Not dodgy in that sense but I don't agree with owning multiple clubs at all. Being able to just move players back and forth at will is very dodgy imo. Other clubs have to work hard to establish links, negotiate, scout and actually pay for their players!
You could probably moan about half a dozen things that are within the 'rules'. Is it fair some have rich owners and can make huge losses, where other teams can't afford to. Is it fair a team can take someone on loan from a Premiership club who is on a massive wage, but only pay a fraction of that wage, so for a small outlay they are getting such a quality player. Is it fair a big club can buy a player for a massive fee, give him a huge payrise, then send back to the club they bought him from. I'm sure your relationship with Man Utd has helped through one or two personnel who know people personally at the club... Our owners have spent plenty of money on scouting networks (one of the best in the world), they've spent a large outlay on those players but there is not a space for them in one club, so send them out to another. It's like any other club - Man Utd and Chelsea do it plenty - how many do Chelsea have out on loan at the moment? The only difference is that most of ours have come from one club...
I regularly do The difference is that most of yours come from clubs under the same ownership as you. If a PL team loan out a youngster, every club has a chance of getting him and it comes down to who present the best package for development etc. Your loans/signings from Udinese and Grenada aren't like that, they can only go to you and you don't have to pay anything for them. While I'm irritated by Zaha staying at Palace after they got £15m for him or whatever it was, I can see why that's fine. Man U allowed it because they clearly think he's doing well there and developing well. If another club had convinced them it was better for him to spend 6 months falling over for them instead of for Palace they'd have gone along with that instead.
Udinese and Granada still send players out to clubs who think they will improve the player, whether it is Watford, a club in the 2nd tier of Spanish or Italian football. They have plenty out on loan, and not just to us. I, and many other Watford fans, can understand other people's annoyance with the rule we are using... but for us, it was better than the alternative, which would have been risking the futre of our club under the previous owner - thank god he is now banned from football for 3 years. To be honest, it actually makes sense to have some consistency with who you send out your players too. I'm sure the likes Man Utd would like to send more than ac ouple of youngsters to the same club, to get that continuity in playing together. Who is it they have links to, Antwerp? It would be interesting to see how many they send out to them at any one time. I certainly don't expect us to have anywhere near the same amount of loanees next season. The reason behind it this season was to send a number of players to us to see who would suit our club and the Championship, but also to make us competitive this season. Since then, the Pozzo scouting network would have been working to identify targets for Watford specifically, a couple of whom we tried to sign in Janaury. I believe one was Robbie Brady, who signed for you guys. Apparently we were interested and put in a bid. Another was a Man City player we tried to sign, but went back to Sheff Weds on loan. We've signed a defender from Fulham - rumours are to take a closer look, but think Fulham rate him to highly to sell to us. The Pozzos are in it for the long haul - but this season was a short term solution.
Yes, we had him on loan from Man U and were going to sign him relatively cheaply but had to pay £2.5m in the end because you beat our initial bid.
Yeah thank god for our special relationship with Man U, who for a while now appear happy to let us have their younguns to play for us.
Watford broke no rules, nobody gave a **** about them until they started doing well, I hope they stop doing well, but other than that, I'm happy for them to carry on carrying on.
Sorry about that Surprised they didn't still sell to you at the original price seeming he'd been with you and you have a pretty good relationship with them - but guess they are not a charity so wanted the highest price! Just expect more of these type of bids. Youngsters with potential, who are signed relatively cheap who they think they can sell on for a good profit a few years down the line!
Be fair it is hardly the fans fault how the club is run behind the scenes. In my opinion fines and points deductions are a punishment on fans not owners and that is wrong for any club. It is too late in the day to worry about any results bar our own, other results will only affect the number of points needed in the final table to gain promotion. At Cardiff we certainly have not got enough points and we are not playing too well ourselves. It would be a pity after having such a titanic battle to get in the top three that all three of us do not make that promotion as auto and play off winners. Football does not work like that though does it. We can actually afford to be generous when any other club is in trouble. jck
Absolute joke considering the abuse we took for the unpaid loan of Bellamy last year. I hope Hull or Palace beat them to second.
Don't know about that. Surely you also felt they were up to no good in pre-season when you saw loan after loan come in?
Out of interest, what would your reaction be if we were in the bottom 3 right now? Something along the lines of "their experiment isn't working, a bit like Donny Rovers last season"? Our loans have very little to do with this case though. Our ex owner took out loans against future income, and took the money himself (we are still owed this money, but the new owners expect to have to write this off as a bad-debt). The problem was, and why this case has come about, is he didn't declare the loans to the football league, probably so he wouldn't be found out about what he was doing. The panel took this into consideration, hence why the punishment wasn't as bad as some of our rival fans are crying about
Not really no, we were doing our own business, and seemingly better, along with Watford than Nige did for you, which is why I suspect I can smell sour grapes from you.
Just because its legal doesn't mean I have to agree with it. Gaining an unfair advantage over other clubs by having a squad they don't even own. The definition of a feeder club. People harping on about Cardiff being relegated by next Christmas, at least they have their own team. I don't know how I could cheer for players that I know are leaving in a year. To the guy saying its not the fans fault for the actions of the owners. Well, I'm sure you haven't said a bad word about Cardiffs change in colour based on that statement?. Or maybe its because people like Watford. If they don't go up It will be hilarious. If they do its will be interesting to see their transfer policy when in the premiership. If Cardiff, Leeds, Millwall, West Ham did this you'd all be moaning every second. People are so single minded that they let a team off just because of their nice, nice image. Everyone creaming over Swansea is equally as boring. If only people would see their fans in their true light....
Can't blame Watford for what they're doing as it's not wrong and fair play to them. However imo the rule should be changed. At the moment it seems like, for example, if Real Madrid decided they wanted Peterborough in the Prem, they could buy them and loan them a new midfield at no cost and then make a ton of money from the premiership deals, by using players they already have, I think the FA need to look at it but like I say, Watford are currently doing things by the book.
The important thing is that the rules are changed for next season so foreign loanees are included in the five loan players per match rule. TBH although Watford haven't literally broken any rules their policy to target and thoroughly exploit the foreign loans loophole exposes a flagrant disrespect to all other clubs and supporters. Rules can only go so far in any sport, it's up to those who compete to show the good will that they want to do so on a fair and level playing field (don't mention the KC pitch). Watford have left a dirty taste in the mouths of everyone who respects good sportsmanship and for that reason I personally hope they stay down this season. I also hope they suffer a return to their normal mediocre / struggling position next season when hopefully they can't abuse the system and their fellow competitors any more.
