"Over £20m" - Watford star valuation made amid Joao Pedro, Yaser Asprilla comparison | OneFootball

The Georgian has been one of the standout stars at Vicarage Road since making the move from Gent

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Watford having started the season in fine form under Tom Cleverley, with the former Manchester United man overseeing three wins from the first four matches of the 24/25 season.

The Hornets had seen off Millwall, Stoke City and Derby County before being undone by a Daniel Bachmann own goal in a 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United last time out, but still performed valiantly at Bramall Lane despite the defeat.

With 15 goals from their first six matches in all competitions, the Hertfordshire outfit are coming out all guns blazing to start the campaign, with a number of top performers doing the business in the final third.

There have been plenty of protagonists to catch the eye at Vicarage Road of late, but with the current transfer market the way it is, we put it to Football League World Watford fan pundit Justin Beattie to put his finger on the most valuable player at the club at this moment in time.

Giorgi Chakvetadze performances pivotal to Watford FC fine form

Watford have been a side that have looked to prove the doubters wrong at the start of the season, and Giorgi Chakvetadze has been pivotal to those early performances.

The Georgian got his season underway in the perfect fashion in the curtain-raiser against Millwall, with a stunning 30-yard free kick to double his side’s advantage over the Lions, to equal his goal tally for the previous campaign on the opening day.

Since then, no current Watford player has had more shots on target per 90 minutes than his 0.80, while his 6.12 shots created per game dwarfes any of his teammates, and further underlines his importance to the side.

As a result, Beattie can see no player coming close to the playmaker’s value for the Hornets as it stands, with ihs performances making the side tick during their early-season matches.

Beattie said: “The most valuable player now, and in today’s transfer market at Watford, on paper it is probably Imran Louza.

“But I think Giorgi Chakvetadze is probably the most valuable player to us right now.

“He is starting to become the player that we all hoped he was going to be when we signed him.”

Giorgi Chakvetadze £20 million valuation prediction amid Joao Pedro, Yaser Asprilla comparisons

Having initially joined on loan from Gent at the start of the previous campaign, Chakvetadze’s move to Vicarage Road was turned permanent in the most-recent January transfer window, after impressing during his time in Hertfordshire.

With his mazy runs and eye for a killer pass, the playmaker’s reported €2.5 million fee (01/02, 09:51) now looks like a bargain after the impact he has had in the Championship, with the 25-year-old buzzing around the frontline and always looking to create.

As a result, Beattie now thinks the club would be looking to recoup a fee close to ten times what they paid a matter of months ago, with the comparison to stars of the past putting him in excellent company.

The Vicarage Road regular continued: “In terms of a value it is very difficult to put a value on him. I wouldn’t want to see him sold for less than what Yaser Asprilla has gone for, or maybe Joao Pedro before him, and those guys went for over £20m.

“That might sound ridiculous to say, but I think we value him as much as Asprilla and Pedro, so that’s the sort of price, but it’s very difficult to say.”

With Pedro now plying his trade at Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League after a reported £30 million deal, and Asprilla moving to Girona in the summer in a deal said to potentially rise to €24million, that is high praise indeed from the Hornets fan, with Chakvetadze likely to be turning heads across Europe with his match-altering displays.