Watford Observer (weekly news thread)

[Olzy]

This is the thread for all info from the 'Watford Observer'

Which includes all the latest info from Watford FC such as new signings, transfer gossip, Aidy's views + more.

[Olzy]

Henderson could stay.

Bouazza has a new agent who are pushing for a move. Aidy has several options he might reject £5m and say I want £6m. Sell him and strengthen the team. Or play hard ball like West Brom do. Bouazza favours a move to West Ham.

Jose, Sir Alex, Arsene are all likely to receive calls as he is looking to land a winger on loan. But will have to wait till August.

3 names linked with us Rasiak, Howard and Fryatt.

Aidy very happy with new coach Hunter. Him and Bates will help Aidy, Alec and Malky improve.

Aidy feels Heidar would of chosen us over any other champ side no danger of that. The door is always open for him here.

DJ choose the comfortable option of going to work for someone he knows. Aidy thinks he made the wrong decision(DJ)

[Olzy]

In today's pre-season special:

Aidy has tried to sign Ellington from WBA who turned him down.

Cavalli is off on a free transfer next week (didn’t say where to).

Bouazza's agent is a c*nt and the jug eared winger wanted out from the moment the season ended.

Aidy is going to not panic buy and admitted that some of his January signings were a flop.

Smith and Henderson are fit for tomorrow. Priskin, King, Henderson and Hoskins are looking the part.

Macca is “teasing” Aidy, but is now a man not a boy and can do a job on the wing. If he doesn’t do it consistently, he’s in the last year of his contract and will be out on his ear.

Aidy has got one of those radio things and may be sitting in the stand whilst Martin Hunter is on the touchline.

John-Joe O’Toole and Alex Campana caught GT’s eye at Lincoln.

[Olzy]

Carlisle has gone as it's twice what we paid for him and he can get first team games as he is knocking on a bit. He will be missed because of his "human qualities".

Aidy is not interested in Dong or Martin at Man U or our old friend Collins "I prefer sitting on the bench me" John.

Aidy MIGHT go back in for Ellington again as "He's the type of player I like" but he doesn't want to get our hopes up.

There is going to be some grovelling to Darius as Aidy says "it was a bit of inexperience on my part" by putting him in the shop window before we signed another striker. He also says "there is a bond there".

More ticket staff to be on tomorrow as the new ticket system (predictably) didn't work very well.

We took 1,109 to Wolves. No problems reported, though according to Wolves fans on here, the away end behaved worse than war criminals or child murderers.

Aidy was "delighted" after the Gillingham game.

Aidy's column is entitled "Do yougsters benefit from big moves" and says in so many words that Ashley Yound did it the right way and got a club that was good for him and that Bouazza got the pound signs in his eyes and jumped ship at the first, and not the best, opportunity.

[Olzy]

Lots of info on ‘The Duke’ including how WBA wouldn’t let him leave and how Robbo told him what a great club we are.

Hoskins may be going out on loan.

Darius is “expected” to sign an improved contract and never wanted to leave despite handing in his transfer request (work that one out).

We had a Czech international –Daniel Pudil – on a trial with a view to a £1m move to us from Slovan Liberec. Aidy has decided not to buy the defender/midfielder but will continue to monitor the situation.

Aidy’s column extols the virtues of having a good youth system, as the transfer market is “like a food chain”.

The Leicester result was a “slap in the face” and our reputation means that everyone is out to beat us. He also says that he didn’t rant and rave at them as there is a time and place for that, and it wasn’t then.

Nothing to suggest we’ll see any new faces today.

[Olzy]

It’s Darius Henderson’s birthday today – he’s 26. Happy birthday Darius!

‘Big D’ stayed for the fans - “I’ve never known a set of fans like it. They have been tremendous. They don’t come across as fickle and there were numerous times they could have turned on me last season”

Aidy told him that he had accepted an offer from Preston and Darius said “he just listened” and was shocked. He went to Preston but it didn’t feel right so he didn’t sign. Aidy then told him he could go if a similar offer came in. When it did from Fulham, Aidy said he couldn’t go, He was pretty pissed off at this, especially as it was a Prem club. Aidy has now convinced him that he is part of the long term plans.

Aidy may ‘delve’ into the loan market to get cover for Parkes. He didn’t think he’d be going for any other loans though.

Francis will be back sooner than Williams, who is still walking with a limp.

Our new Argie is “a cultured midfielder, a passer and someone who can get on the ball, keep it and run a game”. He’s fitted in already and Douglas Rinaldi is helping him with the language. Which is nice.

Aidy is “licking his lips” at his strikeforce and claims to be “blessed”.

Ellington was on the bench on Saturday as Aidy thought Darius would “soften them up”.

“Aidy’s column” is all about the academy and how good and important it is. Not very exciting.

[Olzy]

Pistone is training with us after his agent, who Aidy knows well, rang him up and asked. “He wasn’t on my radar” according to Aidy, who can’t assess him as he’s only 70% fit. He’ll let him train for a few weeks and see then. Apparently he has integrated very quickly. “He’s got to want to come and I’ve got to want him”. He can play centre back as well as left back.

“Jordan Stewart needs pushing”: Not off a cliff as some would hope, but Aidy thinks the reason he did well last year was due to Chris Powell competing for the left back role.

Avinel, Osborne and Campana may go out on loan. Hoskins is “a bit different” as he has a “big talent” but is on the periphery at the moment and needs to play games and start scoring again. Lots of people have enquired about taking Hoskins on loan.

Aidy took his son to watch Hereford v Macclesfield on Saturday to see how Robinson and Diagouraga were getting on. Both pleased him with their performances. Aidy has a saying at the training ground: “The finest steel must go through the fire”, which relates to youngsters playing in the first team.

[Olzy]

Macanuff will start in place of Johnson tomorrow. Jobi hasn’t been sulking since being dropped. Johnson has partly been sent to us to improve his defending.

Aidy says that we haven’t clicked as a team as there are quite a few new players. He says we should be “firing on all cylinders by January or February”. “We have the potential to dominate games, but must do it for longer periods of time”. “We are at the top and I am happy, but we are not playing well and there is a long way to go”.

Ellington is fasting and as such hasn’t featured as much. When he met Aidy he explained all about his faith to him and told him that fasting wasn’t a problem as Anelka does it. Aidy pointed out that “Anelka doesn’t have to run the channels like you are”. Ellington is living with his mum in South London until he sorts his house out, which goes to show that even total devotion to the almighty can’t speed up buying a house.

Aidy loves games like Scunthorpe away.

Lots of praise from Aidy for TV’s Graham Simpson in his column. Big plaudits too for Yianna (that’s Mrs Simpson to you), as she basically lets him go to all the games.

Aidy cut his head whilst bending down to pick up his daughter’s doll and has a big scar on his forehead.

Aidy is not afraid to make controversial changes, such as the sub’s against Blackpool where he “just wanted to shake things up a bit”.

[Olzy]

Graham Simpson is interviewed and has a deep love for the club.

The Russo’s have had enquiries about their 29.1% of the club’s shares. Simpson said he doesn’t want to sell but would be “selfish” not to consider the right offer. Simpson says “we love what we are doing, we’ve got a vision and the manager is happy. We don’t want to upset the apple cart, but nothing is forever”. Basically if someone with a stack of cash comes in to invest it, then he won’t say no.

“With Jimmy and Vinny standing down(?!), it would be good for us to look for more non-exec. directors”. People are interested, but they need to make sure it’s the right sort of person. The board is too small and they want to increase it, though not as big as in the past when it was 11 or 12.

Simpson doesn’t want to talk about the Russo’s, but says they “fell out”. He then spends a couple of paragraphs thanking them.

Ashton and Aidy are spearheading a 3 year plan and Aidy handled the pressure well last season. More from Simpson in next week’s WO apparently.

Aidy is happy with his midfield. Bangura will be back soon and can play with a light cast on his arm. Francis is back at the end of November.

Aidy says that you either love or loathe Gavin Mahon, but it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. You have to have a mixture of “soldiers and artists”. Mahon will have contract talks in Jan.

Jackson’s gone to Blackpool to keep up his fitness should he ever be required.

Jordan Stewart has had a “sticky patch” but has come through it. Contracts talks are ongoing.

Aidy wants to keep Johnson for the season and will have a word with Southgate. Johnson has “jolted Smith and Macanuff to another level”.

This week’s Aidy column is about getting the right manager and sticking with them, Keith Burkinshaw once mowed the grass on the Scunthorpe pitch when he was manager and he makes sure there’s no “them and us” between the 1st team and academy.

[Olzy]

The headline proclaims “John to make Turf Moor trip”, with a picture of the biomechanical problem striker looking bored senseless on the bench. “When you see who he kept out of the Dutch team and his record in the Premiership, it’s exciting we’ve got him”. Apparently he’s done loads of training, including a “micro pre-season” (whatever that is) and has been begging for more as he wants to get in the team. “Nathan kept Darius and Marlon on their toes and I think CJ and Steve Kabba will keep Darius and Nathan on their toes”. Personally I thought King looked anything but on his toes most of the season.

We may be able to get Williams back for the last 6 or 7 games which will be “a big plus”. He has done a full weeks training.

Aidy doesn’t want to get our hopes up, but is hopeful of getting Johnson back. He keeps ringing Southgate up to bother him, but he seems to want to keep him. If it does happen then we’ll be first on the list to get him. He hasn’t started a game since 22nd December for Boro.

Aidy is still thinking who to play with Eustace tomorrow. Eustace “knits us all together” and it will be him plus one – probably Bangura or O’Toole, though Williamson is fit again. “Al is a good option away from home but John-Joe has the knack of being in the right place at the right time”. Smith is expected to play through the pain barrier. Same back 4 - “Mariappa will be a phenomenal player and Mat Sadler is doing well for us”. Aidy is “loathe to break up the Bromby and Shittu partnership” despite Demerit being fit. Like Preston, “we owe Burnley one”.

Jackson seems to have taken on the role of mentoring the clubs youngsters. I’m glad he’s doing something useful rather than getting lost in the defence. He also has 16 months left on his contract to say nice things to the youth team.

Aidy likes the 39th game abroad idea as corporate people will get bored and watch another sport (f*** ‘em I say). He then says, that “the English premier league should be kept that way and there are more important things than money”.

Eustace jumped at the chance to join us as Stoke only offered him a 1 year contract. He needs the money to pay for the £40K operation he paid for himself in America to repair his cruciate ligament after he nearly retired but thought he would give it one last go.

Aidy wants other fans to be upset and impatient in the run in and we need the whole club and fans to get together. 90 points generally gets you up, but every season is different. “There is no such thing as winning ugly, every win is beautiful to me” (cue Mr Vic A Rage spitting out his fried mushrooms on toast in disgust).

Aidy tells us in his column that we, the fans, will make a difference. The squad have had a micro pre-season training camp and Aidy always carries a notebook round in case anyone has any good ideas. Aidy says that the second half of the Preston game saw the crowd anxious and thinking “here we go again” which he says was understandable as we have lost 3 in a row at home this season. We’ve got 12 cup finals (cliché alert) and “If you were to ask me what would make a difference to our season, I would say it’s you. And that’s not me being sycophantic”.