At this stage of Malky's first season, we had won one of our last 12 matches and were level on points with 22nd.
You did not read my comments fully Mitch...He did not set the Championship on fire last season, and certainly not enough to create a huge interest by other clubs. Would any other club have come in for Cowie based on his record of assists? Even though he was out of contract, I do not recall any other clubs queuing up to secure his services. A huge amount of assists at a club that finishes mid-table does not really add up to much.... I don't give a ****e about MM, he is just another clubs manager that I just do not care about...
I think at least 8 or 9 other Championship clubs would have come in for Cowie even if Cardiff had not of shown any interest. Only one player in the entire league got more assists than Cowie last season and that was Adel Taarabt. So then, one of the most creative midfield players in the Championship, who is consistent and is versatile, was out of contract and available on a free transfer. Bit of a no brainer that this would of been an excellent signing for just about any Championship club.
But no-one came in for him...it was an easy done deal to go with MM to Cardiff, it was set up for it.
it was obviously set up...if it hadn't been, other clubs would have known he was available and would have come in for him...the fact that they didn't means both Manager (MM) and Agent kept it very quiet!
Cowie is a decent Championship player, no question. I've always said that if he knew where the back of the net was he would have half a chance at one of the smaller teams in the top flight. I think a better way of putting W_Y's point is to ask why he needed to activate that clause in his contract? By all accounts the wrankling was going on for months, and he was openly unhappy with his basic wage here. If he was that confident in his ability, he could have negotiated a new contract early last season that made him one of the highest paid players under our wage cap, with a relatively low release clause (£500k or so). He almost certainly would have gotten it, because the alternative would have been that he left for nothing last summer (as he did).
How would you know if any other clubs came in for him?? The only people who would know that are Cowie and his agent. All Im saying, is that any and every football manager would all want a consistent midfield player who creates goal scoring opportunity's for others (even more so on a free)
I have it on very good authority that MM was caught trying to tap more of our players up and was warned off....our refusal to deal with Cardiff over Sordell bears that out
Well in that case I hope either you or your source reported him to the F.A as tapping up is against the rules. Making legitimate bids for players though, is just that.
Yes Mitch - you have t read the whole piece - if he had taken Sean Dyche where would we have been - 13th ? I hardly think so - so it is no thaks to MM we are 13th - oh and I think like Rodgers - in a year's time we will no longer care - where do you get your 50 years from?
We do not know how this season would have been if MM had stayed with us and DC as well or if MM had taken SD with him. Happily for us SD decided to stay and after a slow start and a lot of criticism in the Watford Observer things are coming right on the football field. Now we have played Cardiff City twice and been their equal in results and betters from the match reports, and are moving to the end of the season we can move on and wait to see what will happen next season. For me it appears SD has used his limited resource far better than MM with his really good one.
Only my opinion of course but do you seriously believe that if MM had succeeded in poaching SD as he tried to then Watford would have been able to recruit someone who would have done as well as SD has - if you do then you do not seem to rate SD as highly as many of us do. Let's face it most of us believed when SD was appointed we would be lucky to avoid relegation - the fact we have done so easily in my book is down to how well SD has done with less resources than MM had
If's, but's and maybe's. Thats what your asking me. How would I know how a different manager would have done this season??? You used the word ' nearly ' but that would imply that Sean Dyche ' nearly ' joined Cardiff. He didn't, he said no straight away. So I still dont see how Malky ' nearly ' relegated us???
