Official: Daryl Janmaat joins Watford for £7m

[Guest neesy111]

The same Gary Speed that played in the Premier League until he was 38/39? Aye, overweight

 

He was just about the model professional. Absolutely ridiculous.

[Dinho lad]

It's normal for your body type to get bigger as you enter your 30s - it's not necessarily fat; just 'naturally' bigger limps or body parts and/or even bigger bones. (That's if you've been into weight training during your 20s)

 

 

[Guest firetotheworks]

There's always that one bloke near you that carries on thinking they know fucking everything about football despite them keep getting everything wrong.

 

I remember sitting near a bloke who would shout directions like he was some sort of guru who had this all-knowing spiritual connection with the football ether, but it was always fucking terrible advice. His usual one was directing defenders to 'pinch' the ball from attackers when one on one, but not before starting with 'back off, back off, now PINCH!' as if it wasn't the most basic of stupid things to do in football because it was all about the timing that only he knew about. It was always the word pinch as well, which was a bit odd. I still remember him going 'back off, back off, now pinch!' to Steven Taylor who coincidentally did do exactly that (because it's Steven Taylor) and was comfortably side-stepped by their attacker. He was a right fucking plum, I don't think he had the slightest idea that he was getting laughed at and week after week just carried on with the same unaffected arrogance.

[Papavasiliou]

There's always that one bloke near you that carries on thinking they know fucking everything about football despite them keep getting everything wrong.

 

I remember sitting near a bloke who would shout directions like he was some sort of guru who had this all-knowing spiritual connection with the football ether, but it was always fucking terrible advice. His usual one was directing defenders to 'pinch' the ball from attackers when one on one, but not before starting with 'back off, back off, now PINCH!' as if it wasn't the most basic of stupid things to do in football because it was all about the timing that only he knew about. It was always the word pinch as well, which was a bit odd. I still remember him going 'back off, back off, now pinch!' to Steven Taylor who coincidentally did do exactly that (because it's Steven Taylor) and was comfortably side-stepped by their attacker. He was a right fucking plum, I don't think he had the slightest idea that he was getting laughed at and week after week just carried on with the same unaffected arrogance.

 

It's all the better when someone gives it back.

 

Had one old duffer laying into a ref once because we gave away a blatent penalty. Everyone else round us was silent with resignation but he was still doing the "Are you blind, ref?!? He never touched him" thing when one of his mates shouts up "How the fuck could you see that he didn't touch him? You're a hundred yards away and you're not even wearing your glasses you daft old bastard!!!"

 

The collective giggling from half the stand shut him up for a while.

[Willow]

There's always that one bloke near you that carries on thinking they know fucking everything about football despite them keep getting everything wrong.

 

I remember sitting near a bloke who would shout directions like he was some sort of guru who had this all-knowing spiritual connection with the football ether, but it was always fucking terrible advice. His usual one was directing defenders to 'pinch' the ball from attackers when one on one, but not before starting with 'back off, back off, now PINCH!' as if it wasn't the most basic of stupid things to do in football because it was all about the timing that only he knew about. It was always the word pinch as well, which was a bit odd. I still remember him going 'back off, back off, now pinch!' to Steven Taylor who coincidentally did do exactly that (because it's Steven Taylor) and was comfortably side-stepped by their attacker. He was a right fucking plum, I don't think he had the slightest idea that he was getting laughed at and week after week just carried on with the same unaffected arrogance.

 

It's all the better when someone gives it back.

 

Had one old duffer laying into a ref once because we gave away a blatent penalty. Everyone else round us was silent with resignation but he was still doing the "Are you blind, ref?!? He never touched him" thing when one of his mates shouts up "How the fuck could you see that he didn't touch him? You're a hundred yards away and you're not even wearing your glasses you daft old bastard!!!"

 

The collective giggling from half the stand shut him up for a while.

 

[Guest]

Only thing like that which has happened to me was some UEFA Cup game (think it was Valerenga). There were about 5 occasions Hughes overlapped Dyer into a good crossing position and he was ignored with the safer inside pass being used. Each time I was, ‘give it to Hughes’. Fifth time, I shouted something like ‘why don’t you just give it to fucking Hughes man’’. Minutes later he did exactly that and Hughes sliced it out about 15 metres high over the bar for a goal kick. Bloke in front of me turned and said, ‘that’s why he doesn’t give it to fucking Hughes man’.

 

[AsprillasShinPad]

Sad thing is mid noughties Aaron Hughes would be our nailed on starting RB these days and a significant upgrade.  And if someone like past-his-best Kluivert turned up we'd all jizz ourselves.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Sad thing is mid noughties Aaron Hughes would be our nailed on starting RB these days and a significant upgrade.  And if someone like past-his-best Kluivert turned up we'd all jizz ourselves.

 

I think we did at the time as well tbf.

[AsprillasShinPad]

Sad thing is mid noughties Aaron Hughes would be our nailed on starting RB these days and a significant upgrade.  And if someone like past-his-best Kluivert turned up we'd all jizz ourselves.

 

I think we did at the time as well tbf.

 

Was such a shame he never worked out for us. He clearly still had it, he just didn't give a fuck.

[joeyt]

Weren't Kluivert and Bellamy really good when they played together? Obviously difficult to leave out Shearer

[Guest neesy111]

Weren't Kluivert and Bellamy really good when they played together? Obviously difficult to leave out Shearer

 

Bellamy and Kluivert were our best partnership that season.

[Yorkie]

They'd probably be our best partnership this season n'all weyyyyy bantabantabanta

[thenige]

Only thing like that which has happened to me was some UEFA Cup game (think it was Valerenga). There were about 5 occasions Hughes overlapped Dyer into a good crossing position and he was ignored with the safer inside pass being used. Each time I was, ‘give it to Hughes’. Fifth time, I shouted something like ‘why don’t you just give it to fucking Hughes man’’. Minutes later he did exactly that and Hughes sliced it out about 15 metres high over the bar for a goal kick. Bloke in front of me turned and said, ‘that’s why he doesn’t give it to fucking Hughes man’.

 

 

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Kluivert is one of my fave players of all-time and one I had always dreamed of playing for us so I was kind of excited when we did sign him, but from what I remember I think he was more of a Freddy Shepherd signing than a Sir Bobby signing and I don’t think he really wanted to be here in all honesty and joined for the pay day more than anything, that and the easy life.

 

He was 29 so not past his best in terms of his age, but physically and mentally we got a player who wasn’t at the top of his game and a lot of that was down to the situation at the time where Sir Bobby was in his last year and then sacked and replaced by Souness and because of Shearer’s role at the club.

 

When he did play and was fit, he was easily the best player at our club and often performed well enough if not exactly to the high standards he was capable of. But we were no Barcelona competing for trophies and once Souness joined the whole dynamic of the club and what Sir Bobby had created quickly unraveled.

 

Being able to sign him showed we were at least capable of attracting a player of that quality and out compete others for his signature in terms of wages though, which had we had a better team and set-up could have seen Kluivert a successful signing.

 

That didn’t happen so he will go down as a flop or another player that we never quite got to see perform at a high level.

 

When him and Bellamy played they looked really good together and the two together was the obvious answer. Shearer of course was such a huge figure and even if he was problematic in terms of imposing his presence in regards to the first-team, he did so because he believed he was better than anyone else at scoring goals and deserved his seniority and place in the team when fit. I don’t blame him at all for the demise of Bobby or for the partnership of Bellamy and Kluivert not getting more of an opportunity.

 

I blame Shepherd and Souness who were not visionary enough or strong enough to leave Shearer out in place of others or say you’ve had your time, you’re not getting any younger, it’s time to take a back seat role and here is who we want to get the goals. Whether that was Kluivert and Bellamy or whoever.

 

Sir Bobby wanted a number of players who he thought could have replaced Shearer, namely James Beattie and Alan Smith when he was leading the line at Leeds and looking a very good centre-forward, but Shepherd waned a big name without paying a huge transfer fee at that time who would have to justify his cost in the first team, bearing in mind we were still a PLC back then. And he got that in Kluivert, someone who was happy to share game time having won it all and on such a big pay packet.

 

Our interest in Rooney wasn’t really legitimate and Bobby knew that and thought well if you have 23m to spend on him and have the money from Madrid for Woodgate, let me spend that evenly on a few players to strengthen the defence, midfield and attack. After all, he wasn’t going to be around much longer to benefit from the fruit of Rooney’s signing. His priority was the team in general.

 

He had lost Woodgate and Speed and Shearer wasn’t getting any younger. We had finished 4th, 3rd and 5th and Bobby wanted Miguel and Andrade from Portugal, Carrick from WHU and one or both of Smith and Beattie. Those were players at the top of his list and all attainable.

 

We got Carr, Butt and Kluivert though and Sir Bobby got his P45.

 

Souness ended up spending over 50m and took Sir Bobby’s 5th placed team to 14th or something, with Kluivert, Bellamy and Robert sent packing not long after.

 

Ironically we ended up buying Smith as some kind of midfielder under Big Sam a few years later who by that time was a completely different player after he left Leeds for Man Utd and goes down as o e of the worst players I’ve seen for us given what he cost, what type of player he used to be and how he performed on the pitch.

 

We lost to Leeds at home under Bobby once where Smith scored and looked capable of being someone to replace Shearer in terms of how we played and that level of aggression, strength and focal point up front through the centre. He was a beast that day. Beattie I believe was just one of many on Sir Bobby’s list. I think Smith was at the top of his list and back then with good merit and logic. At that time he would have been a very good signing.

 

That summer Liverpool got rid of Houllier and brought in Rafa. Bobby was told it would be his final year and then got sacked. Replaced by Souness.

 

Bobby proved when a good manager gets backed and the club has ambition, great things can be achieved. Freddy proved that backing and ambition meant nowt if the manager wasn’t very good though, as was proved under Souness.

 

What he proved more though was his own inability to run the club going forward to recover from such disasters because he didn’t have a clue how to build on what Sir Bobby built and who best would carry that on. His idea was a Steve Bruce and just thinking by throwing money at things and being overly ambitious would do the trick.

 

Had Sir Bobby remained on, we would have stayed up I believe and for the club they should have kept him on and let him help the club look for his successor, but they didn’t. Freddy knew best though and was so wrapped up in some deluded Geordie fairytale of Bruce and then Shearer who was allowed to dictate his own fate as a first-team player and his ending at Newcastle and with his career all so satisfy the grande plan of him being the heir to the throne one day. That was his master plan for the club. In between big name players and big money would keep things ticking over or so he thought. Freddy effectively killed the rapid progress of the club under Sir Bobby dead on the spot.

 

The whole structure of the club relied so much on the man in the dugout who in Sir Bobby because he was a great manager made it work with decent backing, but underneath lay a foundation built on sand.

 

By the time Freddy realised that and tried to reverse that with the appointment of Big Sam, the landscape had changed. Rafa and Mourinho had arrived and so had Abramovic.

 

We jumped the shark to start with and then missed the boat and it was game over.

 

Since then we’ve been largely out of the game and that’s thanks to Ashley. At least with Freddy there was always hope he would get it right with the right manager and would back him accordingly.

 

We have Rafa today such a manage, but who has had no backing, imagine if we got him to replace Sir Bobby though and what he could have done with that team and all that money Souness was handed?

 

We got Souness instead...

 

Then Ashley...

[Ikon]

One of my favorite players of all time as well. I probably agree with the rest you said, I guess.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

For me Kluivert was one of the best players around at the time, he was such a creative player as well, he wasn’t as prolific as some, but he was the type of player who could play CF and score goals or play as a 10 behind. Very unselfish as well. Just an all-round top player, very classy. He’s someone we should have tried to break the bank for after we finished 4th, not get on a free a few years later for a team regressing and a player who himself was on the same trajectory. I was there and one of those who gave him a standing ovation st SJP in a friendly. Magnificent player.

[Ikon]

Remember Dyer (I think it was) saying that he was two steps ahead of the rest most of the time, that sometimes Kluivert did things which they couldn't read/understand early enough to take advantage of it. Was such an intelligent player with great awareness and also had the technical skill to do pretty much all. His first touch... 

[Guest firetotheworks]

and he looks like Rufio.

[Foluwashola]

It’s not a cliche.

 

Aye.

 

It absolutely is a cliche like. All emotions get amplified given that there's 50k there and not the handful you get through the gates at tinpot clubs like Watford.

 

Lost our first 5 home games this year and can't recall any owa top whinging, although that's not to say its never happened before.

 

That amplified pressure clearly gets to some utterly heartless drips. Jenas & Janmaat some prime examples.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

It’s rich of any player to criticise fans for a bit of moaning, especially at a club like ours where a relegated team was cheeed off as if they’d won the league and backed throughout home and away despite some abject performances collectively and individually. Just shows how out of touch and precious players are and what a spineless shit bag Janmaat is. Pressure is a privilege, unless you’re a tart of a footballer.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I've missed your vervacular, I have to say.

 

Edit: FS

[Dinho lad]

It’s rich of any player to criticise fans for a bit of moaning, especially at a club like ours where a relegated team was cheeed off as if they’d won the league and backed throughout home and away despite some abject performances collectively and individually. Just shows how out of touch and precious players are and what a spineless shit bag Janmaat is. Pressure is a privilege, unless you’re a tart of a footballer.

 

Absolutely.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Remember Dyer (I think it was) saying that he was two steps ahead of the rest most of the time, that sometimes Kluivert did things which they couldn't read/understand early enough to take advantage of it. Was such an intelligent player with great awareness and also had the technical skill to do pretty much all. His first touch... 

 

I don’t think we were set up right, not initially under Sir Bobby after he signed anyway, in a way that suited Kluivert, we were predominantly set up for Shearer. But he was so good he would have fitted in anyway eventually and adding Kluivert to say the 4th or 3rd place finish team would have just made that team even better. Who he would have replaced though I’m not sure. I’d probably have had him in place of Bellamy in support of Shearer because his creativity, link up play, and ability to play as a CF as well would have been more effective in general to Shearer and our game than what Bellamy gave Shearer and brought to our game. But only because Dyer gave us all of that anyway.

 

I always thought we lacked that one player who could get on the ball and help us in possession when we weren’t on the counter or breaking forward because we were either on the back foot or were playing against a team sat deep or parking the bus. We still managed to overcome that more often not of course because we had Shearer who we could go long to or service from crosses, but we struggled to open teams up through midfield on the ball when we weren’t countering or breaking forward.

 

Bobby created such a dynamic team and I honestly thought in Viana we had the missing piece of the jigsaw in that sense. Today I think a player like him with his qualities would be one of the best players in the division and certainly for us when you compare and contrast with say Shelvey.

 

It didn’t quite work out though, the game wasn’t quite suited to someone like Viana league wise in the way it wasn’t for Veron at Man Utd and for Bobby, he didn’t quite have the players or system at the time to truly get the best out of Viana.

 

His signing showed Sir Bobby was looking to evolve how we played though and as a club we showed our ambition by signing him, because he was considered one of the best young players in the world at the time and was for me the stand out player of the under 21 World Cup tournament prior to his signing.

 

Mind so was some Italian striker who ended up at Boro and a certain Steven Taylor for England.

 

It’s a funny old game indeed...

 

Unless you’re a Newcastle supporter!

[Deuce]

Kluivert is one of my fave players of all-time and one I had always dreamed of playing for us so I was kind of excited when we did sign him, but from what I remember I think he was more of a Freddy Shepherd signing than a Sir Bobby signing and I don’t think he really wanted to be here in all honesty and joined for the pay day more than anything, that and the easy life.

 

He was 29 so not past his best in terms of his age, but physically and mentally we got a player who wasn’t at the top of his game and a lot of that was down to the situation at the time where Sir Bobby was in his last year and then sacked and replaced by Souness and because of Shearer’s role at the club.

 

When he did play and was fit, he was easily the best player at our club and often performed well enough if not exactly to the high standards he was capable of. But we were no Barcelona competing for trophies and once Souness joined the whole dynamic of the club and what Sir Bobby had created quickly unraveled.

 

Being able to sign him showed we were at least capable of attracting a player of that quality and out compete others for his signature in terms of wages though, which had we had a better team and set-up could have seen Kluivert a successful signing.

 

That didn’t happen so he will go down as a flop or another player that we never quite got to see perform at a high level.

 

When him and Bellamy played they looked really good together and the two together was the obvious answer. Shearer of course was such a huge figure and even if he was problematic in terms of imposing his presence in regards to the first-team, he did so because he believed he was better than anyone else at scoring goals and deserved his seniority and place in the team when fit. I don’t blame him at all for the demise of Bobby or for the partnership of Bellamy and Kluivert not getting more of an opportunity.

 

I blame Shepherd and Souness who were not visionary enough or strong enough to leave Shearer out in place of others or say you’ve had your time, you’re not getting any younger, it’s time to take a back seat role and here is who we want to get the goals. Whether that was Kluivert and Bellamy or whoever.

 

Sir Bobby wanted a number of players who he thought could have replaced Shearer, namely James Beattie and Alan Smith when he was leading the line at Leeds and looking a very good centre-forward, but Shepherd waned a big name without paying a huge transfer fee at that time who would have to justify his cost in the first team, bearing in mind we were still a PLC back then. And he got that in Kluivert, someone who was happy to share game time having won it all and on such a big pay packet.

 

Our interest in Rooney wasn’t really legitimate and Bobby knew that and thought well if you have 23m to spend on him and have the money from Madrid for Woodgate, let me spend that evenly on a few players to strengthen the defence, midfield and attack. After all, he wasn’t going to be around much longer to benefit from the fruit of Rooney’s signing. His priority was the team in general.

 

He had lost Woodgate and Speed and Shearer wasn’t getting any younger. We had finished 4th, 3rd and 5th and Bobby wanted Miguel and Andrade from Portugal, Carrick from WHU and one or both of Smith and Beattie. Those were players at the top of his list and all attainable.

 

We got Carr, Butt and Kluivert though and Sir Bobby got his P45.

 

Souness ended up spending over 50m and took Sir Bobby’s 5th placed team to 14th or something, with Kluivert, Bellamy and Robert sent packing not long after.

 

Ironically we ended up buying Smith as some kind of midfielder under Big Sam a few years later who by that time was a completely different player after he left Leeds for Man Utd and goes down as o e of the worst players I’ve seen for us given what he cost, what type of player he used to be and how he performed on the pitch.

 

We lost to Leeds at home under Bobby once where Smith scored and looked capable of being someone to replace Shearer in terms of how we played and that level of aggression, strength and focal point up front through the centre. He was a beast that day. Beattie I believe was just one of many on Sir Bobby’s list. I think Smith was at the top of his list and back then with good merit and logic. At that time he would have been a very good signing.

 

That summer Liverpool got rid of Houllier and brought in Rafa. Bobby was told it would be his final year and then got sacked. Replaced by Souness.

 

Bobby proved when a good manager gets backed and the club has ambition, great things can be achieved. Freddy proved that backing and ambition meant nowt if the manager wasn’t very good though, as was proved under Souness.

 

What he proved more though was his own inability to run the club going forward to recover from such disasters because he didn’t have a clue how to build on what Sir Bobby built and who best would carry that on. His idea was a Steve Bruce and just thinking by throwing money at things and being overly ambitious would do the trick.

 

Had Sir Bobby remained on, we would have stayed up I believe and for the club they should have kept him on and let him help the club look for his successor, but they didn’t. Freddy knew best though and was so wrapped up in some deluded Geordie fairytale of Bruce and then Shearer who was allowed to dictate his own fate as a first-team player and his ending at Newcastle and with his career all so satisfy the grande plan of him being the heir to the throne one day. That was his master plan for the club. In between big name players and big money would keep things ticking over or so he thought. Freddy effectively killed the rapid progress of the club under Sir Bobby dead on the spot.

 

The whole structure of the club relied so much on the man in the dugout who in Sir Bobby because he was a great manager made it work with decent backing, but underneath lay a foundation built on sand.

 

By the time Freddy realised that and tried to reverse that with the appointment of Big Sam, the landscape had changed. Rafa and Mourinho had arrived and so had Abramovic.

 

We jumped the shark to start with and then missed the boat and it was game over.

 

Since then we’ve been largely out of the game and that’s thanks to Ashley. At least with Freddy there was always hope he would get it right with the right manager and would back him accordingly.

 

We have Rafa today such a manage, but who has had no backing, imagine if we got him to replace Sir Bobby though and what he could have done with that team and all that money Souness was handed?

 

We got Souness instead...

 

Then Ashley...

Remember Dyer (I think it was) saying that he was two steps ahead of the rest most of the time, that sometimes Kluivert did things which they couldn't read/understand early enough to take advantage of it. Was such an intelligent player with great awareness and also had the technical skill to do pretty much all. His first touch... 

 

I don’t think we were set up right, not initially under Sir Bobby after he signed anyway, in a way that suited Kluivert, we were predominantly set up for Shearer. But he was so good he would have fitted in anyway eventually and adding Kluivert to say the 4th or 3rd place finish team would have just made that team even better. Who he would have replaced though I’m not sure. I’d probably have had him in place of Bellamy in support of Shearer because his creativity, link up play, and ability to play as a CF as well would have been more effective in general to Shearer and our game than what Bellamy gave Shearer and brought to our game. But only because Dyer gave us all of that anyway.

 

I always thought we lacked that one player who could get on the ball and help us in possession when we weren’t on the counter or breaking forward because we were either on the back foot or were playing against a team sat deep or parking the bus. We still managed to overcome that more often not of course because we had Shearer who we could go long to or service from crosses, but we struggled to open teams up through midfield on the ball when we weren’t countering or breaking forward.

 

Bobby created such a dynamic team and I honestly thought in Viana we had the missing piece of the jigsaw in that sense. Today I think a player like him with his qualities would be one of the best players in the division and certainly for us when you compare and contrast with say Shelvey.

 

It didn’t quite work out though, the game wasn’t quite suited to someone like Viana league wise in the way it wasn’t for Veron at Man Utd and for Bobby, he didn’t quite have the players or system at the time to truly get the best out of Viana.

 

His signing showed Sir Bobby was looking to evolve how we played though and as a club we showed our ambition by signing him, because he was considered one of the best young players in the world at the time and was for me the stand out player of the under 21 World Cup tournament prior to his signing.

 

Mind so was some Italian striker who ended up at Boro and a certain Steven Taylor for England.

 

It’s a funny old game indeed...

 

Unless you’re a Newcastle supporter!

 

oh my fuck

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Not enough words?

 

I can expand if you want...