[SOLD] Philip Zinckernagel

I can just about understand the logic, but I do genuinely hope it's not the last time we see him in a Watford shirt.

 

Would indicate that Kucka is indeed intended to be played as the most advanced CM in our 3.

 

It will be.

 

It’s just another symptom of our incoherent recruitment strategy. I’d have given him half a season in the PL to prove himself. I’m not sure there’s much of a way back now. We’ve basically given him loads of media exposure saying he’s come here for PL football and mugged off Celtic, and as recently as a few days ago how he was fighting for his place and looking forward to the PL…then we shuffle him out of the door to a basket case Championship club.

I don’t get it.

 

Another case of a player being poorly treated, shafted properly because we can't get the likes of Gray out the door

 

Both Zinckernagel and Gosling joined in January yet Zinckernagel is the one that is moved on. Bet Gosling can't believe his luck!

 

Keep that door revolving, make sure every player (apart from those on huge wages that can't be shifted) knows the owners see them as nothing but dispensable and make everything transient with no cohesion

 

I honestly think a full season in the Championship will do him good in terms of developing as a player. I am sure he was brought in as they prepared to lose Sarr in the January window.

I would not rate him as a player capable of making a significant difference to our prospects this season by now not being available. He is at 26 and at the point where he has to push on if he is going to become a Premier League performer. Personally I don’t think he is at that level. A full season in the championship under the guidance of Houghton will see if he has the ability to step up to that level.

 

No one in their right mind wants to take Gosling on whereas they do want Zink.

Same problem we have with loads of our dross and its why we end up losing tbe likes of Suarez, Wilmot, Zink etc but end up with Deeney, Gray, Cathcart, Gosling etc stuck here.

 

We needed to sign him when we did for Brexit reasons, so I can see why we snapped him up even if not guaranteed games, but I get the feeling we were expecting Sarr to go in January, so when that didn't happen, he was relying on injuries to get games in any position

 

Think he literally played five minutes in his favoured position and then an injury meant we had to reshuffle the team and he was moved out of it again. I have my reservations about whether he's good enough or not but just seems bonkers to not even give him a chance to show it.

 

We've shafted the guy, simple as that. Sold him the PL dream, barely played him in his preferred position then got rid as soon as we got promoted. It sounds like we've been trying to do it for a while now. I do wonder what the club say to these players to get them to sign because Zinckernagel certainly had a couple of decent clubs to choose from.

 

Unfortunately you're right.

 

Exactly. It’s laughable. Ship out the players who might have a future. Keep and play the highly paid failures.

 

He is very good with the ball at his feet. He needs to improve without the ball - tackling, tracking back and so on.

 

We aren't the only club that struggle with it to be fair.

We just have a large number of failures and an addiction to rewarding them with contracts/renewals on bonkers wages that they are often utterly undeserving of (e.g. Gray, Deeney, Penaranda, Success, Sinclair, Janmaat, Welbeck, Prodl etc) while allowing our more talented younger players contracts to run down till they have us by the ******** as has happend with Hughes, Estupinan and Suarez.

 

I’d just echo what most have said. He was brought in with the goal of PL football, got played out of position a dozen or so times and then we go and shift him to a Championship team at the first chance.

He’s not the worst player we have and is just a victim of poor succession planning and fuzzy thinking.

 

He deserved much better, disappointing

 

He’s a typical Watford signing. Free transfer with a lot of potential on the upside. Whether we actually needed him or not is immaterial. The club can make money on him in loan fees but there is a possibility he actually turns out to be great for our first team.

Nearly all Watford signings are punts (not a typo) Some pay off, most don’t, but it’s a case of quantity and you’ll likely get a couple of gems in the bargain bucket.

If you only have a meagre budget, it’s a sensible way to do your business.

 

Think a full season on loan will do him the world of good and get him ready for us next season when we inevitably sell Sarr. Will toughen him up aswell.

Clearly we’re trying to lessen the wage bill, but we can’t get rid of who we want too. So other fringe players have to be sacrificed. Wanted him to stay, but he was only ever going to be a bit part player this season for us, so makes sense.

Etebo, Louza, Cleverley, Kucka will be ahead of him. Plus we still don’t know what will happen with Hughes or Chalobah. Maybe this move has been given the green light because one of them has signed their contract offer?

Out wide, we clearly want to play with pace on the break. Sarr, Cucho, Baah, Dennis, Pedro and King are all quicker than him.

I know it was only pre-season but his game against Arsenal, he and Louza were poor. PZ7 probably edging as the worst out of the two.

Forest using him as their RW option will be good for him and us.

Also, got to laugh at Leventhal’s tweet as if he knew about it a month ago. The breaking news was from Pete O’Rourke.

 

Feel for the bloke being sold a dream by Gino and co. but he really isn't that good

Unlikely to have gotten much game time or made much of an impact in the Prem

 

Gino and Scott do business properly

 

I don't mind us getting rid of Zinkernagel if the plan is to bring in a quality attacking midfielder. However I will bet good money we will be stuck with Kucka and Gosling as our 1st and 2nd choice.

Just like I didn't mind us bringing in Fletcher if Deeney, Gray, Success Perica were off. However here we are are stuck with the four of them and now Fletcher has joined them on the list of dross on long contracts.

Just like I didn't mind us selling Estupinian if we brought in a left back, and yet we spent half the season with Toby Stevenson as our only left back.

 

God this club is so, so sh*t.

 

Dreadful decision by the club. Not surprised.

 

He'll probably do well back in the Championship, in which case he'll want to play Premier League football next season. All well and good for us both if we stay up and there's a space for him, but if we go down, or if Sarr stays, I can't see him wanting to stay. Of course, it's not impossible that he bombs in the Championship too

 

This based on the proviso we send players on loan with the idea they will come back to play a full part the following season. Which never happens. We send them out on loan and 90% of the time it’s the beginning of the end of their Watford career.

Sending Zinckernagel out whilst others still remain is the result of bonkers recruitment coming home to roost.

 

Didn't set the world alight in the Championship, and isn't good enough to displace Sarr. Also doesn't look good enough to be versatile and play midfield.

Will be interesting to see how he does if he gets a run of games, because he clearly has talent. But he wouldn't be the first player to have a one-off good season in a poor league and not be able to cut it at a higher level.

 

Was he really going to play that much this season? The answer is probably no so what’s the problem getting him some game time. We have players we want rid of and we all know it but do we have to mention it on every thread. I would play pretty much any of our midfielders before Zinc except maybe Quina so I rather we keep Gosling as for me he offers more.

 

Signing someone on the biggest contract at the club and loaning him 6 months later is just bad business. We’re loaning him out because nobody will take Gosling, who’s not as good as him

 

What does biggest contract at the club mean in this context? Do you mean salary over the course of the contract or the longest contract?

 

Not surprised he's been loaned out, but I am a little annoyed it's to Forest, I think he could have fitted in at a club with more realistic promotion hopes

Well Sema and Cucho (seemingly!) have been loaned out and have been involved in the first team, but yeah, I don't suspect we have Zinckernagel in our plans anymore. Shame, I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking from him, but he could have been a very useful squad option this season