Scoring goals is a difficult thing, and finding players who can do it at the top level is just as tough. It’s this that explains the remarkable phenomenon of players such as Fraizer Campbell, Carlton Cole and the current archetype of the five-goal-a-season striker’s genre, Danny Graham, managing to maintain Premier League contracts year after year. Big teams tend to snaffle up the best forwards before they even blossom into regular goalscorers, leaving the rest of the top flight perennially scrabbling around for the scraps. It’s this that has made Odion Ighalo’s remarkable goalscoring run at Watford all the more impressive.
Watford fans should make sure they enjoy Odion Ighalo while he’s still there
Watford’s Odion Ighalo has developed into a truly brilliant striker.
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Before joining Watford last season, the Nigerian was a virtual unknown. He played for a couple of clubs in his home country before moving to Norway in 2007. A season later he was brought into the Pozzo system at Udinese, but barely registered an appearance in his six years at the Italian club. Instead he was farmed out on loan to Cesena before joining the second of the Pozzo family's three clubs, Granada. Had he been as impressive then as he was now, he'd surely have been brought straight back to Italy: At the time, Udinese were unmistakably the jewel in the Pozzo crown, and were regular qualifiers for Champions League.
Instead, he scored only 12 goals in over 70 appearances in Spain, and little was expected when the Pozzos shifted him over to the third of their three clubs, Watford. But in the English second division, Ighalo found his feet, netting 20 times in their promotion season despite making only 22 starts. Any fear that he was a classic second-tier specialist, a modern day Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, was soon dispelled as Watford made their first top-flight appearances since 2007. Over the first half of the season he’s scored 14 Premier League goals, and trails joint-top scorers Jamie Vardy and Romelu Lukaku by only one goal. In the entirety of 2015, no one in English football has found the net more often.
Of course, the surprise element that has made his run so enjoyable could also be evident in Vardy’s hot streak at Leicester City. But there rightly remains suspicion that Vardy -- while undoubtedly being a fine finisher and as irritatingly tenacious as any forward in the Premier League -- lacks the technique to cut it at Champions League level. Roy Hodgson could still reasonably make a case to leave him at home instead of taking him to this summer’s Euros. Ighalo, on the other hand, is the complete package. And unlike Vardy, he also seems to have never racially abused anyone, meaning we can all enjoy his form without having to confront the perennial dilemma of admiring art in spite of the artist.
Ighalo is a striker who manages to combine sublime technique with a physical frame as imposing as any of his rivals’. He’s as capable with the ball at his feet as he is bringing down a clearance and easing the pressure on Watford’s defence. Such a fleet-footed physicality has enabled him to create goals from the most unlikely of situations, skipping past defenders who are slower in both mind and body. He undoubtedly does, as Harry Redknapp would say, have a “lovely touch for a big man.” Such well-roundedness is a huge benefit for a defensively-minded side like Watford, who can sit back and soak up pressure, safe in the knowledge that they’ve got goals in their attack. There’s always the chance the most aimless of hoofs could be swiftly turned into a goalscoring chance with a deft Ighalo touch. It’s little wonder that they’re concerned about the prospect of losing him.
Of course, that’s unlikely to happen as early as January, with the financial benefits of another season in the Premier League likely to ensure that he’ll be a Hornets player when the next window shuts. But beyond then, there’s a real chance he’ll be off to one of Europe’s biggest clubs. Ighalo is almost certainly good enough to play at the very top, and at 26, he’d presumably be available at a price palatable for both buyer and seller. He’s old enough that Watford could make a big buck, and young enough that he still has several years left in the tank. Atlético Madrid have been the latest to be linked with a move, and as a team that play in a similar style to Watford, it’d be a great capture for Diego Simeone’s side.
But for now, Hornets supporters should be enjoying watching Ighalo. He’s a brilliant player, and having made a name for himself in England, he should soon be playing his football on the continental stage. In all likelihood, they’ll soon be back to watching the Grahams of the Premier League lumbering around Vicarage Road, and holding onto the dream that they too will one day be struck by a sudden divine inspiration.
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