Exclusive: David Prutton drops claim on Giorgi Chakvetadze’s Watford FC future
Once again, it has been a season of mixed fortunes and controversy at Vicarage Road, with the Hornets ending a difficult campaign 14th in the Championship, despite being on the coattails of the play-off spots earlier in the season.
However, after just one season in charge, the highly regarded Tom Cleverley was fired due to a sharp decline in performance that has seen just five wins since the year began, as has become the standard during the Pozzo family’s time in Hertfordshire.
Despite the fact that Watford still has a large number of highly skilled and compensated players, Chakvetadze being just one example, this has undoubtedly created a great deal of concern going into the upcoming season.
And, with the summer transfer market looming large, the Georgian international is certain to garner plenty of interest once more after a superb individual season which had him touted with a move to the Premier League early in the year.
Football League World exclusively revealed back in December that the Foxes, Wolves and their divisional rivals, Everton, were all great admirers of the playmaker, whilst his current employers looked to set a strong valuation on his talents ahead of January interest.
The Sun claimed that Watford valued the former KAA Gent player, who signed a permanent contract for a reported £2.5 million in January 2024, at around £20 million. This was because Gary O’Neil, the Wanderers’ manager at the time, had been pursuing a possible transfer move a month and a half prior to his firing at Molineux, and Leicester had suffered a setback in their own January pursuit after the appointment of Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
“Wolves and Leicester after Chakvetadze. Yes, as ever, if the money’s right then players will be on the move,” the Sky Sports analyst said in an exclusive interview with FLW, following a season in which he posted two goals and six assists in 39 Championship appearances before suffering a toe injury last month.
| Giorgi Chakvetadze’s Championship Stats – 24/25 | Total |
|---|---|
| Appearances | 37 |
| Goals | 2 |
| Assists | 6 |
| Big Chances Created | 11 |
| Key Passes per Game | 1.9 |
| All Stats as per Sofascore | |
Following the announcement yesterday (Tuesday, May 6th) that Tom (Cleverley) has moved on, Watford’s management and player turnover is visible to all of us.
“It’s a strange one because managers almost become kind of, a bit arbitrary when we’re discussing this,” he said. “Because you might have a different person in charge at the beginning of preseason and a different person at the beginning of the actual season.
Prutton said: “If the price is right and the player’s itching for a move and it fits all round, I wouldn’t be surprised (to see Chakvetadze move on).”
Read more news on https://www.sportupdates.co.uk/
Leave a Reply