Article: Watford V Leeds united, match thread Watford FC Football

As Leo says, you present your views politely but sadly they are very ignorant too.

 

I re-read my comments and just to elaborate - The comment about Youth is not aimed at Watford... Scrap all loan signings and how many of the umpteen young English players Arsenal, Chelsea and others in the premiership have would stick around?

They might for a season or two but they would have to drop a division and sign for Championship teams if they wished to further their career. This would lead to more home grown talent being developed and it would also mean the big clubs having to 'buy them back' when the cream rises to the top spreading more money through the lower divisions.

 

You make a good point ristac and you have argued it well and without abuse, but we all know it will never happen. The Prem will never go for it as they use the loan system to keep their squads artificially high and within the limits. We feel that the Pozzo's offer a good sustainable business model that brings along a lot of young talent and profits from it when they can - it may be different, but I certainly prefer it to what you went through with Risedale and the £80M hole that Cardiff will be entering the Prem with.

 

Sorry totally wrong - You are able to exploit a loophole because of your owner and his connections, what other club in the Championship could do the same?[/QUOTE]

Good God, how many more times do we have to say, it's NOT a loophole. It's the rules. I don't hold you 'ristac' personally responsible for all the financial/ownership shenanigans that should have booted Leeds out of football completely, in fact I sympathise with any club that Ken Bates even looks at,
but the plain fact is WFC have not exploited any loopholes. 'What other club could do the same ?' ANY OTHER CLUB ! What other club should have the resources of Leeds United in the FL. Hardly any. LUFC should be by far and away (if their 'supporters' are to be believed) the best club and richest club outside the Premier league. How many of the smaller clubs would like a following like LUFC (when they are not being hooligans) ? All of them.

GET OVER IT. Come back next season, and try to talk about football.

 

... .... when we are in the Prem

 

Sympathy. How DID that happen to you?

 

He's doing missionary work bringing light to the heathens..

 

Actually, we started the season with 14 loanees. Now, i believe we have 10 including one from Chelsea and one from Fulham. In fact, if we're being precise about it, we have 2 loanees, and 8 temporary transfers. Incidently, Ipswich have loaned 14 players this season. Hull have a fair few, and a couple of Egyptian internationals to boot...but nobody mentions these facts. The fact that, as Dan said, our owners have read the rule book, and the fact that the team has gelled far quicker than expected and we lie in 3rd with an outside chance of automatic promotion has riled players, fans and managers of other clubs. Truth is, the rules won't change because other club chairmen have decided it's actually a good idea, and they'll be doing the same next season. You never know, your lot might do it..should we all start whinging about it when they do? .

we don't have room for anymore..we're sold out.

Ooh just a few rows behind me! Just make sure you say hello



And welcome to the thread Leeds fans

 

Most definitely, we already do complain and whing when we have 3-4 loan players featuring, most of our fans don't see it as a strategy we enjoy.

A couple or so seasons back we had four and there were many myself included complaining

 

I actually agree with this. We'll put up with the loans of course as they're doing exceptionally well for us this year but i'd rather have 11 home grown players that we own. I think the majority of supporters would. Sadly those days are gone.

 

I doubt that they have ever existed Dan - players have always come from far and wide. The only instance I can recollect of a truly home grown team of players is Celtic's Lisbon Lions team of 1967 - every player in the squad was born within 10 miles of Parkhead Stadium.

I'm sure someone on here will prove me wrong though.....

 

The Estudiantes team that won the copa de Libertadores and beat Man utd in the World Club Cup that year - everyone of the players was born in the same street in a suburb of montevideo.

 

How great is that clip on the match thread with (what I assume is) the Arabic commentary.

In basket ball (and some dance hits) they say the sound of the ball hitting the board and then going round the hoop makes a "Boom Shakalaka" sound. What sound did Chalobah's goal make when it smashed onto the bar thudded behind the line and rattled the net?

 

I really do get frustrated at how often misinformed views are now being made about how Watford has been run over the past few months, and how need to address some of the inaccuracies, misunderstandings or misinformation that now seem to be propagating throughout the media and football supporters.

The one area that really riles me is when those outside of the club and its supporters make assumptions or accusations regarding the youth policy at Watford. We have this season signed 5 of our young players on long term contracts. Sean Murray has been in the 16 more often than last season, Tommie Hoban, at 18 years old and having not played for Watford at all last season, had made 19 starts until his ankle injury a few weeks ago (which has kept him out the rest of the season) and was practically an ever present in the defence. 19 year old Connor Smith, who did not play at all last year, had made 7 starts and 5 as sub before his cruciate injury before Christmas, which has kept him out all season. 19 year old Goalkeeper Jonathon Bond, from our Academy, who was not among our first two keepers last year, has been on the bench all season, and made over 10 first team appearances, and one as sub.
Also, as a further addition, Adam Thompson, a 20 year old from our Academy, although only playing 4 matches this season and a further 4 as sub, did not play at all last season.

The other area that keeps being raised is the number of loanees at the club. I don’t necessarily disagree that the current rules may need addressing, it is very important to recognise that the club is not breaking any rules, or found any 'loopholes'. But equally, had there been rules on limits, who is to say we would not have signed some of those players permanently?

Instead of concentrating on the quantity of ‘loanees’, let us break them down a little.

1) Marco Cassetti was at Roma, not Udinese. He was signed as a Watford player, but for whatever reason the Pozzo family decided it was better to put him on Udinese’s books and loan him to Watford. He has never played for Udinese, and I am sure if the ‘rules’ were different he still would have been signed, but as a Watford player.
2) Geoffrey Mujangi Bia, on loan from Standard Liege, has only made 4 starts for the club this season
3) Jean-Alain Fanchone, made 1 appearance and the loan was cancelled in January
4) Steve Leo Beleck, made 5 appearances and we have now sent him out on loan to Stevenage.
5) Neuton, has made just 8 appearances.
6) Alex Geijo, has made 15 appearances, but has been largely unable to dislodge our young English striker, Troy Deeney

This leaves the following players that have played regularly;
Nathaniel Chalobah, (young English player from Chelsea)
Cristian Battocchio, Lars Ekstrand, Matej Vydra, Almen Abdi, Daniel Pudil, Ikechi Anya (who is Scottish), from Udinese/Granada.

Of these (including Fernando Forrestieri who signed on permanent terms in January), it was reported when we signed them, that 5 were on ‘year long loan with option to buy’, believed to have been Forrestieri, Abdi, Pudil Ekstrand and Vydra.

I look around the league and I see clubs like Cardiff, Nottingham Forest and Leicester being in large debt, paying high wages, spending large transfer fees. I see how Portsmouth was run. I see what has happened at Chelsea over the years, and at Man City now. I see how two of the last three owners at Watford have nearly bankrupt the club.

I fail to understand why it is OK for clubs to be run at massive debt, who having rich owners that are frivolous with the clubs, try to (and some cases succeed) in buying success, but otherwise put the clubs at risk, is deemed as OK. Yet having owners that are frugal, are operating within the rules, and having a team that is playing very attractive football is now something to be derided?

 

Crewe fielded a whole team of players that have come through their own ranks last Saturday - not quite the same league as the legendary Celtic team that one the European Cup, but demonstrates that having a strong youth development policy and being close to a large source of potential i.e. Liverpool, Manchester, Midlands can pay off. But you can also argue that Crewe will always have to sell off the cream and will remain a lower league club despite this.

 

Hull have had their fair share of loan signings too but not such so obvious... Stockdale, Brady, Mehler, Gedo, Boyd, Elmohamady

 

Dario Gradi has always been heralded as everything that's great with football and the Crewe academy has produced some great talent but have they actually achieved anything other than survival as a club and with the EPPP regulations capping transfer fees and allowing the big clubs full access to scout their players their lng term future must be in doubt.

 

Goldentrue - problem is that most football "fans" believe what they read on the back pages of the Red Tops and what they hear from mouth-pieces like Holloway and Ince and just repeat it. They do not take the time to find out for themselves the real facts behind a story..

One aspect that I think we ignore is I believe the Pozzo's have been a bit clever in not signing some of the loan players on perm contracts. They knew that our dealing with the finance company to factor the incoming revenue from Danny Graham and the FL Pool money would have meant a transfer embargo had we rightfully informed the FL, so I believe they did a "voluntary" transfer embargo to smooth things over when we finally went to the tribunal.

What will be interesting is to see if the clubs will vote to restrict the number of loan signings from foreign clubs as well - if they do not, then the likes of Holloway and Martin Samuels can go and someone else to blame.

Excellent stuff BTW...