing through. We should be building around Chak as much as possible while we have him, and I’ve been very excited by Vata based on what I’ve seen so far - I think he’s a star in the making.
I can also speak of the fact that TC is trying to build a team of good characters - and we do have a few players who need kept ‘on top of’ else there attitude can drop off (unfair to name name’s but I’m sure you can guess…we have 3-4 of them). Adding Dennis to that mix would be a big risk if it’s only temporary IMO. Told a big part of Robbo’s job so far has been to be the ‘bad cop’ to TC’s ‘good cop’ and he has a few players he has to keep an eye on and bring down a peg or two fairly regularly.
I agree up to a point and I would only want Dennis if he was reasonably fit. However, whilst scoring goals is not the be and end all of a forward player, Chak has only scored 2 goals in 51 appearances which is abysmal. With Bayo also a poor finisher and our only goalscorer in Denmark we need more goals from somewhere.
Fair point - but then we’d be taking Dennis back in an identical scenario to last season. Half-season loan where he was nowhere near match-fit and didn’t impress or score much at all. If we want to add guaranteed goals in January, I wouldn’t start with Emmanuel Dennis. And would be very unlikely to creat as much as Chak has. I’m not saying I wouldn’t sign him - but I’m not sure he answers the glaring striker issue we have. But I’d rather have him than Bayo, even if Dennis isn’t a natural No.9. And swapping Dennis for Jebbison would be a fantastic thing on paper.
If TC has indicated that he's not interested in Dennis then that should be the end of the discussion. He's played alongside Dennis and managed him for a short while at the end of last season, I think TC knows enough about him, so if he doesn't want him it implies that either Dennis won't bring anything extra to the squad or Dennis' presence will be a detriment to the rest of the squad.
It's obvious that TC can see what is what in a striker with his comments about Jibberson so his lack of interest over Dennis makes total sense.
Twas the point I was trying to make Sir. And, that the risk on Dennis may be worth it as we ain't going to be in relegation issues. And I doubt we'll go up without rolling the dice in January.
A fit and motivated Dennis as the striker instead of Bayo would be electric behind Chak, but if those who know him best don’t think that’ll be the case then there’s not much point in signing him