End of Term Report Part 8

Must… keep… going…

32- Jonathan Hogg

I must confess to having been a little apprehensive about the signing of Jonathan Hogg.  For one thing, coming on the back of the recruitment of Carl Dickinson the significance of Ian Woan’s testimony was clearly prominent – he had overseen the training sessions of both during loan spells at Pompey.  Not that Woan is necessarily a bad judge of a player, but it always concerns me when a new manager moves in with a vanguard of former charges, as if there’s only one trick he knows how to pull… for every Aidy Boothroyd, who pulled this off successfully, there are five Gordon Strachans.   Another concern, much as Hogg’s quality was immediately apparent, was that he seemed like a solution to a problem that didn’t really need solving, John Eustace and Ross Jenkins more than adequately covering destructive responsibilities in central midfield.  Any lingering reservations were dispelled by the time Eustace and Hogg switched roles, with the new boy able to revel in the defensive sitting position.  Quickly you were left with the feeling that we were playing a computer game on too easy a level, or had somehow obtained a “cheat”, a ball-seeking missile that could be launched from the back of midfield at will, decimating everything in its path.  The magnificent story, recounted at one of the excellent “At Your Place” evenings (that OK, Rich?), of Hogg persuading Alex McLeish to sell him to us at an affordable price by kicking lumps out of his soon to be ex-Villa team-mates in a training session was very believable.  Not that his role was purely destructive… miserly with possession, he almost seemed to enjoy the challenge all the more, the narrower the spot he found himself in.  If there’s a criticism it’s that he faded a little in the second half of the campaign… had the first and second halves of the season been reversed, he’d surely have been a shoo-in for a top three spot in Player of the Season.  Nonetheless, the one cast-iron beyond-discussion success of Sean Dyche’s summer spending.

Next Season:  More of the same.  A goal would be nice mind, although he was never terribly close to becoming the first to score in 32 since 1999.

33- Nyron Nosworthy

Another one, if I’m honest, that I wasn’t sure about.  It’s not that, with four defeats and eleven goals conceded in four games since Martin Taylor’s injury something didn’t need to happen.  It’s just that it wasn’t obvious that Nosworthy was it… many of us will have remembered his most recent opposing visits to the Vic as part of a hapless Sheffield United back four.  Nonetheless, Sunderland fans spoke highly of him, even eulogising his contribution to their time in the second tier. So it proved.  Scarcely credible that we could lose Martin Taylor for so long and barely notice (except, perhaps, in his value as an attacking threat although Nos chipped in there too).  Sunderland fans had also betrayed the confusing hankering for the simpler pleasures of the second tier that I certainly recall from both our seasons in the top flight… his Cruyff turns on the edge of his own penalty box, the sort that you really wouldn’t get away with against a Rooney or a Van Persie, were wistfully referred to.  And there are certainly echoes of Keith Dublin or Ben Iroha… but only up to a point.  Cavalier defenders are far more fun in retrospect.  Nos is first and foremost a tough, solid, and largely reliable defender… not exempt from the odd wobbly performance.  But if he was flawless, he’d still be playing in the top flight.

Next Season: First choice alongside Martin Taylor.

35- Tomasz Kuszczak

We’ve discussed the whys and was-it-appropriate’s under Scott Loach in Part 1. Putting that to one side, there is little doubt that Kuszczak’s contribution during his time at Vicarage Road was hugely positive for Watford.  Hopefully for Kuszczak too, even if he didn’t achieve his stated ambition of making Poland’s Euro 2012 squad.  A wobbly debut at home to Southampton had folk briefly worried, but he soon played himself out of the rustiness borne of nine months without a competitive fixture and became a commanding, reassuring presence.  Without wishing to knock Loach, the difference in composure not just of the goalkeeper, but of the entire defence, was palpable, and as much a part of our strong late run (Kuszczak only played in one defeat after his debut) as Sean Murray’s devil at the other end of the pitch.

Next Season: Hopefully first choice somewhere for the Pole in goal.  Would be nice to see him back, but on the assumption that he’ll get significantly more money elsewhere, żegnaj i powodzenia Tomasz.  Just not Ipswich, eh?

37- Craig Beattie

Watford have done well out of loan deals over the years.  I know I bang on about giving our kids a run, but a good loan can invigorate a squad, and I wouldn’t have wanted to see us without Cleverley, Lansbury, Helguson, Mutch over the past couple of years.  2011/12 has been a good a season as any in this respect, with a number of temporary signings (including Nosworthy, whose signing was made permanent having joined on loan) making a significant contribution.  However Craig Beattie wasn’t one of them.  He joined from Swansea shortly after Nosworthy arrived from Sunderland, but started one game in two months.  He didn’t look terrible by any means, but it wasn’t altogether clear what he was supposed to bring to an attack that wasn’t short of tough strikers who didn’t run very fast.  His performances didn’t suggest any great urgency either, perhaps because his eye was already on a return to Scotland.

Next Season: Released from his Swansea deal at the end of January he joined Hearts within the month as a free agent and scored the late penalty that saw off Celtic in the Scottish FA Cup semi final.  It seems unlikely that he or Watford will give each other a second thought.

Sean Dyche

We’ve seen players come through tough periods before, win the crowd over.  You can think of individuals as easily as I can name them.  Difference is, a player normally has the occasion to recover his poise, recover his confidence, be it through a spell out of the side, on loan, or just hitting form or fitness.  A manager doesn’t have that luxury… yes, he’s as susceptible to the vagaries of fate as anyone, but he doesn’t get to hide anywhere, doesn’t get to let any team mates take the strain.  It’s very rare that a manager wins supporters over; a man under pressure invariably looks as if he’s clawing helplessly at a slippery slope, fighting something inevitable.  Just a matter of time. So for Sean Dyche to recover from the early fans’ forum, during which he was face to face with any number of supporters who preceded their comment with expression of disappointment at the way the team was going, to ending a season, his first season, top half with an improvement on the previous year despite having lost, effectively, a four-man attack in Cowie, Graham, Sordell and Buckley during his tenure was truly remarkable.

I’m not knocking those who posed those questions, we were most of us feeling that anxiety.  I’d been delighted by Dyche’s appointment, but largely because I expected him to continue in the vein of the management team he’d been a part of with Malky Mackay.  I was hugely disappointed when he took a different path, but the very positive take from that is that here’s a man who knows his own mind and can deliver on it.  Much harder than just carrying on using a pre-existing model, even given the player movements that in part forced his hand.

To bring the elephant in the room into view, I still utterly disagree with his approach to managing young players.  To qualify that a little, I think he made a lot of mistakes last summer, when we signed Forsyth, Yeates, Mirfin, Buaben, Iwelumo, Dickinson, Garner and Hogg.  Forsyth, perhaps, an inherited deal.  But of those, much as the jury is still out on some and there’s scope for development in others, Hogg is the only unqualified success.  And the cost of bulking the squad out with some rather average players, ultimately, in combination with the drop from seven to five subs, is that our kids got far less game time.

Since then, it’s fair to say, there’s very little that you’d quibble with.  I’d have had Murray in the team earlier.  I’m baffled at the treatment of Whichelow, but don’t get to see what goes on off the pitch.  But there aren’t many individual selection decisions you’d query based on available personnel, Dyche played the loan market well and of course the results, ultimately, were pretty extraordinary.

But the strategy is flawed, and doesn’t fit our club in the longer term.  It ultimately doesn’t matter whether the players we bought were adequate or not… year on year, unless something changes radically, we are competing with rivals within our division with bigger budgets.  Much bigger, some of them.  You’re talking about needing to turn up diamonds that others have missed, selling a vision too perhaps.  Everyone else is trying that too, with a bigger budget.  You might do well one year, get good value, find decent players, we all enjoy turning up an Andy Hessenthaler or a Mike Williamson from a lower division.  But we won’t get away with that every season, we’re playing that game with a fundamentally weaker hand.

On the other hand, our record in youth development has few rivals, certainly not at this level.  Harefield is something that nobody else has – although they will eventually.  We’re ahead of the game there, and it’s something to be hugely proud of.  Following the previous model – I won’t call it Mackay’s approach, since it surely wasn’t just down to him – these kids were getting time on the pitch.  And sure, they weren’t all going to be ready.  And sure, our form wobbled a bit at the end of 2010/11 (although not as badly as results or some rather inaccurate reflections would suggest).  But ultimately the kids are better equipped as a result.  You’re not telling me that Lee Hodson isn’t a tougher, more resilient, more experienced player based on coming through his experiences last season?

Most of all, we weren’t just talking the talk.  Lots of clubs at our level claim – and intend – to base their team on youth development.  We were actually doing it, demonstrably.  We had loads of kids in the team… you know the stats as well as I do, and you’ll also be aware that in stark contrast only Bond and Assombalonga had debuts last season, whilst many of those that had been involved were marginalised.  The route to the first team for those talented enough is a real competitive advantage for a club like Watford, and this is a battle we’re much better equipped to win than the bunfight for second tier players in the transfer market.  If you’re Sean Murray, comparing a place with a Prem club several years and loans away from the first team to regular involvement and development and Watford, you have a decision to make.  If what’s on offer at Watford is a more “careful” approach, you don’t.

I would have preferred to have seen more quality and less quantity last summer, and it will be interesting to see what this summer’s dealing brings.  There’s no doubt that we have a hugely talented, likeable, honest and single-minded manager who has built a tough, robust side in his own image.  Improving on this season’s performance will be a challenge, but with a strong base and Murray’s box of tricks up front, it’s not beyond us.

Enjoy the summer. (Oh, you are…)