Watford set to repeat another transfer masterclass this summer

The former Hornets captain has been named the club’s next permanent head coach ahead of the 2024/25 season, following a brief interim tenure in command. He is entrusted with turning around the fortunes of a team that has produced two bang-average Championship finishes in a row.

Of course, recruitment and the Watford hierarchy’s support for the 34-year-old in the transfer market will play a significant role in Cleverley’s success or failure.

Following a 15th-place finish in the Championship, all positions at Vicarage Road will most certainly be reviewed for improvement this summer, but there are a few spots that jump out as particularly needing attention. The center-forward position comes to mind as one example.
Watford presently has four strikers on its roster for the next season, but this is arguably a case of quantity over quality.

Two of those are youthful forwards, Jorge Cabezas Hurtado and recent signing Mamadou Doumbia, whose contributions at Vicarage Road remain to be seen, while Mileta Rajovic and Vakoun Bayo are more experienced.

However, neither of the latter two have been particularly successful in their Watford careers, with only 16 league goals combined in 2023/24.

Cleverley is likely to target at least one forward addition this summer.

Watford would like to duplicate its 2014 acquisition of striker Odion Ighalo this summer, if possible.

A decade ago, following a poor Championship finish, Watford added Ighalo to their attacking options ahead of the 2014/15 season, with the striker signing on an initial loan move that became permanent just a few months later.

Looking back, what a great deal it was.

Despite just three league goals in his first 16 league appearances for Watford, Ighalo hit form over the festive period that season, and it’s fair to say he did not look back.

The Nigerian striker fired in eight goals in four league matches between the end of December and January, and went on to net a total of 20 Championship goals that season, helping to fire Watford to automatic promotion alongside the likes of Troy Deeney and Matej Vydra.

Ighalo’s impact was not limited to the Championship. Despite the huge step up in quality from the second tier to the Premier League, the striker took to the top-flight incredibly well, continuing the fine form that had helped the Hornets get there in the first place.

His debut goal came in his debut Premier League game away at Goodison Park, producing his infamous ‘iggy chop’ to take the ball past John Stones, avoiding the incoming Phil Jagielka, and firing calmly into bottom corner.

By the turn of the new year, Ighalo had netted 14 league goals and Watford were in the top half of the table.

Ighalo would only go on to score twice more that campaign, but 16 goals for your debut Premier League bow is not bad goiing, and his goals that season were crucial in Watford surviving, which would lay the foundations for another four years in the top-flight for the Hornets.

Unfortunately, Ighalo never recovered the goalscoring form he had shown in that first half of the season and the second half of the Championship campaign, and was eventually sold in the January transfer window of the following season in 2016/17.

The timing was right for Ighalo to move on, and with a big profit made from the £20 million fee Watford received from Chinese side Changchun Yatai, it was a deal the Hornets simply could not turn down.

Not only did Odion Ighalo perform admirably in a Watford shirt, propelling the team to promotion and remaining in the Premier League, but when his form dwindled, Watford paid a fee and a significant profit.

For those reasons, the Ighalo deal has to be regarded as one of the best in the club’s recent history, and Watford manager Cleverley would want to find a comparable agreement this summer.

As previously stated, Watford appear to require additional firepower coming into next season, and if the club could bring in someone capable of scoring 20 goals in the Championship, Cleverley would be in fantasy land.