The Premier League - 2021-2022

Must remember however that Javi Gracia had that exact eulogy. Had a full, successful season beforehand and everyone looked like they loved it. Video's shown of pre-season where players were charging around in Austria looking right up for it. Yet, those videos actually shown to be misleading and Gracia was sacked a few weeks later...

He really doesn't. And if he loses the vast majority of games, he will be sacked well in advance of Christmas. Any other opinion just ignores everything we have done before. This time will be no different if it happens.

 

I’d usually subscribe to this view, but I wonder if things might be a little different given the fact it seems as though we’ve essentially accepted relegation already?

Surely Gino can’t be looking at our squad and expecting Xisco to be the man to keep us up? I think if he was genuinely expecting to stay up, we’d have recruited differently and changed coaches already.

So, with that in mind, maybe it’s not such a stretch to think Xisco does the impossible, and rides it out for another shot at promotion? Assuming we’re making a decent fist of being competitive at least.

I’d hope if we make a coaching change, it’s with next season in mind, and a coach becomes available who Gino believes is the man to take us back up.

Everything seems to point towards us accepting relegation and basically using this season as a financial get out of jail free card, and so I wonder whether Xisco gets a longer leash than usual?

For the record, I’d have sacked him the day after the previous season ended.

 

Agreed.

I don't think they have necessarily accepted relegation though - I think it's just that, as ever, they are perfectly prepared to gamble over it in the belief that they can pull off some masterstroke to avoid it if it comes to squeaky bum time. I don't hugely think that they ever suspected they would be faced with this dilemma either, and have essentially chosen the path of least resistance, seeing what a chirpy little character Xisco was and all the talk of dressing room utopias and positive vibes in this moment.

So, they are allowing results to do their usual job for them, and succession planning in the background for their usual characteristic ruthlessness to be unleashed as soon as it becomes clear that he is utterly overwhelmed by the requirements of the Prem; dragged under by the maelstrom and held there, unable to breath as wave after footballing wave washes over him, breaking devastatingly and denying him oxygen, without even the defence mechanism of being able to swim (being a real qualified head coach).

SO yeah, basically I think that he will be gone very quickly and the Pozzo are already/have always been aware of that. That's my prediction.

 

That's rewriting history quite a bit there - I was very concerned about the extent to which our form and energy levels had plummeted after the FA Cup Semi-Final and that the malaise might continue in to the next season. I wasn't the only one on here with that concern as well.

Our pre-season seemed a more laid-back, lazy repetition of the schedule the season before (including being at the same location) with fewer games.

It seemed the whole squad needed a refresh and a kick up the backside after how our season ended, instead we had the least active summer of the Pozzo-era, both on the training pitch and in the transfer market.

This summer we at least have a manager and some players with some momentum and reason to be cheerful after how we finished the season.

We've also been very active in the transfer market, which indicates a lack of complacency, even if we've been unable to bring in the quality which many would have hoped for.

We also appear to have been playing as many XI-a-side matches as possible, both against other teams and internally.

I still think it probably won't be enough to keep us up, mainly due to the inability to bring in one or two more top players, but I think it's very different circumstances to the summer before we went down last time.

 

I think it will really depends on whether we start appearing adrift from safety.

I think it will be expected that we'll be in a relegation battle but with a slight chance of staying up.

As long as Xisco keeps us within a fighting chance of survival, thus meeting the expectations, then I don't foresee any change. It seems the players and club have really taken to him and as long as the season isn't a disaster he could get another chance to get us promoted afterwards.

However, if we ever start to find ourselves cut adrift, especially if one or both of Norwich and Brentford seem much more comfortable, then he'll be performing below expectations and will be fired sharpish.

 

Anybody bought tottenham tickets? A bit concerned that the area at the top of the stairs for each stand is called the Vomitary.

 

I still believe we can find out so much after the Villa game. If it follows the same path as Javi and the hopeless Brighton match we're indeed in for along season. But a bit of passion, heart and luck could give them a real sense of optimism against a very depleted Villa side.

 

We’re not bothering with this one, mainly because it’s such a difficult place to get to. Last time we found a reasonable way of doing it by getting a train down from Broxbourne to Northumberland Park near the stadium but because the match is on a Sunday there are no direct trains. I’m not up for a 35 minute walk each way from Seven Sisters or the faff of changing trains at Tottenham Hale, so I’ll watch it on a dodgy river.

 

Am I correct in saying Brighton still haven't bought a decent goal scorer? If so, that'll be their downfall again!

 

How is it that much of a faff?!

 

That ll be connected to the Fromagerie they have .

 

The Brighton tickets just went on sale in my away category, I thought that would be a nice stop over away day (last train back to where I live leaves at 7pm) , then I saw ibis were charging £242 for a bog standard room. I'm sure I paid 60 Euros for ibis room when I stayed in Naples about three years ago. Hmmmmmmm.

 

At this point with spuds sniffing after Sarr ,if he went ,I could see us breaking Derbys record of an 11 point prem season , would we even get to double figures? who knows?
Best of luck folks its gonna be a tough ride this season, but hard times breed good character and with that comes hope.

 

Would any of our starting 11 get in the starting 11 of any other pl team, aside from Norwich or Brentford?

We don't seem to have the underdog spirit that so often floats promoted teams through the first month or two in the prem either, nor a talismanic promotion hero

None of our signings have been particularly interesting, except maybe Louza

Seems pretty hopeless

 

FTRE pod suggests we're waiting to see how things go in the first few games before we conduct our business and address glaring weaknesses. Who needs a good start eh? They've learnt so much from our relegation!

 

Signing more players and changing things after the first few games would still be more and quicker than the season we got relegated last time though.

If we only have a limited amount left to spend on one or two players then I can kind of understand this approach as we still have so many question marks over the extent to which certain players can perform in the PL.

The likes of Cucho, Dennis, King, Kucka, WTE, Louza etc could all potentially seem ineffective, in which case it's vital we figure out what our remaining priorities will be, and that will probably only become apparent after a couple of games.

 

Guardian writers are unanimous we are going to finish bottom. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/aug/12/premier-league-2021-22-preview-no-18-watford

 

Why have they described Harry the Hornet as a man-sized wasp? The clue is in the name, surely?

 

What a very odd write up.

 

Good dose of ignorance and writing off about 50 mins into the Football Weekly podcast here.

Can't say I've missed this kind of 'informed' punditry.

 

It’s the same Watford fan who always writes about us for the Guardian.

 

Pretty much every preview i've seen has Brentford comfortably staying up or at the very least being the top promoted club. The reasoning behind it is almost always 'they're an interesting club with a different approach'. Seems like us and Norwich are just boring to neutrals which somehow means Brentford will do better than us...

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/football/xisco-clean-sheets-the-main-objective/ar-AANfoHK?li=BBoPWjP

 

Am I the only one that thinks:

Bachman
Kiko - WTE - Sierralta - Rose
Etebo - Louza - (NEW CM)
Sarr - Pedro - Chucho

Is a pretty good first 11? I think we need another CM, and obviously dependant on Xisco using it, but I think that team is better than our previous PL return season...

 

I think it has an exciting look to it, but ultimately would come up short I think.

 

Maybe, who knows! I think contrary to popular belief on this forum our defence will be fine, scoring will be the issue. Hopefully someone replicates Ighalo, although I can't see that happening.

 

Jesus christ, I hope this is as much witless burble as anything else said on that pod, because if it's based on any reality/privileged information, it's time to liquidate the club.

 

Barring injuries I can’t picture any scenario where our coach is allowed to leave the captain, the vice captain and Cathcart from the starting xi

….unfortunately

 

As with most Simon Burnton articles about us, he could not be more spot on. I didn't write it, but I feel like I could have. No other journalist, including Leventhal, actually reflects the reality of what being a Watford fan is, and he is always on the money with our actual perceptions of club/owner/transfer business/silly meme stuff about players:

Xisco



The Chuckle Forwards



The Wantaway



Xisco Round Two



Defensive Recruitment



One half of Trondre

 

Amongst all the chat around the playing squad I completely forgot that Xisco hasn't got a clue what he's doing.

Tough season for the Hornets.

 

Rose, Louza and JP won't really be good enough this season, and there are big question marks over how WTE and Cucho will take to the PL.