Are Watford's Wranglers getting it Wrong?

When seven players sign for a football club during the close season, there is often very little made of it. That particular club will more than likely have either replaced their manager with someone who wants their own side or have had a poor season previously and are looking at rebuilding.

Not Watford.

Gianfranco Zola has not been sacked and Watford didn’t have a bad season either, narrowly losing out on Championship promotion via the play-offs at Wembley in a 1-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.

The Hornets have indeed signed seven players; all in one go, all from one club and all for nothing. 

Nada, zip, zilch.

In what can be described as a ‘crafty’ or ‘creative’, Watford’s owners, the Pozzo family – who also own Italian side Udinese and Spanish outfit Granada – have allowed the Hornets to take the Udinese septuplet (Diego Fabbrini, Gabriel Angella, Almen Abdi, Christian Battocchio, Marco Cassetti, Davide Faraoni and Javier Acuna) plus Granada’s Daniel Pudil to Vicarage Road.

Zola’s side finished the Championship season in third place due to the huge squad at his disposal where he had ten different loanees from the Serie A club alone. 36 year old Marco Cassetti was moved out on loan to Watford last season on the same day that he signed for Udinese from Roma

Cassetti made 41 appearances last term and never played for Udinese

If you’re thinking something doesn’t quite ring true, then you could be right. As well as the fact that the club are under a football league transfer embargo (which adds ludicracy to this whole situation), it must be a double edged sword if you are a Watford fan.

While you may get to see some top quality players in action – Italy international Fabbrini has signed a four year contract – questions will be raised about the legitimacy and morality of such transfer activity.

The Football League duly clamped down on the loan loophole which had been abused last season by the Pozzo’s and, as such, clubs can now only name five loan players in a matchday squad. 

However, there is nothing – thus far – which prevents the other ‘inventive’ decision of moving players in bulk between clubs that are owned by the same party. And herein lies the predicament; rule-breakers are always one step ahead of rule-makers.

With Cardiff City the most relevant example, we have seen that some fans are prepared to let their clubs become vehicles for other motives and ‘sell out’ to foreign investment and respective demands in order to reach the Premier League. 

Whether it is a change in club colours and badge, like Cardiff, or the exploitation of feeder club tactics employed by Watford’s owners, the carrot of the top tier of English football is so big that people will do whatever it takes – from scheming and manipulation – to get there.