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Unless you follow the Championship closely, you probably aren't terribly familiar with Matej Vydra, a Czech striker who is currently on loan at Watford from Udinese. If you're one of those people who scours rags and message boards -- and judging from the comments in transfer-related posts, I think this is half of you -- you became familiar with him in the last week.
I'm writing about him because the Mirror says we're interested. I don't take anything the Mirror says at face value, but we're in need of a young striker and Vydra's employers sell players at reasonable prices all the time, so let's have some fun.
Quickly, some background: Vydra has scored 16 goals in the Championship this season, in 16 starts and eight substitute appearances. That's pretty insane. The same dude owns Udinese, Watford and Granada, and loans players between the teams depending on the player's developmental needs, the teams' personnel needs, and which club is the best shop window for a potential sale. Giampaolo Pozzo and his employees thought that Watford needed a striker and that the Championship was the best shop window for Vydra. They were correct.
Udinese purchased Vydra for the hilarious-sounding sum of 100 million CZK. That's about £3.5m. Obviously, the Pozzo organization is looking to make a profit on Vydra, but seeing as this is his first season performing at an exceptional level, they're probably not going to demand an outrageous sum.
Also, these guys are the equivalent of house-flippers. They're more concerned with speed than sucking the best price out of a team; they're the opposite of Daniel Levy. They want to make a quick profit on their players so they can go out and spend that money on undervalued prospects, and then flip them for more money and do it again. Pozzo makes a profit with teams that do not have great television, sponsor or gameday revenue by engaging in this practice. He's a damn good businessman.
Here's a YouTube video of Vydra for your viewing pleasure.
What this video and everything I've read about Vydra tells me:
- He has pretty sick pace
- He's a composed finisher
- He's a bit of a one-trick pony
I'm a bit scared by a kid who looks like he's something half-way between Nikica Jelavic and Darren Bent, who doesn't appear to have any discernable skills beyond running fast and putting the ball into the back of the net. Pozzo was pretty smart to throw him into a league where you don't need skills other than running fast and finishing to succeed. Up top for Tottenham Hotspur, he may or may not be useful, but I can't imagine he's what Andre Villas-Boas is after at all.
Obviously, this kid has the potential to score a lot of goals and become a very useful player, but the rumor doesn't make a lot of sense, and I don't think he's going to fit in with Tottenham. Paying £5-10m for a 20-year-old with one good season under his belt, who doesn't fit into your manager's ideal system, is pretty silly. I have a hard time believing that this is going to go anywhere.