We were told not to expect anything in Jan from the new recruitment sergeant but wait until summer - well I'm still waiting because at the moment we are not linked to anyone which is very worrying.
You can't expect the same 11 to go again for a 3 rd season at this level without some serious investment.

BOYSIE31 wrote:We were told not to expect anything in Jan from the new recruitment sergeant but wait until summer - well I'm still waiting because at the moment we are not linked to anyone which is very worrying.
You can't expect the same 11 to go again for a 3 rd season at this level without some serious investment.

It’s not the same 11 for the 3rd season though is it ?
Taylor
Westwood
McNeil
Heaton or Pope

And last time I checked it was still June and no sign of Jim White’s yellow tie

Wile E Coyote wrote:dodged a bullet in my view, he suffers terribly with piles according to a recent interview, probably sidelined for ages if we had him.

He would be if he sat on our bench in winter with those piles!

ksrclaret wrote:How long have we been trying to sign this lad? 5 years?

And Watford go and get him for 5.5m

That is what's known in the industry as doing a Burnley

I guess he's a different player now to what he was 5yrs ago, which is why we're not interested now

TVC15 wrote:It’s not the same 11 for the 3rd season though is it ?
Taylor
Westwood
McNeil
Heaton or Pope

And last time I checked it was still June and no sign of Jim White’s yellow tie

More or less and only changed through injuries - no real competition for places as no matter how **** you play in again next week unless your name is vydra

Texanclaret16 wrote:

C64E5115-DAD8-4DCB-A51E-CD11F1B7DAF9.jpeg

So confirmed WBA accept 5.5 mill offer for Dawson. Means we will not be getting him I see that as a plus.

Survived a bullet there

BOYSIE31 wrote:We were told not to expect anything in Jan from the new recruitment sergeant but wait until summer - well I'm still waiting because at the moment we are not linked to anyone which is very worrying.
You can't expect the same 11 to go again for a 3 rd season at this level without some serious investment.

I like the fact we’ve not been linked, it might mean our recruitment dept might be doing a professional job going about their business without the whole world knowing. Positive news.

Has there been a transfer window yet where boysies bottom lip hasn’t trembled the whole way through it ?

claretonthecoast1882 wrote:Has there been a transfer window yet where boysies bottom lip hasn’t trembled the whole way through it ?

No. And it doesn’t even stop when the window shuts.

Ha

BOYSIE31 wrote:More or less and only changed through injuries - no real competition for places as no matter how **** you play in again next week unless your name is vydra

More or less ?
That’s 40% of the team changed - not to mention the fact the rotation (or dropping) of Lowts / Bardsley ; Vokes with Wood / Barnes ; Lennon / Hendrick / JBG / Brady.

It’s only because we had a strong squad and Dyche bought in a number of good players who he knew he could compete for places that we have been able to do this.
Our bench / squad has gradually got stronger and stronger each season...with most weeks now we have a number of international plays on the bench every week.

Of course it’s always good to improve and sign new players but to say we have got had virtually the same eleven for 3 seasons now is just pure rubbish

I just hope that we dont ring out that old cliche that well we managed to keep hold of all our squad players without having to sell anyone after missing out on our targets.
I am living in hope that theirs plenty going on behind the scenes and potential deals are being lined up for quality players to improve our squad

Longside4evr wrote:I just hope that we dont ring out that old cliche that well we managed to keep hold of all our squad players without having to sell anyone after missing out on our targets.
I am living in hope that theirs plenty going on behind the scenes and potential deals are being lined up for quality players to improve our squad

Regardless. It's unlikely we'll be relegated with the squad we have anyway.

Well the 2 who came in last summer have made how many starts ???
Is it 3 between them ??
That is why we will struggle to attract talent as well.

Spijed wrote:Regardless. It's unlikely we'll be relegated with the squad we have anyway.

We'd have been relegated had it not been for McNeil.

Spijed wrote:Regardless. It's unlikely we'll be relegated with the squad we have anyway.

Really ?? Have you seen the average age of our squad and last season we were comfortable when - at the end of April

FactualFrank wrote:We'd have been relegated had it not been for McNeil.

Based on what?

Spijed wrote:Based on what?

Based on us not having McNeil.

His goals and assists maybe
If we were relying on Brady for that with his form then we would have gone right through that trap door

Agree 100% with Factual Frank. Up until Sean’s hand was forced due to the absolutely useless yet nailed on starter every week, Lennon, got injured then McNeil got his chance.

He turned around a team totally lacking in creativity by running at defenders + putting crosses in.

Shockingly we started to score some decisive goals. Lennon was hopeless - always backwards + sideways.

McNeil away at Huddersfield was the difference. The same in plenty of other games. I like Sean but he is change averse, in the transfer window, in his team selection when it hasn’t worked for a while and most definitely with his subs during games.

ClaretTony wrote:That’s as big an out of context reply as I’ve seen. We tried to sign him five years ago and once since. I don’t believe we were in for him this summer at all and eventually last year our main defensive target was Alfie Mawson who had agreed a deal and then shot off to Fulham.

And if our recruitment policy was a shambles I can assure you we wouldn’t be playing Premier League football.

Turned out well for Mawson

Just shows how silly West Brom were in their valuation last season, didn’t they want £20m for Dawson last season?

Giftonsnoidea wrote:Just shows how silly West Brom were in their valuation last season, didn’t they want £20m for Dawson last season?

Irrelevant, clause in his contract the same as Rodriguez

Spijed wrote:Regardless. It's unlikely we'll be relegated with the squad we have anyway.

I disagree with you on that. Last year's team finished in 15th, 3 places and 6 points above the last relegation spot. In my opinion we will only move closer to the trap door unless we continue to improve what we have.

boyyanno wrote:I disagree with you on that. Last year's team finished in 15th, 3 places and 6 points above the last relegation spot. In my opinion we will only move closer to the trap door unless we continue to improve what we have.

But we still got 28 points from 19 matches in the second half of the season.

Giftonsnoidea wrote:Just shows how silly West Brom were in their valuation last season, didn’t they want £20m for Dawson last season?

Weren't there some on here who wanted us to pay that amount last summer?

Texanclaret16 wrote:Turned out well for Mawson

It was the week we went to Aberdeen. Deal looked done and it was while up at Aberdeen that I found out his agent delayed it for him to talk to another club. I think he had injury problems last season and didn’t play too many games for Fulham.

Read on http://alfiemawson.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; that he was minutes from signing for us.


Edit: Must have the wrong link, but definitely read it.

Spijed wrote:But we still got 28 points from 19 matches in the second half of the season.

So how many did we get in the other 19, 12 points? It doesn't matter how you look at it really, at the end of the season we finished 6 points from relation. If we weren't to strengthen, which was your original point, we would be in a relegation fight based on that. Not sure how you can say it's unlikely without looking through some claret tinted specs.

If Dawson was ever under serious consideration the thread would have been closed pretty sharpish.

boyyanno wrote:So how many did we get in the other 19, 12 points? It doesn't matter how you look at it really, at the end of the season we finished 6 points from relation. If we weren't to strengthen, which was your original point, we would be in a relegation fight based on that. Not sure how you can say it's unlikely without looking through some claret tinted specs.

Aye, and notice how different the team was with Joe Hart in goal in the first half of the season, along with Europe thrown into the mix. We no longer have that issue.

I'm sure some posters will never admit that we are actually quite a good premier league side.

Spijed wrote:I'm sure some posters will never admit that we are actually quite a good premier league side.

Depends on your definition of quite good I suppose. Coming 19th, 16th, 7th & 15th to me on balance says we are a poor Premier League team. That said the fact that a club our size with our financial backing has established itself as a poorish Premier League team who's survived 3 seasons on the bounce is a monumental achievement in itself

Champions league this season.

DustyBawls wrote:Read on http://alfiemawson.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; that he was minutes from signing for us.


Edit: Must have the wrong link, but definitely read it.

Mawson had trained at Gawthorpe for a few days and shook hands on a deal then Fulham nicked in.

FactualFrank wrote:I agree.

For all we know we may have had the same offer accepted, yet we demanded relegation clauses, whereas Watford didn't have them.

I'd be amazed if that was the case. However, it may have been the case that it was more likely those relegation clauses would come into play at Burnley rather than Watford or the salary decrease at Burnley was higher.

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote:Mawson had trained at Gawthorpe for a few days and shook hands on a deal then Fulham nicked in.

It’s nice it turned out so well for him

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote:Mawson had trained at Gawthorpe for a few days and shook hands on a deal then Fulham nicked in.

I find that very hard to believe for several reasons.

Why would any club risk their player getting injured training with another team.
Also if all was done and he was here training for a few days, what was the hold up in him spending 2 minutes putting a few signatures on several peices of paper.

I'm not saying he wasnt close to signing or even travelled up here, but I very much doubt he trained for a few days and bugged off.

And to finish, if what you said did happen, it's kind of amateurish by Burnley for allowing it to happen. You should never lose a target that way ( if it did happen )

"And to finish, if what you said did happen, it's kind of amateurish by Burnley for allowing it to happen. You should never lose a target that way ( if it did happen )"

Has happened loads of times in this modern agent era

Steve-Harpers-perm wrote:Mawson had trained at Gawthorpe for a few days and shook hands on a deal then Fulham nicked in.

We dodged a bullet there then.

Wokingclaret wrote:"And to finish, if what you said did happen, it's kind of amateurish by Burnley for allowing it to happen. You should never lose a target that way ( if it did happen )"

Has happened loads of times in this modern agent era

Has it?
I cant think of 1 instance never mind loads.
Still begs the question how or why we let this happen.

Anyway I think it didnt happen.

FactualFrank wrote:We'd have been relegated had it not been for McNeil.

But we did have McNeil, he was part of the squad, and we're almost certainly going to have him next season.

As for Dawson, I'd be quite surprised if we'd had no interest in him at all last season or this summer given exactly how much noise there's been about it - but that doesn't mean he was ever first choice (and the suggestion last summer was definitely that Mawson was first choice). This summer, he was only ever a signing we needed if Tarks were to leave, and given that that doesn't appear imminent (if Leicester were his destination, Maguire would have to move first for a start), so if Watford have nipped in before we're in a position to act then there's not a lot we can do about it. And if he wasn't first choice replacement if Tarks does leave, it doesn't really matter any way.

claretspice wrote:But we did have McNeil, he was part of the squad, and we're almost certainly going to have him next season.

As for Dawson, I'd be quite surprised if we'd had no interest in him at all last season or this summer given exactly how much noise there's been about it - but that doesn't mean he was ever first choice (and the suggestion last summer was definitely that Mawson was first choice). This summer, he was only ever a signing we needed if Tarks were to leave, and given that that doesn't appear imminent (if Leicester were his destination, Maguire would have to move first for a start), so if Watford have nipped in before we're in a position to act then there's not a lot we can do about it. And if he wasn't first choice replacement if Tarks does leave, it doesn't really matter any way.

spice--- certainly a lot of 'ifs' to contend with there ---and there are always agents involved in the transactions too which does not help any situation.

BREAKING NEWS

Watford have announced the signing of Craig Dawson from West Brom on a four-year deal.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:Weren't there some on here who wanted us to pay that amount last summer?

Not me I thought we should have got Rodriguez though, if Jay is available for £5m i hope were back in for him

Selby Claret wrote:BREAKING NEWS

Watford have announced the signing of Craig Dawson from West Brom on a four-year deal.

Wow 4 years, great deal for Dawson

Wokingclaret wrote:Wow 4 years, great deal for Dawson

Thought it was too late when we went back in for him... glad we have realised we supply international defenders to the league, not give journeymen a couple of comfortable seasons away from the pressure.