Watford supporters should be baffled by Valerien Ismael snubbing Nottingham Forest transfer opportunity: Opinion | OneFootball

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Following their relegation from the Premier League in 2021-22, Watford may have achieved their goal of at least finishing in the top six if they had stuck out with their appointment of Rob Edwards last summer.

However, the nature of Hornets owner Gino Pozzo is to change managers if things aren't going well, and after just 10 league fixtures, Edwards was out of the door to be replaced by Slaven Bilic, who over five months later suffered the same fate with results not consistent enough.

Chris Wilder ended the 2022-23 campaign in charge at Vicarage Road, but they finished outside of the play-offs and then had to watch ex-head coach Edwards, fired eight months before by Pozzo, lead bitter rivals Luton Town to the Premier League for the very first time.

The next man to be handed the poisoned chalice was Valerien Ismael, who was appointed a few days after the end of last season, but results are not exactly going to plan.

Heading into the second international break of the season, Watford sat just two points ahead of the relegation zone in 20th position, having won just three times in Championship action.

Selling star players such as Ismaila Sarr and Joao Pedro and not really spending much money to replace them won't have helped, with Mileta Rajovic, Rhys Healey, Tom Ince and Giorgi Chakvetadze all added in the final third but as of yet have all failed to fire - albeit Rajovic has scored three times.

Ismael did however have the chance to let Watford re-unite with a certain star of their last top flight season in the form of Emmanuel Dennis, who would have dropped down from Nottingham Forest in the Premier League to join the Hertfordshire club once more.

However, in a twist, Ismael surprisingly turned down the opportunity to bring the 25-year-old forward into his squad.

What has Valerien Ismael said on Emmanuel Dennis snub?

Ismael was very concise and to the point when discussing the potential return of Dennis over the summer, and to put it bluntly, he just didn't fancy him as part of his team.

“His name came on my desk, but I said no. Simple as that,” Ismael told the Watford Observer.

And that was that. It does not appear that Dennis was ever considered as an option for the Frenchman, but he added to his attacking unit with Rajovic and Healey, so there must have been some reasons as to why he wanted them ahead of the Nigerian.

Looking at Ismael's current options at his disposal, it was perhaps the wrong move to turn down the services of Dennis over the summer.

Yes, the forward moved at the first real opportunity when Watford were relegated back to the Championship last year, but after scoring 10 times in the Premier League for them, he was at least entitled to see if any top flight English clubs came in for him.

Nottingham Forest did that and paid a good fee for his services, but for whatever reason it hasn't worked out at the City Ground for Dennis - if given regular game-time in the Championship though there is every reason to believe that Dennis would hit at least 15 goals.

Service though may have been a big issue and also the style of play that Ismael employs, as he had a desire to bring in a big target man-esque forward such as Rajovic to suit his system.

There was room however for that kind of player and a Dennis who is more of a dribbler and also a pacey, smaller attacker, so Watford fans will surely be disappointed that Ismael passed up to bring a successful player back when it was on the table for him to do just that.