Four-year contract for Tikvic 'should have been announced' admits Nani
The fact that the signing of Antonio Tikvic on a permanent four-year contract during the August transfer window was not communicated anywhere was apparently an oversight.
The defender was reported by Watford’s own website to have joined in a season-long loan from Udinese in July – but yesterday, when he was sent to Austrian side Grazer AK for the remainder of the 24/25 campaign, the club site mentioned that Tikvic’s loan had been made a permanent transfer before the end of the August window.
The Watford Observer contacted the club to formally ask when the permanent signing happened, if there was a transfer fee and what it was, how long the contract was and why the club had never announced it anywhere.
Earlier today a new story was released on the club website, in which sporting director Gian Luca Nani said: “Originally Tikvić joined us on loan as there were things still to sort out between Bayern Munich B and Udinese when we wanted him here.
“So we did a loan first of all with the intention to make the move permanent, which we did in August.
“This was never announced at the time, and it should have been!”
Those quotes didn’t really answer any of the questions the Watford Observer asked, but we understand that no fee was paid for Tikvic when he signed a four-year contract in late August.
How the club failed to announce the permanent signing of the player remains a mystery though.
Tikvic 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.
He 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.
The defender made his only start recently in the 4-1 FA Cup defeat at Fulham, putting in a decent first-half 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 Tuesday night’s match programme for the game with Preston.
