I've noticed quite a few comments about the unknown quality of our new recruits. I thought start a thread to see what we do know about some of them. As I follow Helsingborg IF in the Allsvenksa here in Sweden I was quite exited when I heard that we now have Joel Ekstrand. He played here for a couple of seasons and did very well. I was reading a article about him from a few months back where he stated that he was looking for regular first team football and was hoping to sign for FC Groningen. I was quite impressed by the comments from HIF supporters wishing that he would re-sign for them. HIF have one of the best defences in the Allsvenska, so to think that he'd be an improvement shows that he has quality. Both my brother-in-law and father-in-law who is a season ticket holder rate him as a good player. Some might question the quality of the Allsvenska but I would say it's not far off the Championship. I'm not saying that he will be the answer to our prayers or that he'll even get into the team, but any information we can get on the new signings good or will help us get a clearer idea of what we should expect. Kom igen, du horn!
Good idea ! The more we find out about these new players the better, unfortunately, I don't have much else to add here.
excellent idea for a thread..maybe someone knows something about some of our 'loanees'. Thanks Sweden...interesting already
Some fans seem to know a bit on WFC forums...not sure if that is from Championship manager type games though as they appear to presume this guys will simply fit in and push us on the road to promotion... I'd like to see how they settle and adapt first.
My personal opinion is that maybe some of our new signings are not good enough for Serie A or La Liga but they will do a good job for us getting us into the Premiership. Looking at Alexandre Geijo stats when in La liga 2 you can see he can do really well at this level. Others like Matej Vydra, Almen Abdi and I suspect Cristian Battocchio will have more then enough class to shine for us. Then I'm sure some of the unknown like Fernando Forestieri, Jean-Alain Fanchone and Neuton will come through and impress us. I think we have more then enough talent in the squad now to get us going it's just a case of getting them all to play well together. Lets hope Zola can do it. Kom igen, du horn!
Not forgetting that whatever players look like on paper, they are human beings and suffer from culture shock, language difficulties and homesickness like the rest of us. I expect that we will not see more than half of the loanees on anything like a regular basis. My worry is that the squad size is now so big that Zola will have difficulties keeping all players match fit, and that we may go for the entire season without ever knowing what our best starting squad is. Worrying is also that the question of who goes and who stays does not appear to be controlled by the manager but by Duxbury and Nani.
Most Championship clubs fans would be excited about bringing in all these foreign players from top flight clubs, not here at WFC though.
I think people are excited at the thought of having a few decent overseas players coming to help us but some aren't sure if we needed quite so many. Have to say the general reaction I've noticed from reading other fans forums is that fans feel this could fall flat on us if it isn't controlled or we don't keep the players past this season. Now they might be a bit jelaous in some cases but its the old issue of can they cope with the style and nature of the Championship. Some say they'd hate for their club to go the same way because they'd lose an idenity" but then that is like saying "I'd hate to become rich via millionaires over-taking our club" In reality we'd all love that if it worked out well.
Thought I would have a look at Jean-Alain Fanchone as he is a French player. He is 24 and spent a couple of seasons with Racing StraÃburg in Ligue 2 which is the equivilent of our championship. During his time there he played a total of 60 games for them. He moved on to AC Arles-Avignon in Ligue 1 for the 2010/2011 season and played 21 times for them. For the 2011/2012 season he signed for Udinese Primavera, but only played twice for the reserve side. He is contracted to them until 2016. The estimate of his value in £s has been falling and this might be a last chance for him to show his early promise. He has never been sent off and has only scored one goal. He played 5 games for the French U19 back in 2007 and 1 game for the U18 side the year before.
I see Fanchone is a Left Back. With Pudil also being a LB does this mean that we will change the formation and move Pudil to Left Midfield?? Or does it just mean we have 2 loanee's competing for the LB position??? Also, Casetti is a Right Back, so we now have 3 first team RB's - Casetti, Hodson and Doyley, Will Lloyd or Lee be loaned out???
Casetti played on the right side of midfield when he played for Italy - Roma then converted him to a defender. I can't imagine Lloyd Doyley going out on loan, this really would rip the heart out of the club - sorry, but if the cost of success is that we have no place for his type of loyalty then I'm off. A club from such a small town as Watford is cannot afford to break it's connections to the town or to it's history.
After the bit I put up yesterday, I have found this much better article. http://inthewolfsmouth.com/2012/09/04/incoming-jean-alain-fanchone/
That is an interesting article, and does give some perspective on the Pozzo tactics and the role of Watford in their project. Obviously as well as "promising" players who need to develop their potential and showcase their value by playing in the Championship (e.g.Vydra) the Pozzo's also have on their books players who are more marginal ---and who are being given a last chance to prove their value . Might this be the case with Fanchone and some others? If so, Zola is being given a lot to do by the owners, not all of it directed at getting Watford into the top 6. Too many objectives? What is his priority ? A manager needs a clear target and to be allowed to select/set up/motivate his team to achieve it. I cannot believe that he has actually asked for all these players to be sent to Watford, since he does not need them all to make the team competitive. It looks like a recipe for confusion--and the players must be the most confused of all.
Let's hope Zola knows a lot lot lot lot more about these players than we do. here's to a better performance on Saturday !!
Having seen most ofthe new players in training I am impressed with most of them. Belleck, however seems slow and almost lazy, his shooting is often wayward and his first touch often lets him down. However the others do look promising. Alex seems fast and very aware of what is going kn around him. Although he has only done a little work with the team as hecomes back from injury. Christian looks like the best of all though. He is very quick, and is very capable in front of goal. I wont comment on Ekstrand as I only saw a little of him. I would also like to say how amazingly polite and chatty all the newbies are.
Dan, sorry if you've mentioned this elsewhere, but how have you managed to get yourself invited to the training sessions?
I havent been invited to the training sessions, there is a public footpath around the training ground. At times the players are no more than 10 feet away, you can even hear them. So I just stand on that and watch. Obviously there is nothing they can do as it is public land. Although I have been in the car park before when I went to return a ball.
Apparently there's one in particular who stands out from all the rest..he's a midfielder..i hope we see him soon! He's fab! (so i hear )
