Will Hughes

[ollycutts1982]

Linked with Palace today. Apparently he’s training with the U23’s at the moment. 

[Heisenberg]

15% sell-on wasn’t it? Hopefully they and Palace become involved in a bit of a bidding war.

Last year of his contract too so I imagine anywhere between £5m-£8m is likely.

[Boycie]

£5 million, if only, that’s just a Bradley Johnson type fee.

[Anon]

I have to say I'm somewhat mystified by this decision from Hughes. He was very well thought of at Watford and they play a style that suits his game. If he ends up at Burnley, or even Palace, he'll look bang average as he gets resigned to watching the ball fly over his head. If I'd been advised by my agent to agitate for a transfer and the best he came back with was Burnley I'd not only sack him, but I'd do a Mel Morris and attempt to sue him for career sabotage.

[AndyinLiverpool]

52 minutes ago, Anon said:

I have to say I'm somewhat mystified by this decision from Hughes. He was very well thought of at Watford and they play a style that suits his game. If he ends up at Burnley, or even Palace, he'll look bang average as he gets resigned to watching the ball fly over his head. If I'd been advised by my agent to agitate for a transfer and the best he came back with was Burnley I'd not only sack him, but I'd do a Mel Morris and attempt to sue him for career sabotage.

There's always the possibility that Hughes is not as good as many Derby fans think he is.

I always thought Watford was the wrong move for him. An anonymous club. But if that's the best he could do, perhaps he's just not that good.

[RoyMac5]

41 minutes ago, AndyinLiverpool said:

There's always the possibility that Hughes is not as good as many Derby fans think he is.

I always thought Watford was the wrong move for him. An anonymous club. But if that's the best he could do, perhaps he's just not that good.

He is as good.

Rowett wanted rid and at that point only Watfud were interested.

[AndyinLiverpool]

1 minute ago, RoyMac5 said:

He is as good.

Rowett wanted rid and at that point only Watfud were interested.

If he's that good, why were only Watford interested? Big time Charlies like Man Utd and Liverpool throw money at risky signings all the time. Yet only only Watford wanted Hughes.

[oomarkwright]

They got him for the right price at the right time. 

Remember when we turned down £5 million for Malcolm Christie? 

And £7 million for sturridge. 

We were close to getting Jack Grealish on the cheap at one time when he couldn't get in the Villa team. 

Swings and roundabouts. We always seem to fall off the swings though and graze our knee. Peter Griffin stylee. 

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

3 hours ago, Heisenberg said:

15% sell-on wasn’t it? Hopefully they and Palace become involved in a bit of a bidding war.

Last year of his contract too so I imagine anywhere between £5m-£8m is likely.

You normally find it's 15% of anything over the original transfer price i.e. sod all as I think it was 5.5 rising to 7 when he left. 

[DCFC Kicks]

9 minutes ago, oomarkwright said:

They got him for the right price at the right time. 

Remember when we turned down £5 million for Malcolm Christie? 

And £7 million for sturridge. 

We were close to getting Jack Grealish on the cheap at one time when he couldn't get in the Villa team. 

Swings and roundabouts. We always seem to fall off the swings though and graze our knee. Peter Griffin stylee. 

Really?

[Bianoic]

23 hours ago, Anon said:

I have to say I'm somewhat mystified by this decision from Hughes. He was very well thought of at Watford and they play a style that suits his game. If he ends up at Burnley, or even Palace, he'll look bang average as he gets resigned to watching the ball fly over his head. If I'd been advised by my agent to agitate for a transfer and the best he came back with was Burnley I'd not only sack him, but I'd do a Mel Morris and attempt to sue him for career sabotage.

You are quite right that he was very well thought of by  the club, players and fans

But it seemed to me, whenever I watched them last season, that Watford were not the right fit for Will. He plays too deep for them to make full use of his abilities. And whilst I’ve always rated his tackling ability, I suspect he personally wants to play much further up the pitch. Only conjecture, but maybe thats why he wants a move. 

Burnley been in the prem six years, very well respected manager. Could do worse ?

[Kernow]

Still an absolute bargain. Will Hughes can be sold twice in his career and still not even amass £10mil in transfer fees?

Given the way the market is, that’s fantastic business for anyone. I’m surprised teams higher up like Spurs or West Ham aren’t interested in him. He’d be a solid squad player for a team with the extra European fixtures, plus he adds to the English registration requirements.

[ilkleyram]

There's something about Will Hughes that most of us on here don't see as a problem that professional football people in the EPL do see.  It doesn't appear to be any off the field stuff or training or broader football intelligence (though Watford aren't allowing him to train with the first team at the moment because of the contract situation), so you can only conclude that he either doesn't completely fit in with the systems that clubs play and isn't good enough to build a whole team philosophy around or that he's missing something technical - an extra yard of pace for example or general physicality that can't be taught or trained.

In recent times he's one of the Derby players that I have most enjoyed watching and for him to have a transfer value of around £5m to £10m, to be looking at clubs in the lower reaches of the PL and to have (apparently) few takers still seems puzzling.  Maybe mid/top Championship/lower PL is just his level.  Still very, very good in the greater scheme of life but not the England player we were all anticipating.

[Mostyn6]

Sadly, my predictions years ago, have proven to be true. Hughes simply just doesn’t do anything. He looks neat and tidy, but in this stats based industry, he contributes nothing. He’s made no headlines for goals, assists, protecting his defenders, covering ground, shots, pass accuracy or completion etc etc etc… what does he actually contribute? 

[richinspain]

42 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

Sadly, my predictions years ago, have proven to be true. Hughes simply just doesn’t do anything. He looks neat and tidy, but in this stats based industry, he contributes nothing. He’s made no headlines for goals, assists, protecting his defenders, covering ground, shots, pass accuracy or completion etc etc etc… what does he actually contribute? 

I'm glad he was rubbish against us last season. Oh wait. He scored one and made one. Even got MOTM I believe.

[Mostyn6]

2 minutes ago, richinspain said:

I'm glad he was rubbish against us last season. Oh wait. He scored one and made one. Even got MOTM I believe.

You’re talking about Will “why isn’t he playing for a top PL side and for England” Hughes, scoring and assisting against a team who scraped by against relegation to the third division by default? 
 

? 

[richinspain]

51 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

Sadly, my predictions years ago, have proven to be true. Hughes simply just doesn’t do anything. He looks neat and tidy, but in this stats based industry, he contributes nothing. He’s made no headlines for goals, assists, protecting his defenders, covering ground, shots, pass accuracy or completion etc etc etc… what does he actually contribute? 

 

4 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

You’re talking about Will “why isn’t he playing for a top PL side and for England” Hughes, scoring and assisting against a team who scraped by against relegation to the third division by default? 
 

?

Perhaps Notts County could make use of him?

[Mostyn6]

If he wasn’t our academy product and we paid £5m for Hughes, he’d be in the same bracket as Butterfield and Anya for Derby fans!

Take away that academy fact and judge him solely on football, he’s bang average. Sorry. 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Mostyn6
Typo.

[Turnstile]

53 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

If he wasn’t our academy product and we paid £5m for Hughes, he’d be in the same bracket as Butterfield and Anya for Derby fans!

Take away that academy fact and judge him solely on football, he’s bang average. Sorry. 

A lovely gifted footballer but for me he was just as good the day he made his debut as the day he left,he never improved,got any quicker or stronger.Sadly his talent is unrealised.Just another one who didn’t fullfill his potential .

Edited August 22, 2021 by Turnstile

[ilkleyram]

1 hour ago, Mostyn6 said:

If he wasn’t our academy product and we paid £5m for Hughes, he’d be in the same bracket as Butterfield and Anya for Derby fans!

Take away that academy fact and judge him solely on football, he’s bang average. Sorry. 

In fairness I don’t think many thought that Butterfield and Anya were as good as bang average so on that mark he was better than both of them in his contribution to our cause. 

Neither do I think that by any mark a player that plays in the top league reasonably often is bang average - by definition average in 4 leagues is somewhat lower. 

Neither do I think that he didn’t improve during his time with us. He did. Became more influential and effective on the side and the way we played. He did get quite close to the full England squad. 

What he hasn’t done is persuade any of the top clubs, nor the England manager that he’s worth a punt even at a relatively cheap rate. It’ll be interesting to see if he can change that now. Probably not.