And the rest - DU are asking £2M. If you do land him, don't expect to keep him for long - Barlinnie beckons
mmm, another rubbish day following on from yesterday's news that Wiggins didn't want to play for Watford. Roger is right, we all knew Cowie was a "likely departure", but the shock is in the fee. Cowie was a "subtley effective" player in our midfield - when he wasn't playing we seemed to missed his ability to link up play. What is really surprising to me is the bitterness from our contributors. I think the visitors to this board need to understand something. This Summer has seen quite a few big blows to our prospects, we have a clown as an owner, we have lost key staff (Manager, Chief Exec + backroom staff) and 3 of our key players. When you bear in mind our small family club only had 6 or 7 "key players", to lose 3 of them all at once is a blow. When you look at situations at other clubs, where there is an almost "pantomime" stream of press releases stating alledged links to signing various players (QPR!!!!!!) Watford deal in an honourable way. I don't think anyone has been particularly dis-honourable this summer at the club : Malky left because he didn't want to work for the new regime and its constraints - fair enough IMO. He has since signed up 3 members of his previous staff, this is usual in football and compensation has been agreed. Players have left - Graham and Buckley for cash up front fees as this is the way the new regime wants to deal. Cowie is a nasty shock because of all the senior players he was the only one who had not signed an extended contract. I remember at the Preston game, I thought his "good bye" was a little forced (Malky told him to clap the fans). What do we have left? Err not very much, except we do have a bulging bank balance. And I believe Dyche has money to spend (at least £1m), but it appears no-one wants our money. 4 years ago this happened to Aidy Boothroyd, and he spent all the budget on NATHAN (we later found out the money had not been available in the first place). Marvin Sordell has used his Twitter ID to regularly assert that he is not leaving Watford, and he should be praised. He is clearly part of our future and is now the leading goalscorer at the club. Pre Season training begins in earnest on Monday, Sean Dyche has a huge challenge ahead of him as we all clamour for credibility. It is clear Dyche has to pull together a competitive unit to take on this challenge. As supporters we need to forget MacKay (we wont see him until the season is halfway gone). So I will bid the Cardiff supporters farewell, and hope that we meet them on an equal footing by Christmas.
Hi everbody,Cardiff fan in peace. I just thought I'd let you know that there have been quite a few posts on our message boards expressing sympathy toward your club and the situation you find yourselves in.We are not all wind-up merchants and I hope things work out well for you. The Boxing day fixture should prove interesting!!
H, I am stunned by your bitterness. I know this is not your normal stance and only hope you can recover your normal composure tomorrow.
This is the first bit of news this summer which has really knocked me for six. We all knew Graham was going to leave. I don't think too many of us were gutted by Buckley's departure when we saw the fee, although many of us were surprised. I expected Mackay was going to go as soon as the bookies had him at odds on (although I wasn't certain when I heard that Shearer was being interviewed). I had even braced myself for the possibility of Cowie leaving, perhaps following Mackay to Cardiff. But I had never imagined we would lose him on a free. What a kick in the balls.
Totally agree. I was really angry when I heard about this but mainly due to the fact it is a free. On the Wobby site it states that the club are investigating Cowies contract! Does anyone know what they mean?
It all sounds very dodgy...as most people seem to be under the impression that he had a year left on his contract...
sounds legal speak to me .... If proved could bring a heap of crap down on MM , Oh please if there is a god!!!!!!
All the departures up until now, I have managed to move on from, but when I went onto BBC Sport this morning, this news just completely shocked me. Cowie is, by far, the biggest departure among the players, simply because when he played well, the team played well, and to lose him on a free is ridiculous. I always used to side with MM when people were slating him, but now I hate him. He has a £20m budget, and all he can do is raid his former club - a club that is predicted to be fighting for its Championship survival - and bring in players on free transfers. Perhaps MM isn't as good as he would like us to think, if he is having to rely uppon players from former clubs...
Frankly I'm not surprised by what has happened and fully expect further departures. But I'm a bit shocked by the extreme reaction of some 'orns here. [As for anti scottish sentiment - just grow up]. We can all blame people outside the club for all our woes, imagine everyone who doesn't offer their life to Watford must have questionable parentage, and suspect brown envelopes must have been passed every time a potential Watford target goes elsewhere. We can all imagine that our death warrant has been signed. But back in the real world we have a club that is rebuilding. We have an exciting management team from GT down to the boot cleaner. We have some great young players. Yes I enjoyed watching DonC in action but I'm glad he has gone because he didn't want to be here anymore - unlike me and many here he is not a 'orn, he is a professional footballer with ambition. And within a few weeks we'll see Sean build his squad and Don will be a distant memory. Enough from me, enjoy your weekend everyone ps. To our visiting Saint - your 6 points will be very welcome
Babyhornetdan, a week ago you accused me of being childish. Now you wish physical injury on Mackay. Hmmm. Pot. Kettle. Black.
Thank you for the sentiments about the Anti Scottish vibe on here. I have been fuming since reading this last night! Some people do need to grow up! But let us get over this, as I have said previously what would you have said if MM or DC were English?
I agree Proud Scottish Hornet. How many of our 'legends' were not English? I dread to think what would have been written if Mackay was of a darker ethnicity. Could these same anti-Scottish fools repeat their comments in the presence of John McClelland? I apologise on their behalf.
Oh it's you hornetal. Sorry, I turned off the avatars, signatures etc because I was getting bored by them and didn't realise who you were!
Have come into this all a bit late... I did read somewhere a few months ago that Cowie was out of contract this summer, but never really heard any more on it. He didn't want to sign a new one and wanted that big move, and got it. If he doesn't want to wear the yellow shirt and give 100%, then good riddance. We are in a position where we need everyone to give their all He is a good player, but wouldn't say much more than that. If it wasn't for Malky leaving, would he really have been on anyone else's radar? As for Malky... if his ambitions are to take 'Watford-standard' people, especially if Cardiff have all this money they supposedly have, then he could well struggle. It is very disappointing that he feels he has to come after our targets and our players! You'd think if he actually cared for our club, the he would have 'let us have them', and gone for 'bigger' players
