Seriously?
Ipswich have loaned 14 players this season. We've loaned 12. Why is no one having a go at them?
Crystal Palace, whose manager Ian Holloway claimed our approach is unethical, have loaned 8 players this season. In our most recent match, they fielded 5 loanees to our 6. Is that a significant difference? I'd say it's not.
When it comes down to the number of academy players fielded (in that match), we had 2 to their 2. No difference there.
The players on loan we've signed from Granada/Udinese will sign permanently if we want them and if there is no better offer (considering the case of Vydra). They're more 'our' players than those who play for Crystal Palace/Ipswich, or the droves of previous loaness we've had at the club (Cleverley, Lansbury, Foster, Adam Johnson, Weimann amongst others). I'd rather have the Pozzo contingent as we have it at present, with the chance for these players to become ours, than develop another club's player and not have a real chance of purchasing them.
The difference between the players we're loaning now and the players we loaned then is that a large number are not English. This has no detriment on our ability to field academy players, something we have a very strong history of doing. What then, is the problem? The fact that we are not fielding mediocre English journeymen like most other Championship clubs, instead fielding genuinely talented foreign players? That doesn't seem like a genuine bone of contention to me, more a symptom of jealousy. I can guarantee you that if we were teetering above relegation, no one would be complaining.
The fact is that we are able to field more of these loanees in any specific game as being loaned from abroad count as transfers in in the squad restrictions. In practice however, we don't really field significantly more than other sides to give ourselves great advantage. The fact that we're loaning these players from Granada/Udinese shouldn't be problematic either. The intention is to make them our players if we want them, but with players from abroad it isn't easy to guess whether they will adapt and settle, hence loans seem to make sense. We won't be getting loads of players from Granada/Udinese every season, just this season in order to quickly improve the competitiveness of the squad. There's little difference between this and having SAF loan players to Darren Ferguson's Peterborough. Nor any normal club affiliations that result in frequent loans.
Pretty much every argument against how we've proceeded this season is bollocks. We're just as reliant upon loanees as a lot of other Championship clubs, we produce as many if not more academy graduates than other clubs (which should continue for the forseeable future) and this will not be a permanent state. Nor are we breaking any rules. The fact that a small club like Watford can be successful without throwing a ton of cash at players is clearly something that must be stopped, especially considering the influx of suspicious foreign players that seem to be giving them an advantage. Bollocks.
Gan on GG!
