Watford Observer Interview

Hopefully he's ready to step up in late September.

 

Great interview, gives me hope for the future of this team that there is actually someone within it who cares about the club.

 

To summarise, we were an absolute shambles last season and it was far worse than we thought behind the scenes.

How anyone could allow a club to deteriorate the way it did is beyond me - it's amazing we didn't finish bottom and got as many points as we did.

 

It’s the consequence of appointing random managers as a knee jerk reaction to the problems the last manager was perceived to have. Last season was very much the chickens coming home to roost for our diabolical approach to appointing and firing managers.

 

Not just that, but also bloating the squad with unsuitable, random players.

 

Spoiler alert!

Decent article to be honest. Good positive vibes about this coming season too. I just hope if we have a bad start they give the guy some time to build a team and imprint his ideas properly.

 

Good article. Great work Andrew French.

It really is refreshing to hear a player be so candid about what is going on at the club.

Also interesting to hear about the many failures last season that lead to relegation.

 

Absolutely. I am surprised that others are surprised that the window has been predominantly outgoings so far when it is exactly what we needed first.

 

Agreed, although it’s what we’ve always done to an extent. First time up we bought in the likes of Ibarbo, Diamanti. Buying more and more rubbish from Mogi coupled with constantly changing manager has made things considerably worse. At least back then we were giving the managers a full season and perhaps being more considered about the reasons we were hiring them.

 

Very good interview, Dan comes across really well. The club not so much. Treating players poorly and appointing dinosaurs who barely bothered coaching, that's not a club I'd want to be a part of. Hopefully it truly is a fresh start but there must still be some players here who downed tools last season, maybe Rob has got them onside early on and is happy to keep them.

 

We only gave managers a full season as they were pretty successful immediately and tailed off late in the season before being sacked.
After we were promoted under Joka we signed almost a full new defence and midfield. The difference then was that the signings made were largely excellent cheap buys and really strengthened the side, along with the dross such as you mention and Oulare. This time we tried the same approach but the quality of the league is better and the signings we made were poorer, aside from Dennis.

 

Great to see the openness of the interview and the fact the club allowed it to go ahead and be published but a terrible reflection on how the club was run last season.

 

We also thought an inexperienced manager could cut it when he couldn’t (unlike our approach the first time round when we were more pragmatic) then appointed Ranieri who had no CV for a relegation battle, and in fact had provided evidence with his time at Fulham that he was ill equipped for it. So there was a definite change in approach which came home to roost last season. It doesn’t always have to be about the quality of the league, sometimes it’s about the club making mistakes!

 

Yup. A damning indictment of Norwich really.

 

Yes not sure if they genuinely thought Munoz was capable of managing in the prem or whether they just felt they couldn't be as ruthless as they were with Joka due to the stick they took. With hindsight they should have been more ruthless and brought someone in when they had a decent field to pick from rather than end up with the 2 failed sticking plasters mid season when choice was limited.

 

Like **** I'm reading that, can some do a TLDR

 

Dan Gosling is my new favourite player. Although some of his anger clearly comes from being left out of the squad and the club trying to shunt him out on loan, it's refreshing to hear a current player call out the unprofessionalism of the club, some teammates and former management staff. We need more lie him.
Also it's good news to learn the Andrew French will continue to cover the club in the WO.

 

What a great article. Well done to AF for getting it, and to Gosling for being prepared to speak on the record like this.

I know the temptation for many people is to lump him with the group of other old players who it’s believed shouldn’t be playing a big part in this season, but personally I’ve always liked him. He’s not a world-beater and never pretends to be but he’s a good consistent pro with an excellent attitude AND most importantly he chips in with goals, which is something you can’t usually say for the rest of our midfield. Witness the last match of last season where he almost won us a point. I have no issues with him playing regularly alongside younger players in midfield. (Although I don’t think realistically you can play both him and Clevs together)

The article also highlights (as if we needed it highlighting) just what a total shitshow last season was, and how poor and short-sighted our recruitment tends to be. How little did diligence do we do? And when we seemingly actually do some properly as in with signing Gosling, we then treat him as badly as we did last season. Crazy. I really despair of our methods sometimes.

Nice to see such positive words about RE too, and the new spirit around the place. I keep saying it but in my opinion it will be worth a few extra points as the season progresses

 

Grim.

The club seemingly assembled the biggest group of ******* in footballing history last season.

Number one priority is buying a captain from somewhere. There's not a single player fit to lead this group that's already at the club

 

Thanks!

 

I have an inkling Edwards will make him captain. Think he suits the high-pressing game better than Cleverley and is certainly ageing better it seems.

 

It's interesting to read this lifting the lid piece, but I do take it all with a pinch of salt. Gosling is clearly speaking from just his own point of view, and there's nothing wrong with rating yourself, but I remember that Villa game. He came on sub, and had a negative impact. Within 30 seconds he didn't track his marker McGinn, and allowed him to score. That had a major momentum swing and Villa nearly got a result from 3-0 because of it. He also looked off the pace, getting nutmegged and was generally poor in that cameo appearance. So it was no wonder he got dropped after that game.

With being dropped from the 25-man squad, he was given a choice to relocate but didn't want to go for family reasons. That is perfectly fine, but when you know you're not going to be part of the squad and the club did try to facilitate a loan move, you can't really complain about the position you've put yourself in. It looks as though once they knew he was going to stay they had a look around the squad and decided that Fletcher could go out on loan instead, thus giving Gosling a way back. Let's be honest, the two players Watford signed ahead of him were better players in Etebo and Kucka. I agree with his view over Tufan though. That guy was a complete waste of space, and Gosling is a far better player than him.

He asks the question when the club saw him as a big part of things, did they think they were going to be relegated and he would be useful in getting promoted......well yes, I think that was exactly the situation. The club see Gosling as a useful Championship midfielder, and nothing more. Not too flattering maybe, but that's about right IMO too. His next game was against Championship Stoke, which we lost.

He slams Ranieri, and I agree with him on that. He just shouldn't have been given the job, but it's another indicator that the guys making the decisions are a bit clueless at times. I really think their thought process went no further than, we know him, he won the league at Leicester, that's get him. Nothing more intelligent than that. Yesterday's man with outdated ideas just coming for the ride. For someone who has been around as long as Gosling to say Ranieri was as bad as it can get, it's really saying something. The training sessions were just 5-a-side games. Great if you're a school kid, but not if you're a pro.

What he said about Hodgson was what everyone said about him, so was no surprise. Boring repetitive training sessions. He was a dinosaur but we all knew that was what he was going to do. The club probably needed that approach to be fair, as we were so under-coached by then. But it was never going to switch on the players for long enough.

It sounds like Gosling is a shouter, and we just do not have that type of player in the squad. This is something that's been a problem for a long time and is another poor reflection on recruitment, especially the poor job Giaretta is doing. Roy and Ray gave it a go at the start but then gave up. Well we all saw that with our own eyes, but it's good to have that confirmed by someone from within the camp.

Disgraceful attitudes he mentions, but that goes hand-in-hand with a relegation campaign. If you're winning, everyone is on board, if you're losing it's the exact opposite. The same thing will happen this season if we struggle. We may have lost a few of the ego's but the squad is largely the same.

Gosling didn't play again until the Everton 0-0 draw. I do remember watching him and he was the MotM in that game. He really stood out, so he did have a point to prove and showed he is a decent player when he puts his mind to it. He talked about players showing they cared in the last three games, but we still got thumped 5-1 in the final home game against Leicester. So, caring is not enough, if the players on the pitch are so useless and mistake ridden. Clearly he did well in the final game and scored against Chelsea.

For me, that's where Gosling is very good. Almost Lampard like in the timing of his runs into the box. He's not a finisher, but he does take up very good positions from midfield. He will score goals. But the rest of his game is a bit meh.

Of course he's going to say nice things about Edwards. The current manager is always the best one. Not to say it isn't true and his views on the current training are not valid, I'm sure they are, but if he doesn't play a major role I'm sure he'll still be unhappy about it.

I was surprised he said they didn't use video training. I'm sure they did, but they probably didn't relay that to the players. I know Lewington used to look at the videos for example.

But seeing has how Giaretta and Gino are so hands on and micro manage, how did they allow all this happen? Maybe they saw everything, but don't really understand what they're watching? This is why we need a very strong head coach with modern ideas or a proper director of football, who knows the game from top-to-bottom and can tell when things aren't right. Maybe we have that coach now, but time will tell. He speaks a good game, but can he deliver a winning team?

Fair play to Gosling, for giving an honest interview from his perspective. It's refreshing to read.

 

I hope the people who continued to clap those bunch of ***** off the pitch last season feel suitably embarrassed.

 

Ultimately this falls on Pozzo, Duxbury and Giaretta.

Edwards absolutely must be given the chance to develop a side. It won't work immediately and I'm certain that we won't be in the mix for promotion this season. Will they resist the temptation for change or see the bigger picture? I'm going with no.

 

Shame he hasn't got enough ability to be a regular starter if we really want to challenge for promotion.

 

Those players must have been pi$$ing themselves laughing at the fans. Turning up and saying they couldn't be bothered yet were still clapped off!

 

Confirms what many,if not all of us over the age of twelve suspected.
Dreadful indictment of the hierarchy.
Read and weep P&D.

 

I suspect they were overly concerned with finance last summer and carrying excess cost back to the champ if as expected they were relegated. Hence the number of loans/one year deals where costs could be cut easily. However that brings with it a lack of commitment and "we are in this together" fighting spirit. Will be interesting to see their approach if/when we get promoted again.

 

Ashley Fletcher. 5 year deal.
Danny Rose. 2 year deal.
Moussa Sissoko. 2 year deal.
Samuel Kalu. 3.5yr deal.

They were able to give out longer deals - they just chose awful options on doing so.

 

What a sh1t show and the blame is on the senior management. Will be interesting to see how they deal with Gosling after this but Dan has my backing. Thanks for the truth Dan.

 

The interview has definitely been approved, if not encouraged, by the club.

 

Is there any chance any one could post the interview here?

 

Player Hatas Hate

 

Yet another own goal for the senior management then.