Louie Watson (M Luton b. 2001)

[Paddy Garcia]

Apologies if there is a thread already - could not find it.

Watched Derby & Ebosele was MOM and played well. However Watson was outstanding.

Excellent first touch, calm under pressure, picked the ball up from the defence - always available for them, great distribution and such penetrating passes to split open the defence. A truly outstanding performance.

You could say that he is too young and raw for international football - and you would be correct.

You could say that he is a better player than many we have had in recent years in midfield - and you would also be correct.

[samhaydenjr]

Apologies if there is a thread already - could not find it.

Watched Derby & Ebosele was MOM and played well. However Watson was outstanding.

Excellent first touch, calm under pressure, picked the ball up from the defence - always available for them, great distribution and such penetrating passes to split open the defence. A truly outstanding performance.

You could say that he is too young and raw for international football - and you would be correct.

You could say that he is a better player than many we have had in recent years in midfield - and you would also be correct.

What he said

[liamoo11]

Apologies if there is a thread already - could not find it.

Watched Derby & Ebosele was MOM and played well. However Watson was outstanding.

Excellent first touch, calm under pressure, picked the ball up from the defence - always available for them, great distribution and such penetrating passes to split open the defence. A truly outstanding performance.

You could say that he is too young and raw for international football - and you would be correct.

You could say that he is a better player than many we have had in recent years in midfield - and you would also be correct.

Fair play to this lad. Let go by west ham this time last year after making no real impression there possibly due to injury. He has had a great 12 months. When he was brought into the 19s squad a few years back there might have been some whinging as he had played for England 16s but it looks like good work from our scouting network

[ifk101]

Louie Watson 5

Bright opening to the game but faded in only his second senior start and was replaced after 52 minutes.

Rating after the Huddersfield game - https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/derby-county-huddersfield-player-ratings-5755230


Louie Watson 7

Another who grew into the game, made two or three excellent passes to create chances

Rating after the Salford game - https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/derby-county-salford-player-ratings-5763975


I've only seen him play for us (recent U21 games). Not sharing the excitement based on those games.

[John83]

We'll get to see how he measures up against Knight, who we have a fair idea about, once he returns from that stupid injury Rooney inflicted. If he can keep his place in the team, he'll be worth a look. We're pretty threadbare in midfield, and the more teenagers getting game time, the more likely one of them will make it at a higher level.

[Paddy Garcia]

I've only seen him play for us (recent U21 games). Not sharing the excitement based on those games.


You are probably right, very hard to make a call. Interesting that there is some recognition amongst the fans though - "OOZED CLASS"

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/oozed-class-many-derby-county-fans-react-to-influential-display-from-player-in-salford-city-win/

[Olé Olé]

I keep asking myself this but I am going to ask it again: let's imagine he were in the Welsh set up and not the Irish one. Were he to go on a run of games starting for Derby until the end of August, would he get a call up to the Welsh senior squad?

Does anyone know how he qualifies for Ireland? His father is English and was a non-league footballer. He may have an Irish parent or two, however.

[mark12345]

We'll get to see how he measures up against Knight, who we have a fair idea about, once he returns from that stupid injury Rooney inflicted. If he can keep his place in the team, he'll be worth a look. We're pretty threadbare in midfield, and the more teenagers getting game time, the more likely one of them will make it at a higher level.

Knight has a good engine and an eye for goal some of the time. But I don't see much creativity in his game. Watson, by the sound of things, appears to be quite a creative midfielder.

[Eirambler]

I thought Knight was really creative in the Andorra game, although you have to allow for the standard of opposition. But playing out of position out on the right he put at least three fantastic balls in - one for Collins who missed a sitter, one for Parrott who then played in Curtis who missed a sitter and finally one for Horgan who scored at the far post.

I still think Knight is surprisingly underrated by Ireland fans - we have a player on our hands there, I think it would almost be unfair to judge Watson against him to be honest.

[irishfan86]

I’m with mark12345 — Knight is mobile, can run forever. He’s technically good but doesn’t strike me as the guy to unlock a defense. I see his position as a box-to-box player involved in a lot of pass and move stuff, but not necessarily as the creator in the side.

[elatedscum]

Re Knight: Going back to his early academy days, he’s always been more Steven Gerrard than Paul Scholes, to use players that everyone is familiar with.

There’s creative moments within his game, which will lead to plenty of assists, along with goals - and the technical ability is there to execute anything but his game is much more about driving runs and directness.

Young enough that he could go any way in the long run I suppose...

[Eirambler]

I don't think it needs to be an either/or situation though. There's less and less of a place in the game now for creative midfielders who sort of just swan around the pitch when the other team have the ball (bad news for Jack Byrne and Dan Crowley). They're expected to be competent in terms of defensive duties also, or else they're not going to be playing at a high level. Knight is more of a box to box player, good runner, strong tackler etc. but he's well able to put a nice ball in to a forward also - the fact he can do a bit of everything in midfield is what excites me about him. We haven't had that since Roy Keane - unfair really to compare Knight or really any current Irish player to Keane but I do think he's the nearest we've seen in terms of Irish midfielders since Keane stormed out of Saipan (he wasn't the same player by the time he came back).

[Olé Olé]

It is a stretch to say Knight is underrated. I would have thought he's highly regarded by and large across this forum and most other fans I know reckon he should be a starter. He got great praise for his performance against Gibraltar.

[paul_oshea]

Rating after the Huddersfield game - https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/derby-county-huddersfield-player-ratings-5755230



Rating after the Salford game - https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/derby-county-salford-player-ratings-5763975


I've only seen him play for us (recent U21 games). Not sharing the excitement based on those games.

Good temperament. Silly season starts again

[John83]

I still think Knight is surprisingly underrated by Ireland fans - we have a player on our hands there, I think it would almost be unfair to judge Watson against him to be honest.
I guess all I mean there is that Knight is currently good enough to hold down a starting role for a Championship club and for us. I also think he's potentially much more than that, but time will tell, and anyway it's not relevant to this discussion. If Watson is able to compete with him for his club place, or to play beside him, I would take that as a strong indicator that he's ready for a call-up.

Others have described how they're quite different players, so perhaps they won't really be in direct competition after all.

[Trequartista20]

Moves to Luton.

https://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/derby-county-transfer-louie-watson-7282427

[Razors left peg]

He was given Man of the Match last night on his debut for Luton. Gone under the radar a bit but unlike Jason Knight he was able to get a decent move to the Championship from Derby

[paul_oshea]

What's the suggestion there? Luton town manager rates him as a better midfielder than he does Jason knight? Were his stats better than knights last year?

[Eirambler]

I think it's more that they could afford Watson but would have had no chance of coming up with the transfer fee needed to sign Knight.

Knight is a bit of a victim of his own success at this stage - Derby are pricing him out of a transfer. He is in the last year of his contract though so the trade off for Derby is that they could end up losing him for next to nothing in January or next summer. Maybe that's a risk they're willing to take as they have lost so many others for next to nothing in the last year that one more won't matter too much to them.

[JR89]

What's the suggestion there? Luton town manager rates him as a better midfielder than he does Jason knight? We're his stats better than knights last year?

Watson played 414mins of football for Derby last season. Luton picked him up on a free.

[Razors left peg]

What's the suggestion there? Luton town manager rates him as a better midfielder than he does Jason knight? Were his stats better than knights last year?

The suggestion is just me being a smart ar$e. Im a big fan of Knight, but just having a dig at him being stuck in L1 which is nonsensical

[paul_oshea]

I think he's not good enough or maybe not consistent enough, he's look decent for us in parts. A year left at 21 and no one's come in for him would suggest the same

[JR89]

Cause no one is gonna overpay for a lad that's gonna walk for much cheaper next summer.

[paul_oshea]

Of course they will, if he's good enough. He's young it's a wise investment

[SkStu]

Good enough for what though? I think it’s a fair conclusion that he’s already proven himself in the Championship with 11 goals over 3 seasons, 2 of those in a struggling team, before turning 21. He has a goal for his country too with some stand out performances in his 11 caps…

I think he’ll thrive in a strong team near the top of the championship to be honest, I think the move will come and this appears to me to be a bit of gamesmanship from Derby. It’s a pity to see him in League One because he is definitely good enough for a higher level than that.

[elatedscum]

It might all balance out before the window closes… Derby could be asking for 20m (and probably will to accept 15m). Team X could be offering 10m (knowing they’d probably have to pay maybe 7m in compensation next summer). He’s by far Derby’s most valuable asset. Obviously Derby risk losing him for nothing if he goes abroad which strengthens a bidding side’s hand but Derby will know that compensation will be significant for a 21 year old with that number of games, captaining the team at the age he did and the number of international caps. Couldn’t see it being less than 5m.

Anyway, strikes me as a particularly difficult negotiation to sort

[Eirambler]

I don't think it will be anywhere near those numbers - if someone offered 3 or 4 million for him tomorrow they'd probably get him.

[JR89]

I don't think it will be anywhere near those numbers - if someone offered 3 or 4 million for him tomorrow they'd probably get him.

If they were looking for £8m and didn't feel the need to sell him when the club was possibly on the verge of going out of business don't think they'd sell him that easy.

Think they'd get around £2m compensation for him if he leave to another English team. Big worry is if there's genuine interest from a German team and they can get him to agree to a pre contract in January.

[paul_oshea]

…

I think he’ll thrive in a strong team near the top of the championship to be honest, I think the move will come and this appears to me to be a bit of gamesmanship from Derby. It’s a pity to see him in League One because he is definitely good enough for a higher level than that.

I'd agree with this and with that a team pushing for promotion and 100mill would happily pay 10mil to get there. So it's a bit naive to say he'd cost too much.

He'd go for 5 mil I reckon

[tetsujin1979]

Eventful night for Watson, a goal, an assist, and a booking against Villa's U21s