Jordan Stewart -
Good
athlete, very quick, big heart. Not the best defensively -
you'll be glad of his pace on
the recovery when he's caught out of position. Not always the
most reliable delivery either, but made to seem worse than he
was at our place by being the best of a bad bunch at set
pieces. So he takes the corners. floats them into the keeper's
hand, gets a boo...
He probably needed
a move - it's public knowledge that he and the manager had
fallen out and spending a reasonable amount of money on another
left back, Mat Sadler, whilst Stewart stalled on signing a new
contract made his departure inevitable. The crowd got on his
back, the reading of the situation being "he thinks he's too
good for us". He may have thought that, he may have been right
- it's not as if the league's awash with reliable left backs,
which Stewart is whatever his detractors would say. Needs to be
loved - he cited the stick he got from the crowd as affecting
his form in more than one interview.
Perhaps significantly, the most impressive of his three seasons
with us was the caning we got in the Premiership; we'd expected
him to be amongst the first replaced, instead he was one of few
who looked the part.
Matt Rowson -
www.bsad.org and
www.bhappy.org.uk.
Nathan Ellington -
Clearly,
clearly has ability. Decent touch, good awareness, looked at his
most effective when employed "in the hole" behind the main striker
in play off games. Thing is, that's two big-money moves that
haven't worked out for him, not a coincidence. Never looked like he
was going to score many goals for us, however furiously Boothroyd
tried to talk up his confidence, and not nearly aggressive enough -
although playing alongside Darius Henderson was always going to make
him suffer in comparison in this respect.
He had a bad start with Watford - signed to improve our attacking
options when both Marlon King and Darius Henderson had looked like
moving on last summer, he then spent a lot of time on (and coming
off) the bench as King and Henderson scored freely before
Christmas.
There's also the Ramadan thing - Ellington is a converted Muslim,
and fasts through Ramadan, so don't expect a flurry of early season
form. His faith is his business of course, but I can't help but
feel that this didn't help him.
You have the big plus of Jewell having got so much out of him
before, of course, and that's a sturdy straw to cling to, but it
says something that on seeing our record signing leave on loan with
a view to a free less than a year after he joined, the reaction
amongst Watford fans is largely "hrmph, hope that loan fee's more
than two-and-sixpence, bet he scores against us next season" rather
than blind fury that another striker has left.
Kris Commons & Paul Connelly |
