Watford set to sign Kaboul and Pereyra – Twitter Reacts

By Harry Elliott

BBC Sport are reporting that Watford are “on the brink” of a double signing of Younes Kaboul and Roberto Pereyra.According to the national broadcaster, both players are due to have medicals today (Friday) after fees were agreed with Sunderland for Kaboul, and Juventus for Pereyra.

The fee agreed for Pereyra is reported to be a club record fee of £13 million, eclipsing the £12.5 million fee paid for Isaac Success earlier this summer – another statement of intent from the Hornets. 25 year old Robert Pereyra has 10 Argentinian caps to his name, and had spells at River Plate and Udinese before a loan move to ‘the old lady’(La Vecchia Signora) became permanent as Juventus signed him in 2014.

Deployed as a winger or a central attacking midfielder, Pereyra will add creativity and hopefully (from a Watford point of view) chip in with a few goals, replacing the outgoing Almen Abdi – now at Sheffield Wednesday. Across two and a half seasons at Udinese (owned by the same family as Watford) he scored eight times in 98 appearances, boasting a similar ratio in his two seasons at Juve – six goals in 69 games.

At Juventus Pereyra won Serie A twice, the Coppa Italia twice as well as one Italian Super Cup. Pereyra’s pace, dynamism, work ethic and vision should be a very useful addition to a Watford side looking to bring the best out of strikers Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo, whom, after last season’s performances, will be looking to add yet more goals to their tally.

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Younes Kaboul looks set to be leaving Sunderland after just a solitary year on Wearside, citing personal reasons as his explanation to want to move back down towards London. What Kaboul will bring to the table at Vicarage Road is a wealth of Premier League experience, having donned the famous lion branded sleeve pattern for Tottenham Hotspurs over two separate spells, Portsmouth and Sunderland.

All this amounts to 174 Premier League appearances with 10 goals notched for the 30 year old. The Frenchman, in a somewhat forgettable fashion, has 5 caps for Les Bleus going back around half a decade. A solid and dependable presence in the middle of the park, the 6 foot 4 inches bruiser can play at centre back, centre defensive midfield or right back – this versatility being another string in his bow, and provides good squad depth and competition for places at Watford.

It is thought that Watford fended off interest in Kaboul from Premier League rivals from south London Crystal Palace. If this is true it highlights the competitive nature of the transfer market, and what relatively big players Watford now are, after a 13th placed finish last season and new man in charge Walter Mazzarri, formerly of Napoli and Inter Milan.

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With these two signings, Watford look to have a very strong squad to stay in the division again this season, and the optimistic nature of the Hornets board suggests they may not be content with just making up the numbers in mid-table, and want to push for European football. This may a slight stretch, but you’d be hard pushed to find a man or woman betting on Watford struggling this year, especially if Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo continue their goal scoring form from last season.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the news, with some Sunderland fans clearly think this news means Joleon Lescott is to become a Black Cat…

https://twitter.com/D_unstable/status/766030773996642304

https://twitter.com/t_peters1984/status/766601068289658880

https://twitter.com/gblue85/status/766591813318762496

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