Watford’s January transfer window assessed by Ismael
Just a few hours after the January transfer window shut, The Watford Observer sat down with Watford head coach Valerien Ismael to talk about some of the key points and questions that have arisen.
This is the verbatim transcript of the questions and answers. It was done with an understanding that the club would not give names of players who didn’t sign or leave the club.
How would you describe Watford’s transfer window as a whole?
VI: “Calm. Precise. We were aware of it, we worked behind the scenes but we were really, really calm because we knew exactly what we wanted.
“We worked on our target players until the very last minute. We made an offer but the club turned down the offer.
“So that’s why we didn’t get the players we wanted.
“We had a lot of players offered to us but our feeling was always that we would be taking a player just to take a player, and this is not what we want to create, or what we have created so far.
We have to believe in any transfer we are doing.
“On the other hand some players got offers to leave, but they didn’t want to leave. They wanted to stay, so it shows as well the togetherness we have created within the team.
“It just showed that we are on the right way with what we try to create. We are working on a process to build something and I think this window just showed the foundation we have put in place since the summer.”
What positions were the two players you couldn’t get?
VI: “The first one was a left-footed defender, the other one was a holding midfielder.”
VI: “Yes, but at the minute as I say we went through the period since the summer with the squad, and we got all the positions covered.
“So because I like to play with players who are able to play in two or three positions, and to make sure we are flexible and can work with a decent size group of players in the squad.
“For sure we wanted to do the next step, not only for January but also for the summer.
“We had the possibility but as I say it didn’t work out.
