But according to AL our financial situation isn’t as bad as the previous relegation, which he stated in his article. He also states the following; “Internally, Watford are confident of achieving sales of Dennis and Sarr, plus others, that will exceed the £45 million drop in central payments in year one, which may — taking other key accounting drops into consideration — allow for a transfer kitty to manifest itself. That summer 2020 relegation of high wages and no crowds due to pandemic restrictions meant everything was squeezed. There should be slightly more wiggle room for acquisitions this time around. Which is not to say we should necessarily expect to see any double-digit transfer fees. Clearly, budgets will vary for different positions and may be stretched to accommodate an unexpected opportunity. Utilising the loans market and deploying those returning to the club after successful loans themselves will also help.” So now that that’s out there, fans will have an expectation of the club investing money wisely. Scott Twine is a wise investment, in a position we need, has a skill set (set pieces) we haven’t had since Tozser, young enough to make a profit on should he do well and would fit in an Edwards system. We know we’re not going to spend £10mil+ on one player, nor do I want us too. Spending £3-5mil on Twine however is a no brainer. Sadly we won’t. We will watch him go to one of Swansea, Norwich, Boro, Sheff Utd, and dream of what could have been had he come here. Meanwhile we will make do with Samardzic on loan from Udinese as our attacking midfielder. Not bad, but not the best option out there, and if given the choice, I’m taking Twine over him all day. However he’s “free” and it helps Udinese. Sadly it will again be a season of our manager getting what he gets and told to make the square pegs fit in round holes. I expect Edwards to be sacked after 10 games through no fault of his own. I’m not arguing with you by the way, I’m just venting.
Sheffield Utd fans don't rate him that highly and he struggled to get in to their team. https://www.s24su.com/forum/threads/ben-davies-signs-on-loan.82585/page-26
Would rather Jake Clarke-Salter on a free. Speaking of former Liverpool defenders who were at Sheffield United last season, Jack Robinson is on a free apparently, and the United fans seem keener on him than Davies, though Davies is 2 years younger and might have more potential (had some personal issues this season apparently)
The Athletic can’t handle the concept of moving exchange rates so I wouldn’t put much weight on their financial views.
Quite. Lose £45m in TV money, make £45m in sales = everything hunky dory seems to be Leventhal's take, as though any other costs/revenue/debt is an irrelevance.
Not having that, if Gino and Sir Duxbury are good at one thing, it’s getting massive loan fees. I heard from a few of those invited to the private meeting that we made at least £6mil off Oulare’s loan fees alone. That £45mil deficit we need to make up through being relegated, loan fees. #InGinoandDuxburywetrust
Sent Giaretta another list. This time it’s of players from Serie B we should be looking at. Yet again, he ignores me. That’s now a Prem loan list/Prem youth list, Championship list, League 1 list, Belgium list, Ligue 1 list, Serie A loan/transfer list, and now a Serie B list. Throw in the odd message here and there when a player pops into my head or a player I come across and message him. Basically I’ve done his job and given him a list of about 100 names. Not one of them will be here.
I understand. It's therapeutic to vent one's spleen at the hierarchy. The next step is to insert a large garden gnome into them. I'm off to Homebase asap!
It's basically impossible for a player from Serie B to get a work permit - the only chance is if they also somehow made at least a single appearance in Serie A in the last season (i.e. they were sold or loaned by a Serie A club to a Serie B club after that had occurred).
No idea what you do for a living but if some random sent you a series of lengthy communications effectively telling you that they could do the job better than you, would you read it and act on it?
Out of interest I would look at it, if it started well, I would read it. If there was anything in there that made me think, that’s actually not a bad idea, I can take that and make it better, or if I think it would make the business more profitable, sure I would act on it. If it started with any disrespect, then I wouldn’t. Also if it was disrespectful at any point, I would stop.
Fair enough, you'll probably go further than me in life then! I'd probably think "oh **** right off" and delete it.
Well my step son did two really detailed pieces on players from S K Brann when we used to go see them on a regular basis. Seyi Olofinjana and Paul Scharner, they both went on to have decent careers in England. The reports he wrote got distinctions at school but not even a response from Watford. They could of atleast acknowledge his hard work put in but not a single word.
He seemed to have been incredibly error prone at Stoke this season, most their fans don't seem bothered about getting him back again. Of potential Prem CB loanees Daniel Ballard seems to have had a better season and seem the most sensible. THB could overtake him eventually maybe, but he doesn't seem there yet for what we'd be needing next season. Levi Colwill might also be preferable to THB.
I wasn’t suggesting Harwood-Bellis. More that I’ve heard of interest…although I suspect he’ll go to Burnley if they appoint Kompany. (I suspect Colwill will go to someone in the PL on loan to be honest - but will also likely get game time for Chelsea in pre-season given the number of defenders they are losing. Could break through like Trevoh Chalobah…)
Oh right. As I say, out of potentially signable young PL CBs Ballard seems the one to go for. I don't think Mbete is as highly rated as THB, plus he's a year or two younger. Considering THB didn't even do that well for Stoke last season I doubt Mbete would be up to it yet.
Don't know that much about Ballard, I hear he's very good, but who was the last Arsenal player we've had on loan? Seems a very untapped market for us considering our training pitches are adjacent!
