After the joy of promotion the reality of a hard summer's work sets in. Will the owner invest the necessary to make us competitive given their budget? Who stays? Whos goes? Who is upgraded? Personally, I feel we need a striker a left-back as back up and a midfielder minimum. It'll be an interesting sjummer of dealings. Otherwise, next season could be very difficult.
I think it will be quite difficult anyway , as the pandemic has made a mess of every calculation for those clubs with shallow pockets. (like ours!) However, we don't need any midfielders. Chalobah Hughes Gosling Cleverley (one season more only) Quina (will he return ?) Sema (who is a sort of midfielder) have all played in the Prem , and will be ok. Dele Bashiru will become our new star. Sanchez - I've no idea ! But that's a decent list. We do need a striker - probably 2 unless one of the younger players can actually step up - pretty tall order. Although Hungbo has certainly done all that had been asked. Success, Perica don't appear to have the confidence of the coach, and Gray (sadly - as I do think he really tries his best ) doesn't have mine . Deeney is not likely to fit well into the system that Xisco appears to play , where the front three are very mobile. That said, he does read the game, does hold the ball, and can find a decent pass. We don't need any defenders. Wilmot is intelligent enough to play LB. Cathcart can still play CB or RB. Femenia & Ngakia are good enough. The money for Dawson could fund a replacement. We haven't seen anything really of Stevenson. No news is no news. However, here is a salutory tale for all us armchair scouts. I went to see Macclesfield Town play Shrewsbury a few seasons back. The Shrews CF was completely useless. When we wasn't falling over, he was berating the ref. He trapped the ball further than Frank Worthington could kick it (copyright FW). I've never seen a player so ill-equipped for professional football. Lo and behold, next few seasons, banging them in for Norwich. Grant Holt. So what do I Know ?
Well it seems a tad early to think about next season when we still have a couple of games to go, but I am sure that Scott and Gino are already on the case. Scott said yesterday that the club was almost broke and there were serious doubts about how they could survive. I guess they have borrowed money which may have an impact on what they can afford to do. A lot of the infrastructure at the ground is already in place, so they don't have to budget for that. Will it be possible to fill the ground with 20,000 in the middle of August? That is still up in the air. There are players at the club who I have little faith in such as Grey and Success. Do they have contracts making it difficult to move them on? Unless some can be moved out I doubt that there will be a lot of money for another Sarr. The buy them cheaply in the EU and hope they do well route is not going to be an option according to the work permit rules. While the Pozzo model of finding promising players in South America and taking them into Europe will still work, getting them into the UK will become very much harder.
Agree with you on that, but I am suggesting that there are many complexities about players contracts that we have no idea about. The only player that I can see who has a contract that runs out in June, and would always be on the team sheet if fit is Kiko. Gray has another year and Success two, both of whom I would be happy to see out.
When Nigel Pearson took over he played 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 with Deeney up front and Sarr, Doucoure and Delafoue behind him Playing 4 - 3 - 3 with Sarr Deeney and Pedro as the front three s not that much different and provides a stronger midfield If we rip this team apart and replace them with too many new players we will lose what we have gained over the last 24 games The perfect answer would have been Sarr Toney and Pedro but we missed that chance when Brentford took a chance on Toney his goals with Sarr and Pedro would have put us way out of site
At least none of our better players seem to be out of contract which is a good start. I guess some will have to be moved on to make way for better quality but will someone take a Gray or Success on big wages if they aren't wanted?
Kiko signed a new contract last summer and he still has another two years remaining on his contract. This has been confirmed by various sources such as the Athletic and the Watford Observer following incorrect media reports and wrong information on Transfermarkt that he was out of contract in 2021. https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...r-want-watfords-kiko-femenia-cannot-get-free/
Perica, Success and Gray arent up for it IMO. Deeney may still have a role as a squad player. We desperately need a free scoring striker
I think he has to, not so much because I think he's the right man for the job, but our chopping and changing of head coach has happened SO much that we've become a parody of ourselves, which I'm sure undermines how the head coach deals with players and who we can bring in to manage the team. So for the wider benefit of the club, we have to keep him and give him a chance.
To add to your salutary tale, think closer to home - Ross Jenkins was no world beater until GT came along. And it looks like silly season is upon us - Ben Foster to Man City??? https://trib.al/K2Vsc5k
Probably need to look at the three clubs who don't come up with us (via playoffs) for potential strikers. There have been some free-scoring strikers in the Championship this season.
