Sheffield Wednesday, Grimsby, Northampton and Carlisle have kicked us off so time to get this show on the road.
Who should your club release or look to move on? Who is likely to be poached or reject a contract offer? Who's sitting comfortably for next season?
Watford are in a relatively comfortable position. Heurelho Gomes (38) and Miguel Britos (nearly 34) are the two ageing first-teamers out of contract. Gomes would likely get an extension if he wanted one but has stated that he will retire to become a priest, agent or possibly both (interchangeable skills?). He'll make the last appearance of his career in the FA Cup final. I was mildly surprised that Britos, our fourth choice centre-back under Gracia, got a one-year deal last summer. I doubt we'd have offered him a new terms, but he says he wants to return to Uruguay and have BBQs with his family anyway - fair enough.
The other semi-experienced player without a contract is another centre-back, Tommie Hoban (25). He looked a prospect when coming out of the academy and featured a fair bit in our 2015/16 promotion season but has suffered an injury ravaged four seasons - he's out now after suffering a cruciate ligament tear on loan at Aberdeen. I would expect the club to help him recover for as long as is necessary, but I can't see him getting another deal sadly. Another centre-back, Sebastian Prodl (32 this summer) has a further two years on his contract but has spent most of the season injured, playing only thirteen minutes in the league. He had an unconvincing 2017/18 too, and I'd guess the club will look to move him on, especially as consensus among the fans is centre-back the area we need to strengthen the most.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (26) was expected to leave last summer after his stand-out season, but after being linked with just about everyone he rather surprisingly signed a new contract. I don't think anyone expected him stick around beyond this season - he's still inclined to talk about his ambitions in the press and besides, the club's model is that they can offer talented players a step towards the big leagues (see Richarlison) while balancing the books at the same time. If they can't get a player that's ready out the door then that might damage their reputation to a degree. That said, he's been outshone by Etienne Capoue this season, and no-one seemed to get that close last summer.
Roberto Pereyra (28) and Gerard Deulofeu (25) are slightly different players, coming from massive clubs to be big fish in a small pond before rising again. The former has been with us three years and the latter 18 months. Neither seems to be drawing much press gossip, bar the occasional story linking them respectively to Torino (can't see why that'd interest him) and AC Milan (a former loan club). I think Pereyra drifts out of too many games to interest a big team while Deulofeu has gained a fair bit of attention for his performances this season, but still probably needs a really spectacular season to draw any interest from the big six (alternatively if Watford got relegated he could get picked up Shaqiri style). I can't see any foreign teams coming in for them - when do you ever see anyone from the continent paying the big money that's required for mid-table Premier League talent?
While most of the other pros will be starting the new season with us, some question marks hang over the future of Isaac Success (23) and Adalberto Penaranda (nearly 22). While we're very pretty around the box, there's been a fair number of games where it comes to nothing and most people seem to think we're a striker light (but then, who isn't?). Troy and Andre Gray have done enough, but Success has done very little since a few positive games in early autumn. Penaranda waited out a few seasons on loan before he got a work permit, but having arrived this summer he's had niggling injuries and has only been trusted with a start against sixth-tier Woking in the FA Cup. The fact he hasn't surfaced on the bench when any of the aforementioned strikers is out suggests there's not a great deal of faith in him. Both could depart on loan, but if they did so I doubt they'd return. Meanwhile the club has two talents in Europe who could come back to fill their boots - Dodi Lukebakio (21) has 10 goals in this season's Bundesliga playing for Dusseldorf (including a hatrick against Bayern) while Colombian Cucho (20) has spent two seasons at Huesca, the second in La Liga, waiting for a work permit - he's probably done enough now.
Otherwise, the club seem unimpressed with anyone who came through the academy prior to their shake-up of the management a year or so ago. Club media has focused on the under-18s who reached the FA Youth Cup semis and how scholars and schoolboys are being promoted up the age groups. Two strikers who do hold deals until 2020, Alex Jakubiak and Michael Folivi, have been on loan in League One, where neither have set the world on fire. They should be hoping for the good of their careers that they've done enough that a deal can be struck either with their current clubs or at ones at a similar level as further loans are just delaying the inevitable. Other than that the under-23 pool, already slashed quite significantly last summer, seems to be out of contract and I would expect the majority to be released. A few got National League loans this season and I imagine that's roughly where they'll end up.
The club have two first-team outcasts at sister club Udinese - Marvin Zeegelaar and Stefano Okaka. They've been getting game time there so I wouldn't be surprised to see those deals made permanent. There's also a variety of players the club have registered but have never formally acknowledged - they're largely on loan in the lower reaches of the Spanish league system. Some of them may be out of contract - either way I doubt we'll see any of them at Watford.
2018 edition of this thread here.
Who should your club release or look to move on? Who is likely to be poached or reject a contract offer? Who's sitting comfortably for next season?
Watford are in a relatively comfortable position. Heurelho Gomes (38) and Miguel Britos (nearly 34) are the two ageing first-teamers out of contract. Gomes would likely get an extension if he wanted one but has stated that he will retire to become a priest, agent or possibly both (interchangeable skills?). He'll make the last appearance of his career in the FA Cup final. I was mildly surprised that Britos, our fourth choice centre-back under Gracia, got a one-year deal last summer. I doubt we'd have offered him a new terms, but he says he wants to return to Uruguay and have BBQs with his family anyway - fair enough.
The other semi-experienced player without a contract is another centre-back, Tommie Hoban (25). He looked a prospect when coming out of the academy and featured a fair bit in our 2015/16 promotion season but has suffered an injury ravaged four seasons - he's out now after suffering a cruciate ligament tear on loan at Aberdeen. I would expect the club to help him recover for as long as is necessary, but I can't see him getting another deal sadly. Another centre-back, Sebastian Prodl (32 this summer) has a further two years on his contract but has spent most of the season injured, playing only thirteen minutes in the league. He had an unconvincing 2017/18 too, and I'd guess the club will look to move him on, especially as consensus among the fans is centre-back the area we need to strengthen the most.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (26) was expected to leave last summer after his stand-out season, but after being linked with just about everyone he rather surprisingly signed a new contract. I don't think anyone expected him stick around beyond this season - he's still inclined to talk about his ambitions in the press and besides, the club's model is that they can offer talented players a step towards the big leagues (see Richarlison) while balancing the books at the same time. If they can't get a player that's ready out the door then that might damage their reputation to a degree. That said, he's been outshone by Etienne Capoue this season, and no-one seemed to get that close last summer.
Roberto Pereyra (28) and Gerard Deulofeu (25) are slightly different players, coming from massive clubs to be big fish in a small pond before rising again. The former has been with us three years and the latter 18 months. Neither seems to be drawing much press gossip, bar the occasional story linking them respectively to Torino (can't see why that'd interest him) and AC Milan (a former loan club). I think Pereyra drifts out of too many games to interest a big team while Deulofeu has gained a fair bit of attention for his performances this season, but still probably needs a really spectacular season to draw any interest from the big six (alternatively if Watford got relegated he could get picked up Shaqiri style). I can't see any foreign teams coming in for them - when do you ever see anyone from the continent paying the big money that's required for mid-table Premier League talent?
While most of the other pros will be starting the new season with us, some question marks hang over the future of Isaac Success (23) and Adalberto Penaranda (nearly 22). While we're very pretty around the box, there's been a fair number of games where it comes to nothing and most people seem to think we're a striker light (but then, who isn't?). Troy and Andre Gray have done enough, but Success has done very little since a few positive games in early autumn. Penaranda waited out a few seasons on loan before he got a work permit, but having arrived this summer he's had niggling injuries and has only been trusted with a start against sixth-tier Woking in the FA Cup. The fact he hasn't surfaced on the bench when any of the aforementioned strikers is out suggests there's not a great deal of faith in him. Both could depart on loan, but if they did so I doubt they'd return. Meanwhile the club has two talents in Europe who could come back to fill their boots - Dodi Lukebakio (21) has 10 goals in this season's Bundesliga playing for Dusseldorf (including a hatrick against Bayern) while Colombian Cucho (20) has spent two seasons at Huesca, the second in La Liga, waiting for a work permit - he's probably done enough now.
Otherwise, the club seem unimpressed with anyone who came through the academy prior to their shake-up of the management a year or so ago. Club media has focused on the under-18s who reached the FA Youth Cup semis and how scholars and schoolboys are being promoted up the age groups. Two strikers who do hold deals until 2020, Alex Jakubiak and Michael Folivi, have been on loan in League One, where neither have set the world on fire. They should be hoping for the good of their careers that they've done enough that a deal can be struck either with their current clubs or at ones at a similar level as further loans are just delaying the inevitable. Other than that the under-23 pool, already slashed quite significantly last summer, seems to be out of contract and I would expect the majority to be released. A few got National League loans this season and I imagine that's roughly where they'll end up.
The club have two first-team outcasts at sister club Udinese - Marvin Zeegelaar and Stefano Okaka. They've been getting game time there so I wouldn't be surprised to see those deals made permanent. There's also a variety of players the club have registered but have never formally acknowledged - they're largely on loan in the lower reaches of the Spanish league system. Some of them may be out of contract - either way I doubt we'll see any of them at Watford.
2018 edition of this thread here.
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