Defender to spend rest of the season on loan in Austria
Antonio Tikvic will spend the second half of the season on loan at Austrian Bundesliga side Grazer AK.
The 20-year-old initially joined Watford on a season-long loan from Udinese in July, and that move was made permanent before the end of the summer transfer window.
However, there seems to have been no announcement of the transfer being permanent - the Watford Observer has asked the club for clarity around when it happened, the length of contract and why it wasn't reported.
Opportunities for the Croatian Under-21 international have been few and far between at Vicarage Road.
He made his debut as a 75th-minute substitute in the 5-0 Carabao Cup win over MK Dons in August, and then made a slightly longer appearance in the 2-0 win over Plymouth in the next round.
Tikvic did not feature at all in the Championship, aside from being an unused sub eight times, although the last of those was at Plymouth on November 22.
He made his only start recently in the 4-1 FA Cup defeat at Fulham, putting in a decent first-half display before gifting the home side the penalty that saw them go 2-1 up immediately after half-time.
Ironically, Tikvic was the subject of a six-page feature in last night’s match programme for the game with Preston.
He began his career in the youth teams of the likes of Frankfurt and St Pauli before making 18 appearances for Bayern Munich’s B-team.
From there he joined Udinese but played just one minute of first-team football, coming on as substitute in a 2-2 draw away at Fiorentina.
That was during the 23/24 season and, having already played for Bayern Munich’s reserves that season, he was unable to join a third club – which meant plans to bring him to Vicarage Road in January 2024 as a replacement for Mattie Pollock were scuppered.
As it was, Pollock stayed and has since signed a new contract, become a first-team regular and captained the team.
Tikvic arrives at Grazer with the team sitting next to bottom in the 12-team Austrian Bundesliga, with two wins from 16 league games.
The league is currently having its winter break, and the first chance Tikvic has to play in a competitive game will be on February 7 when Grazer travel to face the only club below them, Altach.
