Premier League season preview: Watford face a struggle to avoid relegation after wholesale changes
By Nick Ames
Watford have benefitted from the Pozzo family's extensive scouting network this summer, but new manager Quique Flores faces a tough task getting so many new players to gel immediately.
Predicted finish: 20th
Signings:
Watford, who benefit from the peerless scouting network of their owners, the Pozzo family, have adopted a revolving-door policy in recent years and this summer has been little different, with nine new players arriving and the Czech striker Matej Vydra firming up his loan into a permanent deal.
The Pozzos also own Serie A side Udinese and La Liga club Granada, and have ferried several players from the two to Watford in recent times, but only one of the new faces has been sourced in that way. Allan Nyom, the Cameroon international right-back, has arrived from the Italian side after spending a remarkable six seasons on loan with Granada, and now finds his permanent home in London.
Nyom has been joined by some recognisable Premier League names in Etienne Capoue, who has signed from Tottenham Hotspur, and the former West Ham midfielder Valon Behrami, who has arrived from Hamburg. They will add balance to an attack-minded side but extra flair will come from the former Real Madrid player Jose Manuel Jurado, who has signed after an excellent year at Spartak Moscow.
The Dutch winger, Steven Berghuis, has also been signed from AZ Alkmaar for £4.6m but the majority of Watford’s incomings appear to have been directed towards exercising a degree of defensive caution. Centre backs Sebastian Prodl and Miguel Britos have joined from Werder Bremen and Napoli respectively, while the experienced Greek international left-back Jose Holebas has come in from Roma for £1.8m. There is new competition between the posts too, with the towering Lithuanian goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskas arriving from Steaua Bucharest. Watford have added numbers and quality to their ranks but the key now will be in binding them into a unit capable of competing in the Premier League – as quickly as possible.
The manager:
It had been inevitable that Slavisa Jokanovic, the man who took control of a team in flux and guided it to an impressive promotion from the Championship, would not be around to take Watford into the Premier League and the suspicion is they replaced him got one of the men they wanted all along. Quique Sanchez Flores has had a chequered managerial career, taking Valencia into the Champions League quarter-finals big underwhelming at Benfica and Atletico Madrid, before most recently resigning from a second spell at Getafe after less than two months. Now he is charged with ensuring Watford’s survival and his arrival has been accompanied by a new broom, with numerous new faces joining Watford’s squad this season. Sanchez Flores will have had to buy into the Pozzo family’s way of operating in order to get this opportunity and it is unlikely that all of those signings will have been his work. His biggest task, now, will be to ally the likes of Holebas, Capoue and Jurado with mainstays like Deeney and get the best out of a squad that brims with talent but may need some careful direction.
One to watch: Troy Deeney
Watford have not been shy in the transfer market this summer but the player whose fortunes may be most closely followed by neutrals is their captain, who has now been with the club for five years. Troy Deeney has been Watford’s talisman in recent seasons, a fearless centre-forward who is as effective with his back to goal as facing it and gives defence no rest with his tireless chasing, robust physique and technical adeptness. He has the tools to be one of the best centre-forwards in the country and now, after a career whose lows have included a three-month spell in prison in 2012, he has the opportunity to prove it.
Deeney, now 27, will have added competition for his place this season and there will be pressure on him to score the goals that might just lever his side away from the relegation chasers. But there is a sense that he thrives on pressure and a player who was representing tiny Chelmsley Town nine years ago does not give the impression of a man about to let his chance slip. If Watford can stump up the service – and even if they can’t – Deeney should be a thorn in plenty of sides this season and a good start might lead to calls for his introduction to the England setup.