Pedro, Doucoure, Kalu, Penaranda - January has been a mixed bag
Once upon a time, there weren’t transfer windows.
There wasn’t wall-to-wall coverage on Sky Sports, a countdown clock in the corner of the screen and copious social media sites using random player and club name generators to create ridiculous rumours.
Before the 2002/03 season, clubs could buy and sell players whenever they liked, up until March 31.
But for more than 20 years now, transfer business has been condensed into two opportunities, one in the summer and one in the winter.
The summer window is longer, but the January window is generally around 31 days, although if the end of the month falls on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday – as it does this year – then for logistical reasons the window closes early in February.
Business in January is often trickier, because clubs are less keen to sell players and charge higher prices, but the need is often higher as injuries, loss of form or the desire to fill gaps in squads has to all be dealt with in four weeks.
Watford have, like all clubs, had some January windows that have been better than others.
So, here’s a look back over a few from the last decade – some names will be remembered fondly, others will be readily forgotten, and one or two will hard to recall at all.
January 2022
In: Samir (€5m Udinese), Okoye (€5m Sparta Rotterdam), Kayembe (€4.7 KAS Eupen), Kamara (€4m Nice), Kalu (€3m Bordeaux), Asprilla (€3m Envigado)
Even though it’s only three years ago, just one of the six players signed in January 2022 is still at Vicarage Road, and that’s midfielder Edo Kayembe who has now surpassed 100 appearances for Watford.
It was also a month that saw the official signing of Yaser Asprilla, although he didn’t actually arrive at the club until the summer – though he must rank as one of the most successful January purchases the club has made.
Hassane Kamara went on to win Player of the Season, join Udinese for £16m and be loaned back, and then move to Italy permanently in June 2023.
The rest of the class of January 2022 were . . . forgettable.
Man of mystery Samuel Kalu managed to hang around for two and a half years while making a paltry 13 appearances, and is currently without a club.
Samir played 19 times in the Premier League, and Watford lost 13 of those games. He’s currently playing his football for Mazatlán in Mexico.
Samir in action away at Wolves. (Image: Action Images)
Goalkeeper Maduka Okoye was tipped as a star of the future when he was signed from Rotterdam. He was immediately loaned back, arrived at Vicarage Road in the summer and promptly played just two cup ties before heading over to Udinese.
Currently injured, Okoye is the subject of an ongoing investigation in Italy after there were abnormal betting patterns on him receiving a yellow card when Udinese played away at Lazio in March last year. The keeper was booked for timewasting in the 64th minute of the game.
January 2020
In: Joao Pedro (€11.5m Fluminense), Pussetto (€8.5m Udinese)
A winter window where Watford spent a total of €20m on two players who were at the opposite ends of the success spectrum.
Pedro, the swashbuckling, skilful Brazilian who ended up captaining the team at a young age and will be fondly remembered by Watford fans – and also by the club’s bank manager after he was sold to Brighton for more than three times the fee the Hornets had given Fluminense for his services.
The forward only played 22 minutes of Premier League football in his first season, but went on to make 109 appearances, scoring 24 times.
The theory Pedro would score more in a better team has been backed up since he arrived at Brighton, where he has netted 25 in 57 outings.
However, the mere mention of Ignacio Pussetto will bring some fans out in a rash, as the Argentinian’s career with Watford cost roughly €50,000 for each minute he was on the pitch.
Best remembered for a goalline clearance that earned a point against Spurs (how’s that for a highlights showreel?!), Pussetto was loaned back to Udinese and then to Sampdoria before finally leaving Vicarage Road to join Huracan in his home country in August 2023 – more than 1,000 days after his ninth and last Watford outing.
January 2017
In: Zarate (€2.75m Fiorentina), Niang (AC Milan, loan), Hernandez (Pereira, undisclosed), Cleverley (Everton loan)
This could have been a largely unremarkable window, but for the return of one Tom Cleverley.
The current head coach first came to Vicarage Road as a loanee from Manchester United in 2009, scored 11 goals in 35 outings and won Player of the Season.
He went back to Old Trafford, had a loan spell at Wigan and then played for both Everton and Aston Villa before the Toffees loaned him to Watford in January 2017.
That was the start of a six-and-a-half-year stint at Vicarage Road before he retired and became Under-18’s head coach.
Last March he stepped in as interim head coach when Valerien Ismael was sacked, and nearly a year later he’s still at the helm.
Cucho Hernandez also joined that January, a player whose flamboyance and skill caught the eye but who played only 28 times before a $10m move to Columbus Crew in the MLS, a transfer that upset some fans but which was another example of the Hornets player-trading business model.
Mauro Zarate’s three appearances worked out at almost €1m apiece, but the club pretty much got their money back when they sold him to Boca Juniors 18 months later, while the widely-travelled M’Baye Niang scored a memorable goal against West Brom during his 16 appearances on loan from AC Milan.
Niang has played for another eight different clubs in the eight years since his stopover in Hertfordshire, and is currently with Sampdoria.
January 2016
In: Doucoure (€10.6m Stade Rennais), Penaranda (€10.6m Udinese), Amrabat (€8.4m Malaga), Suarez (€5.3m Fiorentina), Pantilimon (Sunderland, undisclosed)
What could €10.6m buy you in 2016?
Well on the one hand a midfielder who played 141 times for Watford and has now made more than 250 Premier League appearances.
But on the other hand a forward who scored twice in four outings for the Hornets, was on the books for six and a half years and eventually left for free.
Abdoulaye Doucoure’s career at Vicarage Road nearly didn’t get started. Loaned out to Granada immediately after joining from Stade Rennais, the Frenchman wasn’t much fancied by Walter Mazzari and only broke into the team in the second half of the season.
There was talk of him moving on, but Marco Silva’s arrival saw Doucoure play every minute of the first 18 games of the next Premier League season – missing just one match due to suspension, he started 37 of the 38 league games.
A mainstay of the midfield, Doucoure eventually left to join Everton for £18.5m in 2020.
Meanwhile, Adalberto Penaranda arrived at the same time as Doucoure, stayed two years longer and yet played only 165 minutes of football for the Hornets.
The Venezuelan never managed a league game, registering two appearances in the League Cup – scoring in a 3-0 win over Coventry and a 3-1 loss at Newport – and two in the FA Cup, including the televised tie away at Woking.
Patently one of the possible diamonds unearthed by the Pozzo network that turned out to be quartz instead, Penaranda was loaned out a total of six times during his six years at Watford before eventually moving to Boavista on a free transfer in 2022.
Still only 27, he is currently on loan at Atletico Bucaramanga in Colombia from Bosnian side FK Sarajevo – Bucaramanga are the 11th club of his career, and he’s never played 30 games for any of them.
January 2016 was a costly window for Watford, as they paid €8.4m for Nordin Amrabat from Malaga.
The bald-headed forward was an established Moroccan international but in 48 appearances for the club he didn’t manage a solitary goal – he has netted at least three for each of the other nine clubs he has played for and now has the chance to make that 10 because, at the age of 37, he has signed for Hull City but has only played eight minutes since joining the Tigers earlier this month.
The capture of Mario Suarez in January 2016 took Watford’s total spending in that window to almost €35m.
The Spaniard made only 17 appearances, was loaned out to Valencia and eventually moved to Chinese side Guizhou.
Keeper Costel Pantilimon, surely one of the tallest players ever to represent the club, was signed as cover for Heurelho Gomes.
He played eight times, six of them in cup ties including the 2016 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace, and twice replaced the injured Gomes in Premier League games – one was a 6-1 defeat at Liverpool where he played less than an hour and still conceded four.
January 2015
In: Watson (Wigan free), Motta (Juventus free), Layun (Granada undisclosed), Bassong (Norwich loan), Guedioura (Crystal Palace loan), Connolly (Cardiff loan), Savic (free agent)
A decade ago, Watford showed just how canny they can be in the January window.
They signed Ben Watson and Miguel Layun, as well as loaning in Adlene Guedioura who would later sign permanently and become a cult hero.
The loans of Sebastien Bassong and Matt Connolly were equally significant as the Hornets followed a run of six defeats in 10 games around the turn of the year with 15 wins from their final 21 games of the season to finish second in the Championship and clinch promotion.
Watson, an FA Cup winner with Wigan, went on to play 78 times for Watford, while Layun only made 21 appearances but was key in the promotion push and scored the Hornets first goal back in the Premier League the following season.
Former Tottenham defender Bassong helped shore up the defence in his 11 outings, while Connolly played just six times but Watford won four of those and drew the other two.
Guedioura had joined on loan before Christmas, but in January that was extended to the end of the season and he ended up with 17 appearances, three goals and four assists.
The Algerian signed permanently and went on to make more than 50 appearances, scoring an unforgettable goal in the FA Cup quarter-final win at Arsenal in 2016.
There were two other arrivals that January: experienced Italian full-back Marco Motta played nine times and got sent off in a 2-2 draw at Derby, and Serbian defender Vujadin Savic who didn’t feature at all and left to join Moldovan side FC Sherriff a few months later.
