Watford, QPR deadline day agreement was doomed from the very start: View | OneFootball

Watford signed Samba Diakite on deadline day in January 2014 but his time at Vicarage Road wasn't a success

Key Takeaways

The 2013/14 season was a pretty uneventful one for Watford as they sealed a mid-table Championship finish, but one player in particular could be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

After struggling for game time at QPR during the first half of the season, the Hoops decided to loan out Samba Diakite to one of their Championship rivals in the form of Watford, but it's fair to say that the Mali international had a miserable time of it at Vicarage Road.

It's fair to say that Diakite isn't fondly remembered by the Hornets faithful after his dismal short-term loan at the club, and in hindsight, his time in Hertfordshire was doomed from the very start.

Samba Diakite had a miserable time on loan at Watford

Diakite sealed a deadline day switch to Watford in a bid to get some regular playing time under his belt, but it's fair to say his move didn't go as any party would have wanted.

All seemed normal at first, playing two minutes off the bench in a 2-0 win against Brighton, just two days after he had signed, but things soon went down hill for him.

When Middlesbrough came to Vicarage Road on the 15th February, Diakite was handed his second appearance in a Hornets' shirt, and what turned out to be his one and only start.

With 52 minutes on the clock, the Mali international was sent off for a rash challenge on Boro's Dean Whitehead, an ugly two-footed challenge which unquestionably deserved a sending off, and his time at Vicarage Road never recovered from that.

He failed to make their next five matchday squads, before returning for two cameo appearances from the bench in fixtures against Wigan and Blackburn towards the end of March.

Seven games without an appearance would follow for Diakite, being left out of the matchday squad for six of those, before returning for two dead-rubber games towards the end of the season against Charlton and Huddersfield, being used as a substitute in both.

This brought the curtain down on his time at Vicarage Road, and he made just six appearances, starting once and playing just 132 minutes of Championship football.

However, what Diakite will really be remembered for is his sending off for the awful two-footed challenge against Boro, and it's fair to say that he will be remembered for all the wrong reasons at Vicarage Road.

Diakite returned to his parent club, QPR, after his loan spell at Vicarage Road came to an end, but with the Hoops now in the Premier League, he failed to make a single matchday squad and was loaned out to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.

His time in the Middle East didn't fare much better, and he played just seven Saudi Premier League games, before returning to QPR for the 2015/16 season.

The 15/16 campaign was a disaster for Diakite, and he failed to make a single appearance for the Hoops with it being pretty clear that he had no future in West London.

A move to French outfit Red Star followed in the summer of 2016, and Diakite would play just 37 games in three seasons for the Paris-based side, before moving to Al-Tadamon in Kuwait in 2020.

One season in Kuwait would bring the curtain down on Diakite's career at a young age, being just 31 years old when he announced his retirement.

While Diakite calling time on his career may have gone under the radar in this country, it's fair to say Watford fans won't be forgetting his 2014 loan spell in a hurry.