The Watford Courier
Squad11 Sep 2028
A fracture rules Benjamin Lecomte out for 146 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Watford will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Too dear: Watford walk away from Kein Sato
$14.1M was the most the club would pay and Tenerife were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Market11 Sep 2028
Vivaldo Semedo raises the bar for Watford
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Watford heard it as anything else.
Transfer targets11 Sep 2028
Door shut on Trofim Melnichenko
Watford asked and Braga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market11 Sep 2028
One of our own: Benjamin Smith joins the Watford first team
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Benjamin Smith is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market11 Sep 2028
Watford promote Christopher Allen from within
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Christopher Allen has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market11 Sep 2028
Paul Barnes steps up from the Watford academy
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Paul Barnes has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
Benjamin Lecomte knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Watford, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Sep 2028
When it matters, Tobi Adeyemo plays
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
- The dugout Joachim Eickmayer gets it from the manager
- Looking ahead A reunion for Terence Vancooten
- Squad A wage question at Watford