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PinnacleWatford announce the arrival of seven new squad members hoping to positively affect their upcoming season in the Championship. The Hornets managed to sign former QPR defender Fitz Hall and ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia both on one-year deals. Coming in with the two experienced former Premier League players arrive five others, on loan, who will be relatively unknown to the Watford faithful.
All of the new signings arrive from clubs owned by the Pozzo family who also have recently purchased Watford. This is what Pozzos had in mind when purchasing the club, they send younger talented players out to their other clubs to help them gain playing time and experience. The added quality and depth given to the squad from the Pozzos will help Watford work to their eventual goal of promotion back to the Premier League. Bookmakers are taking Watford as more serious candidates for promotion, Bet365 have slashed odds of 20/1 to 10/1 for promotion this season. The new owners, new manager and new recruits will hopefully give the Hornets an added boost for the long-haul fight that they have on their hands in this coming season.
Pozzo’s loan deals
Two of the players signed are on loan from Granada, the Pozzo family’s Spanish venture. The other three are from Pozzo’s first team, Udinese. Giampaolo Pozzo is infamous in Italy and the footballing world for unearthing numerous talents via scouting networks he helped put into place and excellent loan deals which see players flourish. Watford will benefit from Pozzo’s input to the club. Fans were initially worried when they heard of the proposed take-over as they feared that they would lose all of their best players. The idea is totally the opposite of that, it is to give the club good players rather than poach.
After finishing just short of the play-offs last season Watford will be looking to better themselves and using the added experience of Almunia and Hall along with these new exciting signings could see them challenging for their desired promotion place. This first influx of signings were announced at once but all of the players had been training with the club for a few weeks prior to the official statement released. The club are not finished in the transfer market just yet and are said to be constantly looking for any players that will be able to bring quality to the squad. Watford’s new ownership and management story could be the start of something very successful.
I’m Dan and I am an undergraduate at University College London as well as a European football enthusiast who especially enjoys the English and Italian leagues. You can also follow me and my ramblings on twitter.
Daniele Santoro+
