For me next season is a settling season, with knew owner Bassini having to get to know the club, I think anywhere above 17th would be a success, I think we all expect Graham to be on his way out at the end of the season, but then Sordell has shown himself to be improving, his two goals against Leicester were a joy to watch. I think the worst thing for watford is expectation again next season, the more people that say we will do well the worse we will do
For me my biggest hope is that we have a team to support still. If the board do not start to open up I think Mr Bassini needs to get to know straight away that he cant keep his mouth shut and he is primarily accountable to the supporters not any backers he may have. Footballs a funny old game in that this is actually true and the supporters can make life hell for an outed iresponsible owner if that turns out to be the case.
I would like to see us finish in the top half. This would be an improvment on this season and given the rumour mill is spinning and we would appear to be losing some big names, any improvement is fantastic. We are a small club and i think we are right where we need to be for now. Going to the prem would be amazing but it would not develop the team. However, saying that the money would work wonders.
Tell you bit of advice for Bassini, if he pumped a few million in the club, then the return from going up would be massive!!!!
It's too early to tell for me. By the end of Summer......I could be saying "Hopefully a better challenge for the play offs" or......"realistically survival would be great". Even without Danny I think we could hope to survive.......but we'd really struggle for sure.
YOu may be right but that tactic was tired after we came down and ended in disaster - it would be the club that owed money in the end if we speculate and fail. I do not want to go down that route again. I will accept small gradual improvement coming mainly from home grown talent - and holding on to inexpensive jewels like JE
that's exactly how i'm feeling...we won't know until we know who we have..i know what i'd like, but i can't possibly know if it's realistic yet..it's way too early to say.
Predictions for next season: 1) FA Cup Final will be held in August to avoid clashing with FA's annual censuring of Sir Alec Ferguson; 2) Abramovic will sell Chelski to Bassini - the Stamford Bridge pitch will be lifted and relaid at Vicarage Road until such time as Saracens move out and the old Shed End will be taken out of moth balls and re-erected at The Vic, replacing the East Stand. 3) Sepp Blatter will finally be unmasked as corrupt, will change his name to Seb bin Latter and hide in a fortress in Pakistan for the next ten years; 4) Qatar will lose the right to host the 2022 World Cup and Seb bin Latter's final act will be to award the rights to Iceland in return for a lifetime supply of volcano smoked cod. That's about it really - the rest would just fanciful thinking
BB - you need to take some chill pills don't you? NOw everone knows it is much better to have the FA Cup during the season - so that we don't miss it thinking that the league is finished. Who cares about silly tradition eh? And the Charity Shield - must be a better time to hold it than first game of the season - think of all those potentail "charity givers" who might be on holiday. And the Premiership - well how did we ever enjoy football without it? Think you need to try a bit harder on your anagrams of Sepp Blatter though - stress has obviously blocke dyour creative juices. On last night's HIGNFY Paul Merton told a joke involving Summer Bed Linen
Cant really predict too much yet ,although continuing survival in the championship whilst getting the club financially sound would make me very happy!
Realistically I hope we are able to retain or acquire sufficient players to make a little progress on this season. Of course it will be hard but Malky is a year better, our youngsters are a year more experienced and at the start of this season we did not know that DG would turn into a superstar. I will be disappointed if we battle against relegation as I think as a group we are better than that - but time will tell
Got your yellow tinted specs on I see Leo Hope your right , we willl know more when the season starts and we know what we have left to work with! Dont forget in all honesty this division will be tougher next season with the arrival of Brighton,southampton possiby Blackpool etc
No the reason for the financial mayhem is because we signed people on so much money in the premiership that just weren't very good, as long as you dont have a premier league teams wage budget you'll be fine, Watford have the basis for a good team, just a little more money needed to make them that team
A few Championship predictions: John Eustace won't be joining Derby for anything nearly as low as ã200,000. Andrew Taylor won't be joining Watford for anything nearly as low as ã100,000. Ken Bates will continue to have one of the best legal teams in the world, to ensure he can continue to sail closer to the wind than most. His face will also continue to be phased out of KFC packaging. Barnsley will finish bottom. Malky will take us to a top ten finish, and be poached by another club this time next year. Danny Graham's fee will be lower than ã5m. Doyley will fall agonisingly short of Cliff Holton's record.
Folks this is just not going to happen. Malky tells us we had the 23rd largest playing budget last season, with Scunny now relegated it is safe to assume we will have about the smallest playing budget going forward. Bearing that in mind I will accept anything higher than 21st in the table.
But why? Do you think when Blackpool got promoted their budget was in the top half of the Championship? You cannot draw the league table on budgets alone. We are supposed to have invested in the Academy to produce a home grown crop of talented youngsters - which I think we have. Everybody agrees MM is a good manager - we have finished around mid table the last two or three years - our financial position is better than wehn we were paying high salaries for the likes of Ellington - so I expect us to be as good as this season if not better next
All depends on the ins and outs in the close season Leo ! If we can keep the same personell then we might be ok , if we can strengthen ,we may challenge! If we are weakened any further then Elixir is right we will struggle!
I expect us to lose our top goalscorer and possibly keeper who despite this season's form is an international.- hence the side is weaker to that extent. However we do have other strikers and did not expect so much this year from DG. Also Loach's form did not add many points this year. Losing JE would be a big blow as the money for hi would be peanuts. On the other side - a year of decent keeping from someone, actually having FBs who can defend (probably need to buy there) and then the general increase in age and experience of this young squad and the manager means we must not write the season off before we start. We should expect to improve on this season after allowing for "ins" and "outs" in my book. Malky is good but need to be more consistent - we cant have these long losing runs - but that is part of his learning curve. I am quietly optimistic
