Mirfin staying? Why? Sure, Mapps is likely to go, but we've got Bennett, Thompson and Hoban. If Dychey feels that isn't enough experience surely a roll of the dice (selling Mirfin to S****horpe and signing a new free agent) would be worthwhile?
Hoban is only what 18 and has never started a game for us, he will no doubt be loaned out next season. Thompson played at RB under Malky and was in and out of the Brentford team. You need 4 first team centre halfs, one for each position. I dont see what the problem is with keeping Mirfin as he is likely to be 4th choice anyway.
I don't know that it confirms anything really - he may perhaps being doing a Sadler/Ellington/Hoskins and simply be hanging on to the higher wages whilst he can. One of life's mysteries - I really don't know why we signed him in the first place.
Higher wages when for the last 3 years we have had a wage cap of £5k pw???? He could easily get triple that by moving to a Prem club.
Thompson played centre back for Northern Ireland and looked extremely comfortable/assured in the position - it may well be his natural position. And what does Malky know anyway - he played Deeney on the wing. I'd dispute that you need four first team centre backs - what you really need are two and two more who can provide cover there and in other defensive positions as well - such as Thompson & Bennett
I get that argument, but Scunny actively want to take this guy off our hands, and we went out of our way to sign a centre back as a direct result of Mirfin's performances for us when needed. If we feel that we need another experienced centre back, surely there's value in gambling on a free transfer?
And how many experienced centre halfs that are Championship standard are willing to come to Watford FC to be 3rd or 4th choice??? Unless we are able to sign someone better than Martin Taylor that is which would be ideal as he could then be 3rd choice with the new guy partnering Nosworthy. If we're not able to do that though, then Mirfin needs to stay. Our manager is big on squad depth and competition for places, you cant knock him for that even if Mirfin was poor in his 4 appearances.
Sorry, thought you were talking about Mapps. But back to your previous comment, Mirfin wont be on the sort of wages that Sadler and Hoskins were on anyway, he will be on under £5k pw.
As far as I can tell, Mirfin wants to go to scunny , scunny want Mirfin ,he is hardly a regular with us , let the lad go !
TBF Dyche also played Deeney on the wing in the first few months of the season just gone. Ive never seen Thompson at CB, Ive only seen him at RB so I cant comment on that. But if we found ourselves in a situation where Martin Taylor got a straight red card and Nosworthy was out injured then would you have faith/confidence in Thompson and Bennett both starting at centre half for 3 games??? Thompson often found himself on the bench for Brentford, so if he's not good enough for Brentford then is he good enough for us????
A couple of seasons back both Bennett and Thompson had games where they looked assured , to answer your question Mitch yes I would trust them to step it up! No point having them here if your always gonna be scared to play them . Bennett looked good against wet spam before getting injured in a freaky accident , Thommo has had a lot of good reviews from the Bees ,(dont forget he took a knock and was rested there ,prob under orders from us).
Our business model means we have to blood our young men or by cheap elsewhere and sell at a profit ,this will be required for at least a couple more seasons, How can we sell and maximise profit from our young men if we dont play them! When the bond payments and debt are eradicated then we can change our business objectives to match our sporting ambitions.
I have never seen Thompson play, but I have seen Bennett. From my point of view he is a very good young Championship player and I just hope that he does not become fraustrated at the lack of opportunity to play for us.
Wasn't implying that he was on similar wages to Sadler etc - merely suggesting that his wage at Scunny, should he transfer, may be considerably less than he gets at Watford, hence his desire to stay at Watford.
BB You clearly have no faith in SD as a salesman. Mirfin will go to Stoke for GBP800k in July. After that he has some fridges he needs to sell.
