Season Preview 2022 – Part 6 29/07/2022

SWANSEA CITY

INS: Harry Darling (Milton Keynes Dons, Undisclosed), Matthew Sorinola (Union SG, Undisclosed), Nathan Wood (Middlesbrough, Undisclosed), Joe Allen (Stoke City, Free), Archie Matthews (Birmingham City, Free)

OUTS: Flynn Downes (West Ham United, £12,000,000), Yan Dhanda (Ross County, Free), Ben Hamer (Watford, Free), Jacob Jones (Forest Green Rovers, Free), Jamie Searle (Barnsley, Free), Korey Smith (Derby County, Free), Morgan Whittaker (Plymouth Argyle, Season Loan), Nico Defreitas-Hansen, Josh Gould, Finley Burns (Manchester City, End of Loan), Cyrus Christie (Fulham, End of Loan), Rhys Williams (Liverpool, End of Loan), Hannes Wolf (Borussia Mönchengladbach, End of Loan)

OUR EX-SWANS: Ben Hamer

THEIR EX-ORNS: Julian Winter (Chief Executive)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Fisher
    Cabango         Bennett            Darling
Naughton               Grimes         Allen             Manning
Piroe            Paterson
Obafemi

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Scouring the Championship’s messageboards, a tangential comment that has often popped up this summer is that “Swansea might do a bit better next year”.  The wisdom of those who are more familiar with the Championship than we are is not to be sniffed at… against which a similar consensus view was offered on Stoke City when we were relegated in 2020 (Stoke had just finished 15th and would finish 14th in each of the two subsequent seasons so “a bit better” is technically true I guess).

In any event, unbridled optimism is in short supply on Swans messageboards.  A “how will we do” poll is predicting “a bit better than last year” in as much as there’s any consensus but this has to be assessed in the context of supporters generally yielding an over-favourable assessment of their teams prospects.  Back in the days of BSaD pre-season surveys (like this one) we used to see average predictions across all clubs falling somewhere between 8th and 10th (and dragged downwards by high levels of response from Watford fans in an era or relatively moderate expectations) with anything up to 18 clubs predicting a top half finish.

Swansea do have quality, particularly up front where Joël Piroe has been attracting attention after an impressive first season in Wales.  We were linked with him ourselves in what feels like a rather ambitious reach if genuine;  he’s tended to play behind poacher Michael Obafemi (another linked with the Hornets earlier in the year) with some decent looking midfield options including yet another former Watford target, Matt Grimes.  The problems have been defensively;  Russell Martin’s possession game can look extremely ponderous when executed ineffectively, City’s defence has been overexposed and looks flaky.  Swansea feel as if they’re at a tipping point;  how this season goes will determine whether Martin’s first year is regarded in hindsight as a stepping stone to greater things.  He has done well to bring in quality from lower divisions for relatively moderate fees, but there is a lack of momentum about the whole thing which will get a whole lot worse if Piroe follows Flynn Downes, on whom City made a rapid profit, out of the door.

It could go either way, but given that the Swans finished fifteenth last year and have since signed Joe Allen, a cornerstone of the team that was “destined for better things” last time we were down I’m going to stick my neck out and say fourteenth.

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

INS: Jayson Molumby (Brighton, Free), John Swift (Reading, Free), Jed Wallace (Millwall, Free), Okay Yukuşlu (Celta Vigo, Free)

OUTS: Callum Morton (Fleetwood Town, Undisclosed), Zak Delaney (Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Free), Sam Johnstone (Crystal Palace, Free), MacKenzie Lamb (Peterborough United, Free), Romaine Sawyers (Cardiff City, Free), Quevin Castro (Burton Albion, Season Loan), Josh Griffiths (Portsmouth, Season Loan), Cedric Kipré (Cardiff City, Season Loan), Caleb Taylor (Cheltenham Town, Season Loan), Andy Carroll, Mark Chidi, Kevin Joshua, Leon MacHisa, Daniel Ngoma, Jamie Soule, Aurio Teixeira, Owen Windsor, Matthew Clarke (Brighton, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BAGGIES: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Button
Furlong            Ajayi           O’Shea       Townsend
Yukuşlu        Mowatt
Wallace        Swift        Grant
Dike

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Whilst the Baggies didn’t quite manage however-many-months-it’s-been without a competitive home win last season, there are similarities with ourselves borne of the frustrations of watching a side delivering comprehensively less than the sum of its constituent parts suggests ought to be feasible.  Add to that a rapid changeover of managers – four within the last eighteen months – and you get a mix of frustration and disconnect that is all too familiar.

The most recent managerial switch came in February, when Valérien Ismaël’s brief tenure was concluded and Steve Bruce took over for what turned out to be his first spell at West Brom.  Much as Vladimir Ivić’s Watford side had that “on the slide” feel about it before his departure, so Albion’s tumble from play-off contention to mid-table also rans isn’t deemed to be entirely down to the new incumbent.  Nonetheless Bruce hasn’t won many doubters over.

This is Albion’s second consecutive season in the Championship, but their fourth in the last five meaning that we’ve not faced each other competitively since March 2018.  The trip to the Hawthorns will be our first of the season, the second of four evening kick offs (five including the League Cup) to open the campaign.  Their squad looks strong despite last season’s struggles, and a solid enough defence is now fronted by a midfield fortified with the impressive grabs of John Swift and Jed Wallace.  There’s a reliance on Daryl Dike, injured for the start of the season and much of last, reproducing his Barnsley form more successfully than his former boss managed, but if he does Albion should be contenders for the top two slots.

WIGAN ATHLETIC

INS: Luke Brennan (Blackburn Rovers, Free), Ryan Nyambe (Blackburn Rovers, Free)

OUTS: Adam Long (Doncaster Rovers, Undisclosed), Gavin Massey (Port Vale, Free), Jordan Jones (Kilmarnock, Season Loan), Liam Robinson (Tranmere Rovers, Season Loan), Tom Bayliss (Preston, End of Loan), Kell Watts (Newcastle, End of Loan)

OUR EX-LATICS: Tom Cleverley

THEIR EX-ORNS: Rob Kelly (Assistant Manager)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Amos
Kerr               Whatmough         Bennett
Nyambe     Power      Naylor   Cousins      McClean
Lang               Keane

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: The whole “yo-yo club” thing is something we’re increasingly familiar with.  There’s little mystery to it, nor to why it’s becoming more pronounced as clubs bounce between the top two divisions with increasing reliability.  More hugely monied clubs in the Premier League means less space for everyone else;  it’s not inconceivable that a Newcastle, say, or a Villa gets sucked downwards but they have a hell of a head start.  Which means that a less monied but well run club can no longer bank on a 15th place finish, say, and will know the score going into the season.  This makes them less likely to gamble on survival and more likely to use parachute payments to help them build more gradually.  That the clubs themselves are blamed for adapting to the new reality is a little bit harsh to my mind, but then boredom at Norwich or Fulham going up and down again is clearly a bigger issue than sportswashing.

There are a growing number of long-term yo-yo clubs between tiers two and three also;  the difference in revenues between divisions is smaller in absolute terms, but just as much a barrier as a percentage of income. Rotherham are embarking on their seventh consecutive season in a new division but Wigan, too fall into this box having won League One last season for the third time in the same seven year window.

Wigan’s situation is a little more complicated of course. In June 2020 a criminally catastrophic takeover saw the club, comfortably fourteenth in the delayed Championship season and financially stable, plunged into chaos as the new owners put the Latics into administration a month later.  Relegation by a narrow margin – following a twelve point penalty – saw the Latics drop back into League One and finish the following season just clear of a second successive relegation but, finally, with new owners.

The current squad was largely assembled last summer and moulded by head coach Leam Richardson into a side that would win a reportedly unimpressive division to return Wigan to the Championship, a promotion that few would begrudge them.  But rather than a wave of optimism, there are concerns at the total lack of squad strengthening – indeed at the time of writing, two weeks before the season, the squad is four men down having lost three loanees and former Hornet Gavin Massey without a new face coming in.  There are murmurs of financial issues and stories of delayed payment to players which, whilst calmly explained away by the club, won’t be making anyone feel any more confident.  The team is physical and experienced but short on pace and on surefire gold dust – it is recognised that the totemic James McClean will struggle to meet the athletic requirements of a Championship wing back at the age of 33 and whilst Will Keane, twin brother of Everton’s Michael, managed 26 goals last season this constitutes more than half of his career total at the age of 29 – five previous seasons at this level have yielded eight goals between them.

Wigan may be planning to harvest the many out of contract players and potential loanees at the end of the window when wage demands recede in panic.  As it stands now, you’ve got to expect a struggle.

WATFORD

INS: Vakoun Bayo (Charleroi, Undisclosed), Rey Manaj (Barcelona, Undisclosed), Luigi Gaspar (Arsenal, Free), Ben Hamer (Swansea City, Free)

OUTS: Moussa Sissoko (Nantes, £1,800,000), Tiago Çukur (Fenerbahçe, Undisclosed), Kiko Femeníá (Villarreal, Undisclosed), Cucho Hernández (Columbus Crew, Undisclosed), Adam Masina (Udinese, Undisclosed), Philip Zinckernagel (Olympiacos, Undisclosed), Derek Agyakwa (Port Vale, Free), Andre Gray (Aris, Free), Dominic Hutchinson (Wealdstone, Free), Joshua King (Fenerbahçe, Free), George Langston (Eastleigh, Free), Maurizio Pochettino (Gimnastic, Free), Rob Elliot, Ben Foster, Nicolas Nkoulou, Peter Etebo (Stoke City, End of Loan), Juraj Kucka (Parma, End of Loan)

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Bachmann
Kabasele            Sierralta             Cathcart
Ngakia                    Louza                 Kayembe             Kamara
Cleverley
João Pedro         Bayo

VERDICT: You can imagine that if we start well on Monday, as in start the game well, maybe nick an early goal then the relief, the catharsis in the home stands might propel us onwards and flatten Sheffield United.  It’s been so long, so long, since we even looked like winning a game at home, the relief would be irrepressible.

That would only last so long though.  We kind of had that sort of situation at the start of last season when the fortune of a home game on the opening day, the first game with a proper crowd post-pandemic saw us flatten Villa in the sunshine but even then we managed to let a fully merited and glorious 3-0 lead slip to 3-2.  A week later we were bullied and well beaten at Brighton.  Cucho’s goal was the happiest point of the season, less than ninety minutes into it.

Ultimately it will boil down to how good we are.  How effective the latest “reset” has been.  There’s been so much talk about the need for stability… but the “how” has only been in focus because the “what” has been rubbish.  Changing managers every five minutes wasn’t a problem when we were getting promoted, or finishing mid-table in the Premier League. Everyone wants stability, but nobody would have chosen to keep Roy on.  Or Claudio.  Or Xisco.  It’s bad appointments as much as quick sackings that have got us here.

That’s a slightly facetious point of course.  The “how” begets the “what” in the end.  Our impatient approach breeds a reactive hiring strategy on the one hand and a mentality in the management on the other and when things go badly, which they’re always going to do for a Watford in the Premier League at some point, you find you have little that you believe in to hang onto.  Roy Hodgson’s conduct at Selhurst Park was pathetic, but he doesn’t do that if he has respect for or feels cherished by the club, the people that employ him.

So… we’ve got as high as we’ve got because of AND despite our strategy.  And now we profess to be trying something different.  Something longer term, something more stable.  Well, hurrah.  The onus falls on all of us though… the club, the support, the team.  Most obviously, “what is Gino going to do if we’re twelfth in October”.  Just as significantly… if we’re going to actually build something, young players and that, it’s going to take longer and there’ll be bumps in the road and so you can’t have your cake and eat it, the support needs to be tolerant.  You can’t demand we build something patiently AND demand instant success.

And the team.   Maybe that’s the acid test.  If the team believe that this is a long-term gig they need to make it work.  They won’t be able to ride something out and wait for the next one.   To this end, without drawing too many conclusions about the players that have left and the players that will stay, you kinda hope that we’ve done a good job with the rooting out of the bad apples, because the attitude for much of last season stank long before Dan Gosling’s forthright interview with Andrew French.  We’ll be able to read so much into how they step up to the plate.

But here’s where we get positive.  Because I choose to believe that Rob Edwards is just as he appears.  An excellent man manager who is focused on making the most of the talent at his disposal, on making the most of ALL of the talent at his disposal.  He’s a young manager but it’s impossible not to warm to what you’ve seen so far.  And maybe the squad is short of this and that and maybe we’re not hard and fast favourites to go straight back up in the way that we were two years ago.  And maybe that’s not the priority just yet.

In the end, analysis of the “how” will only go so far.  I want to be able to believe and I want something to get behind.  I’m optimistic and I want to be convinced.  Jesus, I want to enjoy it again.  It’s bee a good three years since we were in the stadium supporting a winning team, we’ve watched consecutive relegations.

And my god I hope we win on Monday.

Yooorns.

Season Preview 2022 – Part 5 28/07/2022

ROTHERHAM UNITED

INS: Cohen Bramall (Lincoln City, Undisclosed), Peter Kioso (Luton Town, Undisclosed), Conor Washington (Charlton Athletic, Free)

OUTS: Alfie Burnett (Forest Green Rovers, Free), Jake Cooper (Altrincham, Free), Jacob Gratton (Farsley Celtic, Free), Michael Ihiekwe (Sheffield Wednesday, Free), Freddie Ladapo (Ipswich Town, Free), Angus MacDonald (Swindon Town, Free), Joe Mattock (Harrogate Town, Free), Mickel Miller (Plymouth Argyle, Free), Michael Smith (Sheffield Wednesday, Free), Rarmani Edmonds-Green (Huddersfield, End of Loan), Will Grigg (Sunderland, End of Loan), Jordi Osei-Tutu (Arsenal, End of Loan)

OUR EX-MILLERS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Rob Scott (Head of Talent ID)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Johansson
Harding          Hall             Wood
Ogbene         Rathbone        Barlaser          Wiles          Ferguson
Washington           Eaves

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: As has been described elsewhere by people who know more about this stuff than I do, there’s a horrible game of “don’t blink first” being played this summer.  Players are out of contract, but nobody’s got any money because of pandemics and stuff.  So players are still out of contract waiting for contracts that probably aren’t coming and because in part there are players out of contract there’s a general reluctance to spend actual money amongst those who haven’t got much of it because sooner or later out of contract players are going to have to lower their demands aren’t they and so why spend money on transfer fees that you probably won’t have to.  And anyway, Man City are bound to have some kids to loan out.

So everyone’s waiting for this kind of frantic supermarket sweep in the closing days of the window, which is a game that isn’t terribly relaxed for anyone but least of all the likes of Rotherham who, newly promoted with a thinnish-looking squad anyway have picked up injuries before the season’s started and had two experienced anchors poached by neighbours and friends Sheffield Wednesday.  This leaves the squad without a physical presence up front, patching things up at the back and short of leadership all round.  The utterly likeable Paul Warne continues to play a straight bat but admits that the squad is, writing ten days before the season starts, a good five players short of being competitive.

Famously, the Millers have spent the last six seasons yo-yoing between the second and third tier (and the two prior to that just a place above the Championship drop zone like an anxious bungee jumper not quite brave enough to take the plunge).  It’s not a given that the run will be extended to seven, but much as there are well-run clubs yo-yoing between the top two tiers unable to bridge the gap to more monied rivals at the top of the tree, so Rotherham need the wind behind them to compete in the Championship and it all seems rather flat and still at the moment.

SHEFFIELD UNITED

INS: Anel Ahmedhodžić (Malmö, Undisclosed), Ciaran Clark (Newcastle United, Season Loan), Tommy Doyle (Manchester City, Season Loan); Reda Khadra (Brighton & Hove Albion, Season Loan)

OUTS: Oli Burke (Werder Bremen, Undisclosed), Luke Freeman (Luton Town, Free), David McGoldrick (Derby County, Free), Harry Boyes (Forest Green Rovers, Season Loan), Harrison Neal (Barrow, Season Loan), Femi Siriki (Rochdale, Season Loan), Lys Mousset, Ben Davies (Liverpool, End of Loan), Morgan Gibbs-White (Wolves, End of Loan), Charlie Goode (Brentford, End of Loan), Conor Hourihane (Aston Villa, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BLADES: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Foderingham
Baldock       Ahmedhodžić        Egan            Clark                Stevens
Berge           Norwood           Fleck
N’Diaye
Brewster

VERDICT: There are some stereotypes are hard to shake.  For instance, it’s not invariably the case that Spurs are showy and flimsy.  There have been plenty of obdurate, dull Tottenham teams in the past.  But when they sign someone that fits the mould, or build a team in that tradition it feels comfortable.  It feels right.  (I’d normally cite the signing of Ginola here but that was 20+ years ago, so I may need to update my “for instance”s at some point).

Anyway, it feels right to see a hard-nosed Blades team that conceded 19 goals in 27 League games under Paul Heckingbottom in the second half of the season stocking up on defenders.  It feels right.  Admittedly United are still playing three at the back (having reverted to this under the new boss) – though I’d be disappointed if they still go in for that fancy gallivanting that was such a feature of the season in which we got relegated.  Jack O’Connell, perhaps the star man at the back that year (again, two centre backs called Jack also fits the stereotype), has been out for two years with doubts understandably rife about his prospects of a return despite evidence of his being back in training.  There’s also cover in the wing back positions in the shape of Jaydon Bogle and Max Lowe, both recruited from Derby two years ago (although Bogle too is out for a while).

This is an experienced and relatively settled looking team – eight of the last Blades eleven that we faced in 2019 are still at the club.  The goal threat resides largely in the fragile Rhian Brewster, that might be a concern… and there are underlying worries regarding infrastructure, investment and ownership (although these things are relative, hellooooo Birmingham).  It was surprising to see Slaviša Jokanović fail so comprehensively at the start of last year in a division in which he has always thrived in the past – this is put in part down to unfulfilled promises regarding investment in the squad.  So…  United should certainly be strong contenders, but being caught up in the churn of the Championship is not beyond the realms of possibility.

STOKE CITY

INS: Dwight Gayle (Newcastle United, Undisclosed), Josh Laurent (Reading, Undisclosed), Liam McCarron (Leeds United, Undisclosed), Aden Flint (Cardiff City, Free), Harry Clarke (Arsenal, Season Loan), Gavin Kilkenny (AFC Bournemouth, Season Loan), Will Smallbone (Southampton, Season Loan)

OUTS: Benik Afobe (Millwall, Undisclosed), Alfie Doughty (Luton Town, Undisclosed), Joe Allen (Swansea City, Free), James Chester (Derby County, Free), Steven Fletcher (Dundee United, Free), Tom Ince (Reading, Free), Will Forrester (Port Vale, Season Loan), Douglas James-Taylor (Walsall, Season Loan), Tashan Oakley-Boothe (Lincoln City, Season Loan), Mario Vrančić (Rijeka, Season Loan), Tommy Smith, Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Manchester City, End of Loan), Josh Maja (Bordeaux, End of Loan), Liam Moore (Reading, End of Loan), Jaden Philogene-Bidace (Aston Villa, End of Loan), Romaine Sawyers (West Brom, End of Loan), Abdallah Sima (Brighton, End of Loan)

OUR EX-POTTERS: Daniel Bachmann

THEIR EX-ORNS: Jack Bonham, Peter Etebo, Ben Wilmot

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Buršík
Wilmot             Flint               Souttar
Clarke         Smallbone       Kilkenny      Laurent             Tymon
Powell      Gayle

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: There’s a challenge in writing stuff like this based on limited experience of actually watching the opposition play football (to crown which I only semi-watched the 3-2 win under lockdown two years ago to whatever extent that might have been informative – I was supposed to be on a stats course being run from the States and obviously ended up engaging with neither pursuit to a successful degree).

So… you’re rather over-reliant on opinion gleaned from messageboards, with the inherent bias borne of the suspicion that summer recruitment has been “shrewd” (the most inane of adjectives now used exclusively to describe transfer activity).  I even saw a Cardiff fan predicting darkhorsedom for the Bluebirds on Twitter the other day (no, really).   Depending on your vintage you might remember being excited by the summer arrivals of Diego Fabbrini, Jamie Moralee, Trevor Senior.

Thank heavens, then, for Stoke City who seem to be under no illusions as to what and where they are.   Getting on for three years in, Michael O’Neill’s veneer has worn off as the side has failed to develop;  his team is described as overly defensive and ponderous, there is a limited goal threat and some of the better players in the squad (Powell, Souttar, Campbell) have missed long period through injury. The summer has seen them lose a lot of experience;  there’s talk of the much-sought Keinan Davis coming in on loan but more in hope than expectation.  From this distance City look to be on a downwards slope,  the caveat being that if, as seems inevitable, O’Neill runs out of time there could be a reset.  As it stands whilst you’d expect there to be too much quality for Stoke to actually get relegated, you’re looking at a finish significantly closer to the bottom than the top of the table.

SUNDERLAND

INS: Ali Ajese (West Ham United, Season Loan), Dan Ballard (Arsenal, Undisclosed), Jack Clarke (Tottenham Hotspur, Undisclosed)

OUTS: Lee Burge (Northampton Town, Free), Aiden McGeady (Hibernian, Free), Stephen Wearne (Grimsby Town, Free), Jordan Willis, Arbenit Xhemajli, Nathan Broadhead (Everton, End of Loan), Leon Dajaku (Union Berlin, End of Loan), Callum Doyle (Manchester City, End of Loan), Ron-Thorben Hoffman (Bayern Munich, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BLACK CATS: Ashley Fletcher, Danny Rose

THEIR EX-ORNS: Luke O’Nien

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Patterson
Gooch             Batth            Wright              Cirkin
Neil                   Evans
Roberts            Pritchard            Clarke
Stewart

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Back in the mists of time before the internet and the Premier League, sources of information about football were a bit harder to come by.  Newspapers, of course, kept up a running commentary.  Football magazines up to a point.  Rothmans.

But for your discerning teenager it was always Panini albums. Snapshots in time that became iconic, defining a child’s understanding of every club in the top division, sometimes accurately and sometimes less so.  Formulaic pen portraits and reliable statistical information, but also a distorted picture due to accidents of time and the variability of sticker distribution.  I remember that in Football 80, the Norwich City badge was “hard”.  I don’t know why I remember this.  My Football 80 album has long since fallen apart (I retain Football 82 onwards for a few years, ditto Fussball 83-88 and most major international tournaments.  These have survived many pillages and clear outs where the likes of Rothmans have not).

I have one Football 80 sticker though, pristine, unpeeled.  John Hawley of Leeds United, which kind of proves my point since Hawley moved to Sunderland in the summer of 1979, presumably just after the Leeds photocall.  Wikipedia suggests that he only played 33 games for Leeds and 25 for Sunderland which is obviously wrong, since in my head he’s a stalwart of both of the era, along in the latter case with Panini veterans Steve Whitworth, Jeff Clarke and Gary Rowell.

Anyway, as you’ll have gathered and without as much as a Panini album to fall back on these days my familiarity with Sunderland’s current lot is limited.  You’ve always got to worry about a team promoted through the play-offs, particularly since Sunderland were one of a mob of sides bundling for position for much of the run-in.  Against that there’s obviously a huge fanbase to mobilise following their first promotion in 15 years and a side that looks full of experience in the second tier.  At the time of writing there is anxiety at the lack of cover for Anthony Patterson in goal and Ross Stewart up front – the latter top scored in the division last season after scarcely suggesting any such prolific streak in a moderate Scottish League career up to that point, it will be hugely significant to Sunderland’s chances how well he adapts to the season’s new challenges.

Sunderland haven’t finished outside of the top and bottom three in this division since 1995;  the smart money’s on them breaking that duck this time, if closer to the bottom than the top.

Season Preview 2022 – Part 4 27/07/2022

NORWICH CITY

INS: Gabriel Sara (São Paulo, Undisclosed), Isaac Hayden (Newcastle United, Season Loan)

OUTS: Pierre Lees-Melou (Brest, €2.3 million), Dan Adshead (Cheltenham Town, Undisclosed), Rocky Bushiri (Hibernian, Undisclosed), Matt Dennis (Milton Keynes Dons, Undisclosed), Akin Famewo (Sheffield Wednesday, Undisclosed), Christoph Zimmermann (Darmstadt, Undisclosed), Josip Drmić (Dinamo Zagreb, Free), Josh Giurgi (Shelbourne, Free), Nelson Khumbeni (Bolton Wanderers, Free), Reece McAlear (Tranmere, Free), Flynn Clarke (Walsall, Season Loan), Bali Mumba (Plymouth Argyle, Season Loan), Przemysław Płacheta (Birmingham City, Season Loan), Christos Tzolis (Twente, Season Loan), Solomon Alidor-Hamilton, Olatunde Okeowo, Aston Oxborough, Lukas Rupp, Billy Gilmour (Chelsea, End of Loan), Ozan Kabak (Schalke 04, End of Loan), Mathias Normann (Rostov, End of Loan), Brandon Williams (Manchester United, End of Loan)

OUR EX-CANARIES: Rob Edwards

THEIR EX-ORNS: Craig Shakespeare (Assistant Head Coach)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Krul
Aarons           Hanley        Omobamidele     Giannoulis
McLean          Hayden
Rashica               Sara              Cantwell
Pukki

VERDICT: There are teams to whom nothing much happens at all.  Before their relegation out of the Football League this summer Oldham had experienced one promotion and three relegations since the mid seventies.  Derby’s relegation ended a thirteen season stint in the second tier whilst the Canaries’ not so near neighbours and friends Ipswich Town have had one relegation and no promotions in 20 years despite harbouring delusions of grandeur for much of that time.

Not so Norwich City.  Of the last fourteen seasons only four have seen them stay in the same division;  four sojourns to the top flight and one to the third tier and back have left them where they started that run.  Famously of course the last four seasons have been extraordinarily consistent as the Canaries have alternated either side of what appears to be their current centre of gravity somewhere between the top two divisions… 21st, 20th, 21st, 20th in the pyramid structure (with Teemu Pukki top scoring on each occasion).

To the uneducated and less invested the default expectation – with some rather unfair disdain, see rant coming later in this series – seems to be that Norwich will follow protocol and win the division again this season.  Locals aren’t quite so sure… a goal-shy side last term won’t have Emi Buendía to load the bullets for Pukki as they did two years ago.  There’s still quality and depth – the senior squad is huge – but Dean Smith doesn’t have the credit in the bank that Daniel Farke once had.  City should finish top six at least but if they quickly fail to follow form the knives will be out for Smith one suspects.

PRESTON NORTH END

INS: Freddie Woodman (Newcastle United, Undisclosed), Robbie Brady (AFC Bournemouth, Free), Ben Woodburn (Liverpool, Free), David Cornell (Peterborough United, Free), Troy Parrott (Tottenham Hotspur, Season Loan)

OUTS: Tom Barkhuizen (Derby County, Free), Jack Baxter (Stafford Rangers, Free), Tom Bayliss (Shrewsbury Town, Free), Josh Earl (Fleetwood Town, Free), Joe Rafferty (Portsmouth, Free), Connor Ripley (Morecambe, Free), Ethan Walker (Blackburn Rovers, Free), Izzy Brown, Jacob Holland-Wilkinson, Mathew Hudson, Paul Huntington, Oliver Lombard, Joe Rodwell-Grant, Scott Sinclair, Jamie Thomas, Cameron Archer (Aston Villa, End of Loan), Daniel Iversen (Leicester City, End of Loan), Josh Murphy (Cardiff City, End of Loan), Sepp van den Berg (Liverpool, End of Loan)

OUR EX-LILYWHITES: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Woodman
Storey                   Bauer                    Hughes
Potts               Johnson          Whiteman         Woodburn             Brady
Parrott               Riis

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Preston were promoted to the Championship the season that we went up to the Premier League under Jokanovic and have spent the interim diligently avoiding attention in mid-table – save for one reckless gambol to within two points of the play-offs under Alex Neil.  There’s nothing wrong with being inconspicuous of course – this was a strategy that did us well for several years under the brighter glare of the Premier League lights and North End, as ourselves in the Premier League, have done well to drop anchor with a relatively modest budget.

It’s questionable whether this can continue.  Positive manager Ryan Lowe is a big plus, but the summer signings to date are punts rather than bankers.  Freddie Woodman is probably an exception,  his pedigree demonstrable after two strong seasons at Swansea (though he failed to make Bournemouth’s starting eleven in a half-season loan last year) – but he will do well to match the contributions of Leicester loanee Daniel Iversen over the last year and a half whilst Robbie Brady and Ben Woodburn are both punts in different ways. The side has been heavily dependent on Emil Riis in attack so the highly rated Troy Parrott needs to “work” and the squad isn’t the deepest.  A good season with injuries might see Preston slip into the shadows again and there’s too much quality to seriously struggle you suspect but a lower finish than the 14th that constitutes Preston’s worst since promotion seems quite plausible.

QUEENS PARK RANGERS

INS: Jake Clarke-Salter (Chelsea, Free), Kenneth Paal (PEC Zwolle, Free), Taylor Richards (Brighton, Season Loan), Tyler Roberts (Leeds United, Season Loan)

OUTS: Jordy de Wijs (Fortuna Düsseldorf, Undisclosed), Charlie Austin (Brisbane Roar, Free), Dom Ball (Ipswich Town, Free), David Marshall (Hibernian, Free), Moses Odubajo (Aris, Free), Charlie Kelman (Leyton Orient, Season Loan), Yoanne Barbet, Dillon Barnes, Lee Wallace, Keiren Westwood, Andre Gray (Watford, End of Loan), Jeff Hendrick (Newcastle, End of Loan), Sam McCallum (Norwich, End of Loan), Dion Sanderson (Wolves, End of Loan)

OUR EX-RS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Les Ferdinand (Director of Football), Paul Furlong (U23s assistant coach), Micah Hyde (U18s head coach)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Dieng
Dickie              Dunne       Clarke-Salter
Kakay            Amos           Field               Paal
Chair            Willock
Roberts

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: No two situations are identical, admittedly.  You can’t look at Team A and Team B and say “well, they’re basically in the same position” at anything other than a superficial level because when it comes down to it the number of moving parts, the number of considerations, the volume of devil in the detail means that Team A and Team B aren’t quite the same at all.  Both might be strapped for cash, but the numbers, the assets, the ownership might differ in ways that are crucial in the medium term.  The teams might be similar – kind of solid, say, with one or two stars.  But Team A have theirs tied down to slightly longer contracts, whereas Team B’s star likes being a star rather too much.  And so on.

Nonetheless.  It’s not too long ago that we were a bit like the QPR of today.  Struggling manfully against the tide, Malky Mackay or Sean Dyche doing a sound job meant mid-table safety rather than seriously challenging clubs that were much more monied and/or much more stable (and also “Bigger” a lot of the time, that indefinable currency that fans of Big Clubs fall back on when their teams are shit at actual football).  QPR’s circumstances are, again, different… losing money hand over fist they need to find a crown jewel to sell on every year or two as it stands.  Of the current squad, Chris-brother-of-Joe-Willock  is one candidate, the ball-playing centre back Rob Dickie perhaps another but whilst there is talent in the side such that QPR can beat anyone on a good day – they took four points of us as we were promoted in 2021 – there isn’t anything like the depth or the attacking cutting edge to sustain a promotion challenge.

They were “there or thereabouts” last season before slipping back but that was more widely perceived as “reaching”… new head coach Michael Beale – who had some A-list coaching roles before this, his first foray as the number one – would surely regard another mid-table finish as a success after 13th, 9th, 11th in the last three campaigns.

READING

INS: Dean Bouzanis (Sutton United, Free), Sam Hutchinson (Sheffield Wednesday, Free), Tom Ince (Stoke City, Free), Shane Long (Southampton, Free), Tyrese Fornah (Nottingham Forest, Season Loan), Jeff Hendrick (Newcastle United, Season Loan), Joe Lumley (Middlesbrough, Season Loan)

OUTS: James Holden (Cambridge United, Undisclosed), Brandon Barker (Omonia Nicosia, Free), Ethan Bristow (Tranmere Rovers, Free), Alen Halilovic (Rijeka, Free), Josh Laurent (Stoke City, Free), Michael Morrison (Portsmouth, Free), Andy Rinomhota (Cardiff City, Free), Lynford Sackey (Bolton Wanderers, Free), John Swift (West Brom, Free), Luke Southwood (Cheltenham Town, Season Loan), Jordan Addo-Antoine, Felipe Araruna, Marc McNulty, Ørjan Nyland, Malachi Talent-Aryeetey, Terell Thomas, Tom Dele-Bashiru (Watford, End of Loan), Danny Drinkwater (Chelsea, End of Loan), Baba Rahman (Chelsea, End of Loan)

OUR EX-ROYALS: Tom Dele-Bashiru, Ben Hamer

THEIR EX-ORNS: Andy Yiadom

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Lumley
Yiadom                Holmes            Hutchinson            McIntyre
Hoilett          Fornah        Hendrick             Ince
Ejaria
João

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: I went to a school awards do this evening.  Proud Dad moment, definitely but… you know.  You can be a proud Dad and want to support your daughter but still regard and advertised three hours (eek) of polite clapping  with a degree of trepidation.  Add to that the necessity of squeezing two awards nights into one after evening one was postponed by yesterday’s stupid temperatures (writing a week before you read this) and you’ll appreciate the apprehension.

So realising, after 45 minutes, that we were pretty much halfway through the exercise gave the auditorium a huge boost.  You could feel it ripple through the crowd.  Suddenly everyone was applauding extra vigorously and after a mere 75 minutes the thing wrapped up and everyone left with a spring in their step.

And so we get to Reading.  The Royals endured a pretty miserable time last season finishing the season one place above the drop, albeit with a four point margin in the end despite a six point penalty for breaching EFL financial rules.  As the season ended much of the experience in the building headed out of it. Reading have had to rebuild a squad under further restrictions:  no transfer fees, loan fees, salary caps total, individual and average under a head coach in Ince who hadn’t really convinced anyone.

Expectations surely at an all time low.  At which point… things can only get better, and the green shoots of a solid structure pre-season, some halfway sensible signings coming in (albeit injury prone, veterans or kids as you might expect given the restrictions) and Reading fans seem less jaded than I expected.  They’ve got to expect to struggle and have holes to fill in midfield in particular with a very one-paced side as it stands, but the suggestion of a chance of staying up is better than none at all.

Season Preview 2022 – Part 3 26/07/2022

HULL CITY

INS: Doğukan Sinik (Antalyaspor, Undisclosed), Ozan Tufan (Fenerbahçe, Undisclosed), Allahyar Sayyadmanesh (Fenerbahçe, Undisclosed), Benjamin Tetteh (Yeni Malatyaspor, Undisclosed), Oscar Estupiñán (Vitória Guimãraes, Free), Tobias Figueiredo (Nottingham Forest, Free), Jean-Michel Seri (Fulham, Free), Nathan Baxter (Chelsea, Season Loan)

OUTS: George Honeyman (Millwall, Undisclosed), Keane Lewis-Potter (Brentford, Undisclosed), George Moncur (Leyton Orient, Undisclosed), Tom Eaves (Rotherham United, Free), Richie Smallwood (Bradford City, Free), Harvey Cartwright (Peterborough United, Season Loan), Tom Huddlestone, Di’Shon Bernard (Manchester United, End of Loan), Marcus Forss (Brentford, End of Loan), Liam Walsh (Swansea, End of Loan)

OUR EX-TIGERS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Ozan Tufan, Randell Williams

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Ingram
Jones        Figueiredo    Greaves
Coyle           Seri      Tufan          Fleming
Longman         Sayyadmanesh        Estupiñán

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: I must confess to not having a profound knowledge of the Turkish Süper Lig. The names of the clubs I can do, but I couldn’t tell you much about them, their heritage, their strengths and weaknesses.  I couldn’t locate many more than the Istanbul big three on a map.

But dipping into the Süper Lig on your app whilst scrolling scores is always worth doing.  This is where you find former Premier League players thought lost down the back of the sofa – so for example Leroy Fer is at Alanyaspor, Federico Macheda at Ankaragücü, Yannick Bolasie at Çaykur Rizespor, Mame Biram Diouf at Hatayspor while former Hornets Stefano Okaka, Brice Dja Djédjé and Ally Mallé also lurk.

Since the Tigers were taken over last season by Turkish media man Acun Ilicali this is also where they do a lot of their shopping, or at least where a load of rumours sprout from.  This means that while it all feels rather ambitious – and certainly the ownership of previous encumbents the Allam family is unlikely to be much mourned – it’s difficult to judge from this distance quite how good these players are.

There’s one exception of course – Ozan Tufan, whose arrival must have something of a question mark over it given that this season’s challenges will be less salubrious and more frantically energetic than those which failed to motivate him to an adequate level of fitness, botheredness or velocity in the first half of last season at Vicarage Road.  City meanwhile dismissed Grant McCann, a little harshly but perhaps inevitably, within a week of Ilhan’s takeover and replaced him with former Georgia, Ajax and Rangers front man Shota Arveladze.  There was a bit of a wobble but not enough to threaten the more committed relegation candidates at the foot of the table.  It’s difficult to know what to expect this season – certainly some significant names have moved on in the shape of George Honeyman and Keane Lewis-Potter so there’ll be a bit of bedding in, after which I don’t think it would be a surprise to see City anywhere in the inconsequential regions of the table.

LUTON TOWN

INS: Alfie Doughty (Stoke City, Undisclosed), Carlton Morris (Barnsley, Undisclosed), Louie Watson (Derby County, Undisclosed), Cauley Woodrow (Barnsley, Undisclosed), Luke Freeman (Sheffield United, Free), Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest, Season Loan)

OUTS: Danny Hylton (Northampton Town, Undisclosed), Peter Kioso (Rotherham United, Undisclosed), Sam Beckwith (Maidenhead United, Free), Elliott Lee (Wrexham, Free), Kai Naismith (Bristol City, Free), Corey Panter (Eastleigh, Free), Josh Neufville (Sutton United, Season Loan), TQ Addy, Jake Peck, Jed Steer (Aston Villa, End of Loan)

OUR EX-HATTERS:None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Henri Lansbury, Dion Pereira

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Horvath
Bree                Bradley          Burke              Bell
Clark            Campbell          Freeman
Woodrow      Adebayo      Morris

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: The extraordinary stupidity of Brexit.  The shameless cynicism and cruelty of the Rwanda exercise.  The Police Bill.  The brazen corruption of the awarding COVID contracts.  The arrogant entitlement of partygate.

So no, I don’t “hate” Luton, even allowing for the fact that in the cathartic escapism of football fandom most… many… some would accept that the word hate can be bandied around rather more lightly than in normal life.  “Hate” is reserved for the truly hateworthy.  A low bar is set in football, to facilitate the drama of defining a bad guy to face your good guy. This can become a self-fulfilling kinda thing… there was nothing remotely pleasant about running the gauntlet from Kenilworth Road back to the railway station back in the days when we played each other regularly and that sort of thing feeds the fire but the identity of the bad guy is arbitrary, an accident of geography.  (Not the good guy, obviously.  As most readers will agree the yellow shirt is something genuinely virtuous and to be cherished).

It’s 25 years, near as dammit, since we faced the Hatters in consecutive seasons.  Lots has happened to both clubs since but the current Luton side is surely the strongest they’ve boasted in that time.  If last season’s play-off place saw Nathan Jones’ high-energy pressing side punching above their weight they seem to have capitalised upon their momentum by re-enforcing well and comprehensively.  Signing two forwards from a relegated club (one of whose fathers played several times for the Hornets against Luton many years ago) may suggest questionable pedigree but we’ve been promoted on similar strategies before.  At the very least Luton have given themselves a puncher’s chance of emulating last season’s efforts in this volatile division.  With the club on its most positive footing for many years, they’ll also have the benefit of as united a support as you’ll find anywhere – in contrast to the mood at a club relegated twice in three seasons without a win at home since 2021.  That factor, at least, is somewhat within our control.

MIDDLESBROUGH

INS: Darragh Lenihan (Blackburn Rovers, Undisclosed), Liam Roberts (Northampton Town, Free), Ryan Giles (Wolves, Season Loan), Zack Steffen (Manchester City, Season Loan)

OUTS: Djed Spence (Tottenham, £12,500,00 plus add-ons), Toyosi Olusanya (St Mirren, Free), Nathan Wood (Swansea City, Undisclosed), Sol Brynn (Swindon Town, Season Loan), Grant Hall (Rotherham United, Season Loan), Joe Lumley (Reading, Season Loan), Martin Payero (Boca Juniors, Season Loan), Sol Bamba, Lee Peltier, Neil Taylor, Folarin Balogun (Arsenal, End of Loan), Aaron Connolly (Brighton, End of Loan), James Léa Siliki (Rennes, End of Loan), Andraž Šporar (Sporting Lisbon, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BORO: Ashley Fletcher

THEIR EX-ORNS: Uche Ikpeazu

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Steffen
Dyksteel         Lenihan         McNair
Jones        Crooks         Howson     Tavernier      Giles
Watmore         McGree

BLUFFER’S GUIDE:  Fantasy Football.  Just kicking off Year 28 of our office comp at work;  back when we started nothing was on the Internet, we had team sheets sent via snail mail each week.  A summer auction is the main focus, and an evening of much drama and lots of swearing.  Only Paul could be relied upon to keep his cool… while the rest of us were spunking our budgets on strikers (Shearer, Bergkamp, Vialli were the forwards in my first squad) and gambling on exciting new arrivals in the Premier League (at least half of whom would fail miserably) Paul would quietly hoover up dull but effective stalwarts.  He won the league three times before retiring with a little well-earned smugness.

Boro’s team is the sort of side that Paul would have ended up with. Solid and sensible, with an equally solid and sensible bloke in charge.  The defence looks redoubtable, the midfield well balanced and the wing-backs, with the delivery of serial loanee Ryan Giles and the startling Isaiah Jones, carrying the sort of attacking threat that we’ve heard and talked about so much this summer with respect to our own team. Just like Paul’s fantasy teams they’re barrel scraping when it comes to the forwards as it stands, and rumours surrounding the future of Marcus Tavernier (who we were supposed to be interested in three years ago) are a bit of a caveat.  However the hope is that they’ll bring in as many as three forwards before the end of the window (including Cameron Archer, who half the clubs in the division seem to be banking on).  You’d fancy play-offs at worst, with a decent chance of automatic if they’re able to recruit successfully.

MILLWALL

INS: Zian Flemming (Fortuna Sittard, £1,700,000), Benik Afobe (Stoke City, Undisclosed), George Honeyman (Hull City, Undisclosed), Jamie Shackleton (Leeds United, Season Loan)

OUTS: Jayden Davis (Crawley Town, Free), Connor Mahoney (Huddersfield Town, Free), Dan Moss (Woking, Free), Alex Pearce (AFC Wimbledon, Free), Mahlon Romeo (Cardiff City, Free), Jed Wallace (West Bromwich Albion, Free), Joe Wright (Bath City, Season Loan), Kai Garande, Sean O’Brien,  Junior Tiensia, Dan Ballard (Arsenal, End of Loan), Oliver Burke (Sheffield United, End of Loan), Luke Freeman (Sheffield United, End of Loan), Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool, End of Loan)

OUR EX-LIONS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Terry Bullivant (Chief Scout), Paul Robinson (Coach)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Bialkowski
Hutchinson            Cooper              Wallace
McNamara                Mitchell         Honeyman            Saville                  Malone
Afobe             Flemming

BLUFFER’S GUIDE:  “No one likes us, we don’t care”.  Maybe.  Liking would be overstating it, but it’s difficult to actively dislike a club employing Robbo on the coaching staff and boasting a reliable stop-off at Borough Market en route to the away fixture, whatever other traditional and dubious associations with the Lions.

Other than a two-year aberration in the top flight in the late, eighties, Millwall have spent nearly sixty years slowly yoyoing between long spells in the second and third tiers.  Gary Rowett’s current side represents a bit of a high water mark, the Lions having finished in inconspicuous top-half positions in the Championship in each of his two-and-a-bit seasons at the club.  The steadily evolving side has been robust and disciplined, more likely to win by nicking a one-nil than by scoring a hatful but this summer has seen a changing of the guard with Jed Wallace, upon whom the Lions had been rather reliant for goals and creativity at times in the past, leaving at the end of his contract and three attacking players brought in in the shape of last season’s loanee and supposed Watford target Benik Afobe, record signing (at a relatively modest £1.7m) and Ajax graduate Zach Flemming and all action midfielder George Honeyman.

Quite how successful that transition is will determine how sustainable Millwall’s push for a play-off place is.  Top six is not impossible, but nor is slipping back into the also-rans if the new signings are unsuccessful.

Season Preview 2022 – Part 2 25/07/2022

BURNLEY

INS: Luke McNally (Oxford United, £1,800,000), Samuel Bastien (Standard Liège, Undisclosed), Josh Cullen (Anderlecht, Undisclosed), Arijanet Muric (Manchester City, Undisclosed), Scott Twine (Milton Keynes Dons, Undisclosed), CJ Egan-Riley (Manchester City, Free), Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Manchester City, Season Loan), Ian Maatsen (Chelsea, Season Loan)

OUTS: Nathan Collins (Wolves, £20,500,000), Nick Pope (Newcastle United, £10,000,000), Wayne Hennessey (Nottingham Forest, Undisclosed), Anthony Glennon (Grimsby Town, Free), Ben Mee (Brentford, Free), James Tarkowski (Everton, Free), Lukas Jensen (Accrington Stanley, Season Loan), Wout Weghorst (Beşiktaş, Season Loan), Phil Bardsley, Aaron Lennon, Erik Pieters, Dale Stephens, ?Matěj Vydra

OUR EX-CLARETS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Jack Cork, Martin Hodge (Head of Recruitment), ?Matěj Vydra

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Muric
Roberts           Harwood-Bellis        McNally              Taylor
Brownhill             Westwood
Cornet                 Twine                  McNeil
Rodriguez

VERDICT: It feels a horribly long time ago now, but there were points not too far from the end of the season where it felt as if we might not get relegated.  With the benefit of hindsight any hope was misplaced, since the brief stiffening of our away form under Hodgson (beginning at Turf Moor) never looked like being converted into performances (and points) at home and couldn’t sustain itself against a difficult away run-in either. But with the home games we had to play, and much as we comprehensively merited our relegation in the end, it wouldn’t have taken very much. Ismaïla Sarr’s miss against Leeds will remain in my head as a point at which it could all have turned without risk of being proven otherwise.

There was a lot of competition for relegation last season, we had to work pretty damn hard to be one of the worst three and in the end it was the Clarets who joined ourselves and Norwich making the drop.  I must confess to having done more reading around Burnley than for most of these other pieces without really understanding where they are financially.  Certainly the immediate armageddon rumoured late last season doesn’t seem to have materialised, but the hole in the budget hasn’t gone away either.  One financial opinion that I found cited leveraged buy-outs as something that can be very good for a club or very bad for a club.  Given the possibility of the latter, given the high stakes being played with you have to wonder how it’s permissible for a previously secure club to risk suddenly being laden with ostensibly unserviceable debt – or for that dice to be rolled on its behalf.

Vincent Kompany actually arriving will have settled nerves but whilst there are few inexperienced  managers with contacts to burn from recent playing days who would be higher on anyone’s list as a new manager, he remains nonetheless an inexperienced manager leaning very hard on those contacts.  The Burnley squad needed refreshing but replacing Sean Dyche’s haggard savvy with a novice for a rebuilding job – Kompany’s talking up of his moderate-looking success at Anderlecht given context feels a bit desperate – and replacing wise old heads Ben Mee and James Tarkowski with albeit talented kids feels optimistic, borne of necessity or otherwise.  Any expectation of being able to plug a financial hole through player sales will have been checked by the state of the transfer market  – England international Nick Pope only fetching  £10m was met with alarm and the expected sale of Maxwell Cornet hasn’t materialised.  The Burnley squad lacks goals though the signing of Twine looks impressive….  it’s possible to see it going very well or very badly indeed for the Clarets.

CARDIFF CITY

INS: Ollie Tanner (Lewes, Undisclosed), Ryan Allsop (Derby County, Free), Ebou Adams (Forest Green, Free), Jak Alnwick (St Mirren, Free), Jamilu Collins (Paderborn, Free), Vontae Daley-Campbell (Leicester City, Free), Callum O’Dowda (Bristol City, Free), Sheyi Ojo (Liverpool, Free), Andy Rinomhota (Reading, Free), Mahlon Romeo (Millwall, Free), Romaine Sawyers (West Brom, Free), Cedric Kipré (West Brom, Season Loan)

OUTS: James Connolly (Bristol Rovers, Undisclosed), Ciaron Brown (Oxford United, Free), James Collins (Derby County, Free), Aden Flint (Stoke City, Free), Marlon Pack (Portsmouth, Free), Will Vaulks (Sheffield Wednesday, Free), Leo Bacuna, ?Sean Morrison, Josh Murphy, Alex Smithies, Isaac Vassell, Chanka Zimba (Newport County, Season Loan), Alfie Doughty (Stoke City, End of Loan), Tommy Doyle (Manchester City, End of Loan), Cody Drameh (Leeds United, End of Loan), Jordan Hugill (Norwich City, End of Loan), Uche Ikpeazu (Middlesbrough, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BLUEBIRDS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Graham Stack (Goalkeeping Coach)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Allsop
Romeo         Ng          Kipré           Collins
Wintle            Rinomhota
Ojo           Colwill    O’Dowda
Watters

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: And here’s another club rebuilding, but in rather different circumstances.  Cardiff have seen a large number of contracts expire over the summer and a big overhaul is underway.  The club clearly had targets lined up, as free transfers flooded in in the early weeks of the window;  they briefly looked like being embellished by the slightly incongruous arrival of Gareth Bale, but that’s not how things turned out.

Palace demonstrated in the Premier League last season that a huge clear out of out of contract players can be a helpful thing, but it’s a big ask of Steve Morison, who stepped up from the youth team after Mick McCarthy’s departure, on the back of challenging finances.  Morison will use a number of City’s good kids but isn’t starting from a high base as far as the squad is concerned.  Muddling together a side strong enough to stay up would be an achievement.

COVENTRY CITY

INS: Kasey Palmer (Bristol City, Free), Callum Doyle (Manchester City, Season Loan), Jonathan Panzo (Nottingham Forest, Season Loan)

OUTS: Declan Drysdale (Newport County, Undisclosed), Josh Pask (The New Saints, Free), Jordan Shipley (Shrewsbury Town, Undisclosed), Julien Dacosta (Shrewsbury Town, Season Loan), Jodi Jones, Jake Clarke-Salter (Chelsea, End of Loan), Ian Maatsen (Chelsea, End of Loan)

OUR EX-SKY BLUES: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Moore
Hyam        McFadzean         Rose
Kane                 Sheaf             Hamer                    Bidwell
O’Hare       Allen
Gyökeres

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: The spate of new stadia built from the mid-nineties to the mid-two thousands were blighted by sponsors’ names.  Easy to be sniffy when you’re not the one having to fund it of course, but I wonder how supporters of Huddersfield Town, say, refer to their home which has been named all sorts of things since its creation and is still the McAlpine in my head.

Coventry’s home was renamed the Coventry Building Society Arena last summer having previously been the Ricoh Arena since its inception.  City haven’t spent the entire interim playing there of course;  they’ve always been tenants, these days to Wasps RFC, and have spent two periods in exile at first Sixfields and then St Andrews in spells that have been emblematic of the difficult ownership of the club by SISU.  City fans would be forgiven not to feel a great affection for the place, despite a deal that saw them return to the stadium last season – the longer term plan seems to be for yet another new stadium.

Despite this fraught backdrop which also saw City drop briefly into the fourth tier in  2017, Mark Robins has engineered a turnaround having improved City’s league position in each of the last five seasons.  Last year exceeded expectations with the Sky Blues spending most of the campaign in the top half, eventually finishing a perfectly acceptable twelfth.  You’d have to worry whether that can continue;  for all that City are by all accounts playing exciting positive football that has generated something of an atmosphere at whatever the stadium is called for the first time Robins will hit a ceiling at some point, and despite his experience management under those circumstances is a different challenge.  City boast a small budget and a small squad in which loans were successful and important last year and which has been further thinned by summer trading at the time of writing.  The first eleven has quality;  the versatile Victor Gyökeres can play anywhere across front line and there’s quality behind him in Ben Sheaf, Gustavo Hamer and the sought-after Callum O’Hare.  City shouldn’t struggle, but matching last season’s finish would be an achievement.

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

INS: Kyle Hudlin (Solihull Moors, Undisclosed), David Kasumu (Milton Keynes Dons, Undisclosed), Jack Rudoni (AFC Wimbledon, Undisclosed), Will Boyle (Cheltenham Town, Free), Connor Mahoney (Millwall, Free), Yuta Nakayama (PEC Zwolle, Free), Tino Anjorin (Chelsea, Season Loan),

OUTS: Lewis O’Brien & Harry Toffolo (Nottingham Forest, £10,000,000), Pipa (Olympiacos, Undisclosed), Reece Brown (Forest Green Rovers, Free), Josh Austerfield (Harrogate, Season Loan), Romoney Crichlow (Bradford City, Season Loan), Kian Harratt (Bradford City, Season Loan), Jaheim Headley (Harrogate, Season Loan), Kyle Hudlin (AFC Wimbledon, Season Loan), Jamal Blackman, Fraizer Campbell, Carel Eiting, Naby Sarr, Álex Vallejo, Levi Colwill (Chelsea, End of Loan),  Daniel Sinani (Norwich, End of Loan)

OUR EX-TERRIERS: Ben Hamer

THEIR EX-ORNS: Leigh Bromby (Head of First Team Operations), Jonathan Hogg

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Nicholls
Turton          Pearson             Lees           Ruffels
Hogg        Anjorin
Thomas                Holmes               Koroma
Ward

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Half-decent in the Championship is a dangerous thing to be.  There are The Likes Of Brentford of course who are steady enough to gradually build year on year (“doing a Brentford”  in the Championship surely soon to be as tired as “doing a Charlton” or “doing a Stoke” were at various stages in the top flight, long ago as each seems).

But a Huddersfield side who staged a credible bid for promotion last year, finishing third and falling to Nottingham Forest in the play-off final (with the added insult of a couple of iffy penalty decisions going against them) may suffer from having reached for the stars and not quite made it.  Most obviously, a side that was more than the sum of its parts is nonetheless ripe to be pillaged;  left wing-back Harry Toffolo and midfielder Lewis O’Brien, most obviously and cruelly were snaffled for £10m by the team who denied the Terriers promotion.  Goalkeeper Lee Nicholls, probably the side’s outstanding player, has signed up for a new deal but Toffolo’s departure with those of loanee Levi Colvill and out-of-contract Naby Sarr earlier exits means Huddersfield will need to replace half of the back line that were – alongside a prodigious threat from set pieces – the basis of the side’s success.  There are good kids coming through, but that’s still a big ask for new boss Danny Schofield, himself a source of variation after the surprise departure of Carlos Corberán.

The other issue with a failed bid for glory is that it builds expectations.  History is littered with clubs, Town’s opponents in the play-off final one such, who were tormented by their high bar for years after it was reached… this high bar can be dangerously treated as “the norm” by supporters rather than the halcyon period that it was.  In reality a top ten finish would be a decent result for Town next season but it might not feel it if they loiter outside the play-offs or start badly. The opening months of the season will be significant.

Season Preview 2022 – Part 1 24/07/2022

As much discussed, I didn’t need a break anyway.  Four today, four tomorrow and so on…

BIRMINGHAM CITY

INS: Przemysław Płacheta (Norwich City, Season Loan), John Ruddy (Wolves, Free), Finley Thorndike (Aston Villa, Free), Dion Sanderson (Wolves, Season Loan), Auson Trusty (Arsenal, Season Loan)

OUTS: Iván Sánchez (Real Valladolid, Undisclosed), Fran Villalba (Sporting Gijon, Undisclosed), Kyle Hurst (Doncaster Rovers, Free), Archie Matthews (Swansea City, Free), Kristian Pedersen (1.F.C.Köln, Free), Oriol Soldevila (Intercity, Free), Ivan Šunjić (Hertha BSC, Season Loan), Jérémie Bela, Renedi Masampu, Kane Thompson-Sommers, Connal Trueman, Yoane Zohore, Tahith Chong (Manchester United, End of Loan), Lyle Taylor (Nottingham Forest, End of Loan)

OUR EX-BLUES: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: Troy Deeney, John Eustace (manager)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Ruddy
Colin                    Sanderson           Roberts             Trusty
Woods        Bacuna      James
Płacheta                        Leko
Deeney

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Despite our Championship season two years ago – which after all was largely played in front of empty stadiums – it’s been a while since Watford fans had any kind of proper feel for the state of clubs at this level.  Club colours, sure, histories, key confrontations in the past (depending on how old you are) will all still be there, but not the feel for opponents borne of familiarity.

So… markers indicating the current state of play are welcome, and there are few more clear-cut or explicit than the threat of association with Laurence Bassini.  A dead giveaway, rust on the undercarriage, the stench of damp.  We wouldn’t wish this on anyone of course, and Blues fans seemed to be under few illusions as to the credibility of their mooted new owner despite the uncertain state of the club’s current ownership – mercifully that threat subsided. Instead the new Hornet on the block is John Eustace who comes infinitely more highly recommended having, by all accounts, narrowly missed out on Rob Edwards’ job earlier in the window.

St Andrews is mid-rebuild, so home games lack atmosphere and a side short of goals with a threadbare set of defensive options as I write will struggle this season.  Having Troy (and John) in their corner is never going to be a bad thing but at 34 and with another injury-limited season behind him his on-pitch impact has been limited and whilst there are some useful prospects coming through you’d want a more solid base to introduce them around.  Definitely under threat, in more ways than one.

BLACKBURN ROVERS

INS: Callum Brittain (Barnsley, Undisclosed)

OUTS: Luke Brennan (Wigan Athletic, Free), Harry Chapman (Bradford City, Free), Sam Durrant (Sheffield Wednesday, Free), Bradley Johnson (Milton Keynes Dons, Free), Darragh Lenihan (Middlesbrough, Free), Ryan Nyambe (Wigan Athletic, Free), Joe Rothwell (AFC Bournemouth, Free), Jacob Davenport, Connor McBride, Joe Nolan, Ryan Giles (Wolves, End of Loan), Reda Khadra (Brighton, End of Loan), Ian Poveda (Leeds United, End of Loan), Jean Paul van Hecke (Brighton, End of Loan), Deyovaisio Zeefuik (Hertha BSC, End of Loan)

OUR EX-ROVERS: None

THEIR EX-ORNS: None

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Kaminski
Brittain         Ayala         Wharton         Pickering
Buckley       Travis       Dack
Dolan             Gallagher          Brereton-Díaz

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: Those of you who old enough may have shared and will therefore remember the trauma of Graham Taylor’s first departure in 1987.  All sorts of emotions jumbled around, but the one I remember most distinctly as a then 14 year old was the crushing sense of inevitability of the collapse and misery that would follow.  There was a brief window two months later, a few minutes as Dave Bassett lead his new charges onto the Vicarage Road pitch where I thought, maybe I’d been wrong.  Maybe everything would be ok after all, It didn’t last long.

You may recall other such moments where a chasm opened up before you, both in watching football and elsewhere in life.  At the risk of being provocative, it doesn’t really take much effort.  I wonder if Rovers fans feel the same about the Venkys takeover in 2010.  The preceding 20 years or so hadn’t been without bumps in the road but Rovers had won promotion, challenged pretty much immediately, won the Premier League in 1995 and were solidly mid-table at worst for most of what followed. Since relegation in 2012 they’ve not as much as made the play-offs, and spent a season in League One five years ago.

Under Tony Mowbray a solid Rovers side spent some time in the play-off picture last season before falling away, but reports suggest that this was a half-decent mid-table side reaching rather than a genuine promotion contender suddenly losing form.  Since then the departures of key senior players in Lenihan and Rothwell on frees out of contract suggests that being a mid-table obstacle is the best Rovers can hope for this season, though new head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson is a bit of a wild card.

BLACKPOOL

INS: Lewis Fiorini (Manchester City, Season Loan), Rhys Williams (Liverpool, Season Loan)

OUTS: Ethan Robson (Milton Keynes Dons, Free), Oliver Casey (Forest Green Rovers, Season Loan), Cameron Antwi, Ryan Grant, Johnny Johnston, Matthew Liptrott, Charlie Monks, Sky Sinclair, Grant Ward, Tyreece John-Jules (Arsenal, End of Loan), Charlie Kirk (Charlton, End of Loan), Dujon Sterling (Chelsea, End of Loan),

OUR EX-SEASIDERS: Craig Cathcart, Rob Edwards, Dan Gosling, Richie Kyle

THEIR EX-ORNS: David Kerslake (assistant head coach)

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Grimshaw
Gabriel          Ekpiteta            Keogh         Husband
Bowler            Dougall           Stewart           Anderson
Madine         Yates

VERDICT: As above, it’s been a fair few years since we were in stadia, crossing swords with many of these clubs.  The lack of such encounters has tamed some of the rivalries; there’s no Bournemouth or Palace in the division for the moment, no rival whose basis is competitive rather than geographic.  Those will come if we hang around here long enough, but for the moment it’s possible to feel more warmth towards some of our opponents than we’ll probably be feeling after a crotchety 0-0 draw in January and on that note it’s good to see Blackpool fans being able to enjoy watching their team again after some thoroughly unpleasant and difficult years during which protesting against the ownership of the odious Oyston family was necessarily a focus.  As we’ve discussed on here before, watching your club is the first objective above watching your club win stuff.  It’s a given, a minimum requirement.  Difficult to do so with a clear conscience for Seasiders until relatively recently.  Their recent successes and those of Brighton for instance, both back from different flavours of misery, are surely a source of hope for supporters of clubs currently struggling.

Last season was Blackpool’s first at this level since 2015;  as we left the division in one direction, the Seasiders were leaving it in the other (7-2 wins and so forth) – the first of consecutive relegations.  A steady enough 16th last year was perceived as plenty good enough for the moment thank you, but the loss of highly thought-of boss Neil Critchley to Aston Villa was a blow after two good years.   Replacement Michael Appleton, who had a remarkably brief and unsuccessful spell at Bloomfield Road ten years ago, is a wily coach who inherits a tough, hardworking team with dashes of quality in winger Josh Bowler and centre back Marvin Ekpiteta, but you’d imagine that emulating last season’s inconspicuous but untroubled finish would once again be just fine.

BRISTOL CITY

INS: Stefan Bajic (Pau, Free), Kai Naismith (Luton Town, Free), Mark Sykes (Oxford United, Free), Kane Wilson (Forest Green Rovers, Free)

OUTS: Tyreeq Bakinson (Sheffield Wednesday, Undisclosed), Saikou Janneh (Cambridge United, Undisclosed), Kasey Palmer (Coventry City, Undisclosed), Louis Britton (Cork City, Free), Robbie Cundy (Barnsley, Free), Callum O’Dowda (Cardiff City, Free), Owura Edwards (Ross County, Season Loan), Taylor Moore (Shrewsbury Town, Season Loan), James Taylor (Cheltenham Town, Season Loan), Khari Allen, Barney Soady, Nathaniel Williams

OUR EX-ROBINS: Ben Hamer, Danny Rose

THEIR EX-ORNS: Nigel Pearson (manager), Andi Weimann

REPORT ARCHIVE:

POSSIBLE STARTING ELEVEN:

Bentley
Kalas      Naismith     Atkinson
Wilson               James          Scott              Dasilva
Weimann
Martin          Semenyo

BLUFFER’S GUIDE: The big win over City in February of last year was transparently a turning point for the Hornets.  Three games without a win at that stage and Xisco’s positive start looked in danger of petering out but six goals against City pre-empted a run of ten wins in eleven games with only a contentious defeat in Dorset blotting the copybook.

Meanwhile at Ashton Gate, boss Dean Holden was sacked ten days later.  His replacement was a familiar face in Nigel Pearson and whilst slipping from City’s traditional mid-table slot to a slightly more precarious 17th isn’t a good look, there are reasons for cautious optimism.   City scored 62 goals last season, more than anyone else outside the top six…  Andi Weimann enjoyed comfortably the most prolific season of his career with 22 a full decade after his most recent loan at Vicarage Road, and he forms a decent forward line with Chris Martin and Antoine Semenyo.  Over-reliance on Martin, only six months younger than Troy, may be an issue and Semenyo, linked to the Hornets a couple of times last season, misses the start of the campaign with an injury picked up with Ghana but having a decent forward line with question marks is a better state of affairs than most of the teams in the division can boast.  The problems have been defensively;  only Reading and relegated Peterborough conceded more.  Recruitment has been reasonably encouraging with Kai Naismith a surprise steal from Luton and Kane Wilson another to have been linked with the Hornets coming in at right wing back.  There are, by all accounts, good kids coming through with Alex Scott, part of England’s U19 Euros winning side, another name to watch. Nonetheless, you’re probably looking at City being a bit more comfortable with a puncher’s chance of a play-off place at best.

End of Term Report 2022 – Part 6 20/06/2022

29- Cucho Hernández

Sometimes the how is as important as the what.

There’s a tendency, particularly with a struggling side, to champion the triers.  Application over ability, a frantic charge around over deft touch.  I can hear Rupe sneering “oh yes he tries hard“.  This should be a minimum requirement, and certainly not sufficient in itself.

But in a season like this one, where we had such an excess of untapped, unchanneled ability and such a deficit of leadership, of drive, of oomph, Cucho Hernández was very welcome indeed.  He doesn’t carry the ability, threat or experience of some of his attacking colleagues, but Roy Hodgson’s decision to briefly promote Cucho to a regular starting slot (until injury curtailed his season) was both noteworthy and completely justified.

Nor was it just effort, garnished as it was with personality and ability.  This much was evident from his opening salvo against Villa, followed up with the ridiculous corner to cue up Juraj Kucka’s equaliser at Goodison Park and the ferociously defiant strike at home to Manchester City.  These were the highlights of course, and Cucho’s staccato involvement reflected the variable form of a young player adapting to a very different environment.  But one of few attacking players to come out with credit.

Next Season:  When I wrote this piece I gleefully reported here that early rumours linking Cucho with a return to Spain had been beaten away and hurrah for that.  Now it seems that he’s being lined up for a move to the MLS with Columbus Crew.  I’m progressing through stages of grief, can understand that the reported fee is reasonable for a player who wants to leave with two years left and so on.  Still.  Disappointing.

31- Francisco Sierralta

So this wasn’t entirely expected either.  Francisco Sierralta’s promotion season hadn’t been perfect… but it hadn’t been far off, even if he did seem reliant on a senior partner, William Troost-Ekong, telling him where to be.  Enthusiastic reports from his international exposure with Chile spoke positively of the scope for him to step up to Premier League level.

A series of injuries – calf strains, hamstrings – haven’t helped and his occasional forays into the first team didn’t inspire great confidence, but at a time when most of the team was struggling, Sierralta’s extraordinary physical attributes being seemingly cheaply cast aside was very odd.

“Odd” just about sums it up.  Odd that we saw so little of the dominant figure of last season.  Odd that he was given scant chance to recover his form.  Odd that there was as much as a rumour of a move to Israel to be denied, unthinkable a year ago.

Next Season:  If Rob Edwards sticks with three centre backs and wingbacks, the central “have it” role should be made for Francisco.  The summer’s passage will suggest whether last season’s disappointment was rooted in injuries, or in something more complicated.

33- Juraj Kucka

At around 4:25 on August 14th last year many of us held misconceptions.  We were (briefly) 3-0 up on Aston Villa at a sun-bathed Vicarage Road and, in man of the match Juraj Kucka, we had a new midfielder who looked like a nightclub bouncer but exhibited the deftness and grace of a ballerina.

In truth, that’s (probably) the player he used to be.  We caught glimpses of that sort of form as the season progressed, as if he was humming a half-remembered tune but at the age of 34/35, his best days were clearly behind him.  This was most consistently evidenced by his inability to sustain an endearing level of belligerence for anything like ninety minutes.

Pre-season, he had declared a willingness to be employed as a utility player;  on that basis he was a decent signing being experienced and capable of filling into a number of midfield roles.  As it turns out he featured in two-thirds of our Premier League games, starting most of those without, in all honesty, us suffering any more bad fortune in midfield in the injury stakes than might be considered par.

His good bits were good, and there was enough application there for his Watford career to be reflected on in the same unmemorable but just-about-positive terms as Moussa Sissoko once divorced from the season in which it was cloaked.  With a halfway acceptable set of midfield options, he’d have been a perfectly adequate option off the bench.

Next Season:  Nominally back in Serie B with Parma, although his contract in there is up in June.  Not, in any case, at Vicarage Road.

39- Edo Kayembe

Sometimes I get to do really interesting stuff at work.

A few years ago I was involved in a study (and a publication) studying the evidence of transmission of happiness via chemosignals.  “Do we sweat happiness?”, loosely.  The study involved collection of sweat from individuals in a frightened, happy, or neutral state.  Sweat collected under the three conditions was pooled and presented to a separate set of subjects, “blind” to whatever it was that they were smelling.

Remarkably, frightened sweat prompted frowning, on average, in the facial muscle movements of those exposed, and a tendency towards focus on detail, a stressed response, in a cognitive task. This was not altogether a surprise, others had done similar previously. But Happy sweat prompted muscle movements associated with smiling, and a greater chance of “big picture” responses in the same cognitive task.

A big challenge – not my bit – was identifying stimuli to provoke said conditions.  “Frightened” and “Happy” were easy-ish…  Horror clips/movies and comedy respectively in a slightly warm viewing room.

But the neutral control?  What does neutral look like.  Neutral isn’t bored….

But I’m neutral on Edo Kayembe.  I’m not sold, completely, but I’m not writing him off either.  I quite like his defiant oblongness, there’s something there…

Next Season:  ….but whether it’s enough to forge a memorable Watford career, we’ll have to wait and see!

That’s your lot as far as the school report goes.  Season Preview will start going up the weekend before the start of the season.  Enjoy what’s left of the break.  Yooorns, etc.

End of Term Report 2022 – Part 5 16/06/2022

23- Ismaïla Sarr

Hindsight makes everything clearer, every decision easier.  With hindsight, spunking that much money on a player, any player at that point was… presumptuous, bordering on arrogant.  The more so on an individual who for all his talents was and remains, as his compatriot Sadio Mané reminded Troy Deeney in that famous piece of backstage footage “just a shy boy”.  We put an awful lot of our chips on an individual without the robustness of personality to make it work.  And we couldn’t afford for it not to work.

There weren’t many voicing their objections at the time mind.  Signing a player for that kind of money was bold but… we wanted to believe that we were an established Premier League club in a position to make such a move as much as the guys running the club did.  And Sarr was so exciting when his flame was on.  There’s the Liverpool game, obviously, which is so revealing in itself… a platform upon which he announced himself to the rest of the division, none of us ended that expecting to be relegated.  Suddenly everyone knew who Sarr was.  It wasn’t the only instance though.

It would be wrong to portray the signing as a complete failure.  It hasn’t been.  There have been moments of brilliance, he has been our dangerman, the man double marked.  He is likely to more or less make us what we paid for him and whilst Will Hughes’ appearance at the back of the midfield was the key to our automatic promotion in 2021, Sarr had been the cheat code all season.  We wouldn’t have gone straight up without him.

But we expected more.  More resilience, more consistent threat.  More versatility and flexibility than suggested by his apparent need to be played on the right of a front three.  And more assertiveness from a player whose transfer fee always labelled him as our main man.

Next Season:  The “bigger” the club Sarr goes to, the more successful and established club with better players and manifold weapons the more effective he’ll be and the more chance he has of being able to consistently mobilise his obvious capabilities.  Injuries aside he had more than enough ability to be our biggest threat, but it was never a responsibility that he looked comfortable with.

25- Emmanuel Dennis

On the face of it, Emmanuel Dennis was the most successful of last summer’s signings.  Recruited for a relatively modest fee he made an eye-catching and immediate impact contributing threat and spiky aggression to our forward line.  For much of the season he was comfortably our most reliable source of goals and is likely to be sold on for many times the initial outlay.  Classic Pozzo-model buy-low-sell-high.

Thing is…. in contrast to Imrân Louza, who as discussed in an earlier episode of this series is one we really want to hold onto despite stats and that suggesting he ought to be a disappointment, Dennis’ sale is probably the right thing for all concerned.

He lived up to his billing, in all honesty.  When he arrived the headlines were the goals he scored for Club Brugge away to Real Madrid and his accompanying arrogant celebration.  We saw that side of him certainly…  the raw ability, the showmanship, the impudence.  But we also saw the side of him that pointed at the reasons for him dropping out of the Belgian club’s side, for his unsuccessful loan spell with a Cologne team spared relegation from the Bundesliga a year ago by winning a relegation play-off and the dark mutterings that emerged from there.

The team’s failure this season was characterised by our inability to mobilise our attacking weapons.  Much of that is rooted further back in a dysfunctional midfield, but the “most nutmegs in a season ever” thing screamed of a forward line who didn’t work together, trust or perhaps like each other very much.  I attended the vast majority of Watford’s games this season and so didn’t take in much of the commentary but I heard Tommy Mooney lament Dennis’ selfishness at least three times, whilst mention of his inability to “build up a strong bond with his team mates” in Adam Leventhal’s recent Athletic piece isn’t so much thinly veiled as hung in the shop window (though we’re sure it’s exaggerated Fulham, Southampton, West Ham etc).

So a successful signing in many respects but only intermittently a positive force.  When he was good he was very very good but when he was bad… not so much.

Next Season:  No shortage of apparent suitors, all indications are that he may have gone by the time you read this.

26- Daniel Bachmann

My cousin lived with us for a bit when I was a kid.  She was studying and working in London, and we were close enough to be commutable.  She specialised in entertaining my sister and I (then aged 5 and 7 respectively) with inane jokes, an influence that I’ve not struggled terribly hard to shake off ever since.  Her particular favourite was:  “What have an elephant and a grape got in common?”.  “They’re both grey, apart from the grape.”.

Daniel Bachmann is a good goalkeeper apart from when he’s not.  The bits when he’s not do colour my judgement… he returns to the team and you think “oh dear”, and then “actually, he’s pretty decent really isn’t he”, and then “oh yeah”.

Perhaps being established as a first choice, either here or somewhere else, will give him the belief to settle down a bit, but given his notoriously assertive comments to the German-speaking press in particular it’s hard to believe that confidence is the issue.  Nonetheless, there are reasons why he’s managed less than 100 senior domestic games at the age of 28, and these were evidenced by his 13 appearances last season which featured one win (on the opening day) and 12 defeats, poor even by the season’s meagre standards.

Next Season:  Looks like being second choice to Maduka Okoye unless the eye-catching rumour linking him to Manchester United and cementing him in that peculiar nether-world of the goalkeeping back-up is realised.

27- Christian Kabasele

After many years in and around the Watford squad there’s little mystery about Christian Kabasele.  Decent defender if prone to the odd rush of blood, plenty good enough for the Championship and probably good enough for a Premier League squad – he’s been part of five of them.

Also a good guy.  Likeable, positive, active with community stuff and now with a UEFA ‘A’ coaching badge to boot.  Definitely a good guy to have around.

We do have a few in that bracket mind, and it’ll be interesting to see how the centre-back options shake up.  In the last season a hamstring injury at Leeds ruled Kaba out for an extensive period but Roy Hodgson favoured him and he was a mainstay for the last couple of months.  Never a leader, but you’d always be happy to have him as part of the squad.

Next Season:  More reliable than Troost-Ekong and a couple of years younger that Cathcart, you kinda hope that Kaba’s in the “keep” box.

End of Term Report 2022 – Part 4 13/06/2022

15- Craig Cathcart

My six year-old niece wants a suitcase for her birthday.

A suitcase is a pretty functional thing.   Its purpose is uncomplicated but not easy, not to be taken for granted.  We’ve all had a shit suitcase.  It can be gaudy, expensive, flash, but that’s not really the idea.  If you’re buying a suitcase primarily as a fashion item you’re doing it wrong.

And it’s absolutely vital.  Try going on holiday without one. A necessary condition if not a sufficient one for a successful trip.  If you’ve got a reliable suitcase that does the job you’re unlikely to need or want to prioritise replacing it.

The problem comes when it no longer does the job.  And…  there are signs here.  The zipper beginning to jam, perhaps, the pull-out handle no longer works.  Craig has been a bastion of dependable, sensible honesty, of reliably being in the way throughout his time at Watford but made more mistakes last season than I’ve seen him make before.

He’s not alone in that.  Heaven knows it’s hard to look elegant in a season like that one, and worth noting that he was involved in all the good stuff too such as it was – all the wins, all the clean sheets.  Nonetheless, Craig will turn 34 during next season and looks a bit wobbly for the first time.

Next Season:  Versatile, humble, good bloke, will put a shift in.  Stick.  Probably.

19- Moussa Sissoko

Moussa Sissoko is great.  Works hard, drives forward.  Takes responsibility, scraps, battles, great stamina, tidy, unflashy.  Can’t shoot for toffee, but you can’t have everything.  Add to that a gazillion caps in a super-competitive French midfield and long experience at the top of the game and you’ve got a great signing for a promoted side.

And in a better squad, in a more complete midfield he might have been much more successful.  As it was we were out of necessity looking for both leadership and creativity towards a player not really geared to deliver either of these things.  Which isn’t entirely his fault… certainly, I never saw his head drop, I never saw lack of interest or energy or any hint of too-good-for-thisness.  And as above, in a side where others were providing the leadership and the creativity, a squad like the 2019 squad for example with Deeney and Gomes and Capoue and Pereyra….  he’d have been a successful and worthy addition, more effective for not having to do unnatural jobs.  As it was, he’s likely to leave us with thanks and an unmemorable C+ on his report card.

Next Season:  More than capable of doing a job but more a lieutenant than a captain, a return to France seems most likely.

21- Kiko Femenía

We always used to say about Lloydinho that if he could pass straight he wouldn’t be playing for us, such were his other capabilities.  Similarly Kiko’s dodgy GPS when it comes to defending balls coming over his head (a bit like trying to use Google Maps to find your way to whichever pub as you come out of a busy underground station) has surely restricted his progress since his inhuman stamina and attacking verve are both beyond dispute.

But add to that a  resilience of character that saw Kiko persistently chip away in defiance of the team’s (and occasionally his own) wobbly form, often coax the most effective performances out of his ally on the right flank, Ismaïla Sarr and almost uniquely maintain a healthy supply line with six assists from right-back and you’ve got a player who would still have been an asset in a Premier League squad, let alone in the Championship next season.

Next Season: Right wing-back in the Championship would suit him and us down to the ground, you’d have thought, but reports linking us with Rob Edwards’ former charge Kane Wilson (who since signed for Bristol City) add weight to the suggestion provided by the rather odd listing of half a dozen interested Spanish clubs that Kiko is heading back to Spain.  We’ve heard that before, mind.

22- Samir

Samir is a bit of an odd character.

Because he did make us better, defensively.  Or rather… his arrival coincided with a general improvement in our defensive play if also with that of Roy Hodgson, more or less.  Everything’s relative of course, there were still bad days for him and the team in this regard but certainly he was demonstrably the most effective of the central defenders that we tried out.

Thing is, I wouldn’t recognise him if I passed him in the street.  And I was at most of those outings, behind the Rookery if with my head in my hands a lot of the time, there’s no excuse really.  This reflects his low profile and the effort required to engage with the team, any team, on a miserable run.

And the fact, I guess, that he always seemed destined to be a short term hire.  A contractor, a locum, good enough to come in and fill in capably before quietly packing up his desk and moving onto the next task.  There’s a lot of criticism of our “faceless mercenaries”, some individuals deserve such disdain but Samir did pretty well in a poor side.

Then, we expect, he’ll leave.

Next Season:  Udinese, one presumes.

End of Term Report 2022 – Part 3 09/06/2022

10- João Pedro

There’s going to be some selective interpretation here.

So for me… the whole “most nutmegs in a season ever” thing in combination with relegation is the most damning indictment of our season, and particularly of our horribly “less than the sum of its parts” forward line.  You can get away with stats like that if you’re…. Tottenham, for example.  Not quite good enough to actually win stuff but good enough to win a lot of games to which such baubles are a fun if, occasionally, objectively, over-gaudy decoration.

You can’t get away with that when you’re getting relegated.  It’s pathetic.  It screams of indiscipline, lack of attacking structure, lack of team ethos.  And João Pedro was right up there as far as those nutmegs and baubles are concerned.

And yet.  Here’s a kid much vaunted who’s come over from Brazil and had to adapt.  And it’s true both that he showed glimpses of sublime ability pretty much straight away, but also that he’s never quite exploded in the fashion that we’d hoped.

But there are suggestions that the latter might be about to change.  He’s young still, obviously.  Christ, he was born on the day that Pierre Issa was dropped off his stretcher. He’s much younger than our other young forwards – three or four years on Sarr and Dennis, two or three on Cucho.  And yet at the end of this miserable season he was the one doing the best job of grabbing the attacking reins.

Not effectively enough, not reliably enough, sure. But there’s an increasing authority about his play… a tacit recognition that he has progressed beyond pat-on-the-head “keep going son” to at least aspiring to being a reliable, effective, core component of this team.  Always combative, far stronger than his spindly frame suggests, his end of season performances would have been far more eye-catching and effective in a team that hadn’t fallen apart.

Next Season:  No surprise that there are rumours, but with five years left on his contract he won’t be going for less than a monster fee.  Quite right too.  If his recent trajectory continues he’s a priceless weapon in the Championship next season.

11- Adam Masina

I don’t think there’s much to debate here.

Adam Masina is a good guy.  Honest.  Committed.  Never hides.  Decent energy, a reasonable line in crossfield passes.  And you root for him…  his backstory is not a pampered one.  Not an easy one.  At times he even wobbled on the edge of being a cult hero, the “Tequila / Masina” song was surely strong enough to stand on its own feet without too much encouragement.

You just wish he was a little bit better at football.  A little more reliable, a little less haphazard.  A little more violent perhaps.  A little more assertive.

But in four seasons at Vicarage Road in the face of varying levels of competition for the left back slot he’s barely managed to feature in half of our games in any one campaign.  And… as you may have heard mentioned… we’ve had a few head coaches in that time.  He’s never quite convinced any of them… a good guy to have around, but not a nailed on starter.

Next Season: Here our paths diverge, it would seem.  Good luck to Adam, a regular with the Moroccan national side now and clearly not a bad player but he’s not likely to be a regular at Vicarage Road.

12- Ken Sema

There is a value on players who you can rely on to do a job.  A value in someone who you will… not settle for a place on the sidelines, not be comfortable outside of the first team but will buckle down, do a job when called for.  Not be disruptive.  Ideally you’d have an armoury of eager youngsters pushing for a chance of course, but the world that Academy licensing has created renders that difficult for a Watford (and of questionable value for the greater good even if you do regard supporting development in order to feed the national team as worth prioritising).

So instead you need the likes of Ken.  See also:  Danny Welbeck in the national set-up, who has been in the last two World Cup Finals squads (yes, really).  The story may have been different had we stayed up… Ken’s involvement was spasmodic and rarely memorable in the Premier League where his limitations are placed under focus.

But back in the Championship Ken has proven he has value – a minimum of one chance created per game from a barrelling tiptoe down the left flank for starters.

Next Season:  If we’re playing with wing backs as mooted, Kenzema looks like reasonable cover for Kamara at left wing back.  Or wherever else Rob Edwards wants to stick him.

14- Hassane Kamara

It doesn’t pay to think about things too much.  By which I mean…  given the choice, we would each choose for Watford to win every game they played, in isolation.  “Do you hope that Watford beat Preston on Saturday?”.  Well, yes, obviously.

But if you got your wish and Watford did win every game then Watford would become something else?  Like… a Manchester City or something?  And I’m sure that winning a lot would be something that we’d all struggle through, somehow but… would you want Watford not to be Watford?

Given that Watford will never be a Manchester City (and that there are at least reasons why you might not want them to be anyway) there can be no rational argument against Hassane Kamara.  For all that there are occasional mistakes…  most of his mistakes are good mistakes.  Mistakes borne of trying to make something happen, of being assertive rather than passive and not based in, for example, lack of concentration or making bad decisions.

Stats can be misconstrued, but the thing about him blowing pretty much everyone else in the division away since January in tables of interceptions, blocks, and general being-a-pain-in-the-arseness tells its own story.  You’ve got to be needing to spend quite a lot of time trying to win the ball back to do well in those tables, admittedly but… that’s where we are.  So too the incongruously cavalier goal at Manchester City, the only goal by a defender last season executed in glorious bloody-mindedness.  Kamara was a rare source of joy in the second half of the campaign, Player of the Season all day long.

Next Season:  Wing backs (as we are lead to believe) ought to suit him.  Let’s just hope that those occasional lapses and being 28 rather than 24 are enough to put suitors off.