Wesley Hoolahan Frustrating little man, Can make things happen quick as that Or drop things down the pan, Were it not Lambert P Whom he would surely see, If we acceded to his wish I dare say we´d agree, For we have better here In Howson J and Fer, At least in the role Hughton wants If fit and well the pair, But odds are he will go Probably when this show, Is over in the summertime With Villa down below.
Realistic possible replacements (or we could just get them for cover!): Giovani dos Santos Almen Abdi Clement Grenier Mati Fernandez Craig Bryson Christian Bruls Remy Cabella Luke Hyam Marco Parolo Yacine Brahimi
Cabella is looking pretty Newcastle bound I think. Fernandez and Grenier I reckon are probably out of our range. Hyam would be controversial. I don't know much about Abdi and Bryson, I know they are doing well in Championship but don't really know their style of play. Not too familiar with the rest although I've just read Marco Parolo is a target for AC Milan.
If Wes does go, I really don't want it to be under any cloud. He's been fantastic for us. We should give him a great send-off and wish him all the best. I really don't think he'll be allowed to go until we have a replacement done & dusted (which could still be this month, of course, but more likely in the summer).
Yeah, I saw the Cabella thing, but I'd heard it was denied by Newcastle and haven't seen the latest. Probably out of our price range in any event. I think Fernandez we could get, agree that Grenier would be difficult, though. Hyam was my red herring to test whether our Binner stalkers would spot it before any of the true faith did! Parolo is probably out of our price range, but it's since to dream! Abdi makes Watford click, I really rate him. Bryson is having a great season but would not obviously be a step up. Bruls, similarly. I think Yacine Brahimi could be the best value
I can't blame, he's been frozen out with Elmander ahead of him. How frustrating must that be for him. He's reaching the end of his career and probably wants to be on that pitch more often.
Don't get me wrong, I would love Fernandez or Grenier. I will keep my eye on Abdi than, is he tricks and flair or is he quite simple but effective. If that makes sense? Yeah Brahimi seems a good age. Good be pretty good.
Why do you think we couldn't get Fernandez? Abdi - bit of flair, but he also just makes Watford tick, cool calm and collected. Very confident in possession and with pin point passing/shooting. He is seen as a little slow or casual (Udinese fans apparently called him the sloth, but Watford fans claim he's more than that - it was because he did not fit Udinese's counter-attacking style). And the reason for their terrible form has been his injury. I suppose he'd be a risk because of that injury though.
I shouldn't oversell him - he has done nothing to suggest he's better than Hoolahan, but he has a similar history of not quite being in a manager's plans. He also has the attributes in the Championship of the sort of player we need. Whether he could make that step up, I don't know. He certainly performed miracles in the Swiss league, but struggled to make an impact in Serie A or (for the brief time he was there) Ligue 1
His wages, I suppose. Although I don't know how much they would come to. I suppose with Anderson coming in he may be out in the cold. Problem with January transfer window is a player like that would need time to bed in.
Two good points. I suppose that would be the major benefit of looking at the Championship, though there's obviously significantly less quality there.
I don't actually know what his wages are, but having played with some big clubs and being a highly rated youngster I imagine they are towards high end for us, if not beyond our wage budget.
Yeah, google doesn't tell us much. Suggestion is he's on around £20k per week at the moment, so not convinced we'd be able to persuade him to leave. There was a rumour that Aquilani took a big pay cut from his Liverpool salary to join Fiorentina, but a big pay cut of a stupidly large salary still probably leaves a pretty large salary...
Totally agree, really hope people don't forget how important he was in the lambert years. Brought some absolutely brilliant memories, made you excited to be at the game, contributed a lot more than he got credit for. Up there with some of the best players of the last 10/20 years for me without doubt. I've loved watching him.
We can only wish but I can't see us getting anyone before the 31st, the Wes rumour has been around for a bit but I have a horrible feeling we have no replacements lined up.
Hopefully this has been handled reasonably well and Wes isn't going to find himself training with the U21's for the rest of the season, but will continue to be in and around the first team. It wouldn't surprise me if we've said no for now, but agreed to move him on in the summer if he finds a suitable club.
I think if we find a replacement he'll go this transfer window, there isn't much point keeping an unhappy player in the squad when there is money for a replacement. I also think £1.5 million for him is quite disrespectful. I know he's no spring chicken but I wouldn't accept anything less than £2.5 - £3 million.
Thing I find interesting is that this is after a meeting with McNally, so I reckon it's a contract issue and not footballing issues. Very similar issue to Holt, DM wouldn't give him the extra year he wanted so Holt handed in a transfer request.
