Football League World
·4 November 2023
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·4 November 2023
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Watford currently find themselves at the wrong end of the Championship table and are facing increasing scrutiny as weeks go by.
The Hornets are attempting to get back into the Premier League after being relegated a couple of seasons ago and they signed Rhys Healey from French side Toulouse to help them to do that.
However, that hasn't exactly gone to plan with the club sat in a disappointing 16th spot whilst their new striker has only had three outings in the league.
For any new signing, it takes time to adjust to their new side and surroundings so it is hard to judge after a few appearances but Healey finds himself in a strange situation at Vicarage Road.
He was on the bench in the first few games of the league campaign and he was substituted on only for 11 minutes for his debut in the first round of the EFL cup against Stevenage before being completely dropped from the squad.
After a run of five matches of being not involved he was then handed his league debut, again off the bench, against Middlesbrough for six minutes.
Since then he has a further two appearances off the bench but he has barely been given a chance to impact games due to coming onto the pitch when the games are all but over.
When you consider how well he has done for Toulouse in the second division of France with 35 goals in two seasons, the decision to not integrate him fully or even attempt to is a peculiar one especially when Valerien Ismael needs some inspiration from somewhere.
28-year-old Healey is an established professional so it's not a burnout issue or the need to ease him in slow, he has simply not been given a chance.
That, naturally, will lead to speculation about whether he was a signing made above Ismael's head.
Vakoun Issouf Bayo and Mileta Rajovic have been preferred so far, which is fine but the fact that Healey is getting thrown on with little time left, even in the League Cup first round, can come across as Ismael attempting to make a point to the board.
However, the counterargument would be that Ismael does not want to rush him into full games due to the serious injury he had last season.
Healey suffered a cruciate ligament tear which kept him out of action for 251 days meaning he had to miss 35 games for Toulouse but it has been seven months since he returned to full fitness so it appears that Ismael clearly doesn't feel he can count on him at the moment.
That makes his summer arrival frankly bizarre and it will look even stranger still if remains on the fringes of the squad as the season progresses.