{"id":565260,"date":"2020-09-09T09:17:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=565260"},"modified":"2020-09-09T09:17:36","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:17:36","slug":"francisco-sierralta-becomes-watfords-fourth-summer-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/09\/09\/francisco-sierralta-becomes-watfords-fourth-summer-signing\/","title":{"rendered":"Francisco Sierralta Becomes Watford&#8217;s Fourth Summer Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.watfordfc.com\/news\/official-watford-sign-sierralta\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Watford<\/a> have completed the signing of centre back Francisco Sierralta from Udinese. The centre back arrives on a permanent deal and becomes the Hornets\u2019 fourth summer signing.<\/p>\n<p>The defender has agreed a three year deal at Vicarage Road<\/p>\n<h2>Watford Sign Defender Francisco Sierralta On a Permanent Deal<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u270d\ufe0f We are pleased to announce the signing of Chilean defender Francisco Sierralta in a permanent transfer from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Udinese_1896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Udinese_1896<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WatfordFC\/status\/1303650608201764864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 9, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>The Defender Has Agreed a Three Year Deal<\/h3>\n<p>Former Chile youth international Sierralta arrives as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/watford\/\" target=\"_self\">Watford\u2019s<\/a> fourth summer signing as the Hornets prepare for their return to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/league-football\/championship\/\" target=\"_self\">Championship<\/a>. The deal continues the strong relations between Watford and Udinese with the Pozzo family owning both football clubs.<\/p>\n<p>Sierralta follows <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/08\/14\/jeremy-ngakia-defender-joins-watford-after-leaving-west-ham-united\/\" target=\"_self\">Jeremy Ngakia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/f2f29dda\/Glenn-Murray\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Glenn Murray<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/269b4638\/Stipe-Perica\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stipe Perica<\/a> in joining the Hornets as they prepare to launch a promotion bid. Watford are clearly backing <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/08\/15\/watford-confirm-the-appointment-of-vladimir-ivic\/\" target=\"_self\">new manager Vladimir Ivic<\/a> with Ivic gearing up for his first game in charge against <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/search\/middlesbrough\" target=\"_self\">Middlesbrough<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n<h3>Chance to Make an Impact<\/h3>\n<p>23 year old Sierralta began his career in his home nation of Chile before joining Udinese in 2017. The defender was consequently loaned to Parma for two seasons and helped them achieve promotion to <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/category\/serie-a\/\" target=\"_self\">Serie A<\/a> in that time.<\/p>\n<p>However, he has struggled to make the desired impact at Udinese and will hope a move to Watford offers a fresh start. At 6ft 4in the defender could be a significant presence in the defence this season.<\/p>\n<p>Sierralta will hope to slot into a defence which leaked plenty of goals last season. Only <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/norwich-city\/\" target=\"_self\">Norwich City<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/aston-villa-club-news-analysis-fixtures\/\" target=\"_self\">Aston Villa<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/clubs\/bournemouth\/\" target=\"_self\">Bournemouth<\/a> conceded more goals than the Hornets \u2013 an issue Vladimir Ivic needs to address.<\/p>\n<p>The Chilean international offers another option and will compete with the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/914ab9a1\/Christian-Kabasele\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Christian Kabasele<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/3e9e06cb\/Craig-Dawson\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Dawson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/89e4b358\/Craig-Cathcart\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Craig Cathcart<\/a> for a place in the team.<\/p>\n<p>The deal continues Watford\u2019s links with Udinese with Sierralta becoming the second Udinese player to join this summer. While Friday\u2019s game may come too soon, Sierralta is likely to play a big role in Watford\u2019s season.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"eNZ4oqH2TTZ7Lefcjck7Gw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1205624152\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'eNZ4oqH2TTZ7Lefcjck7Gw',sig:'XX95p_SjEQJuuKPkIsv_WaukzBHuEfEplVsThszP_k4=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1205624152',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watford have completed the signing of centre back Francisco Sierralta from Udinese. The centre back arrives on a permanent deal and becomes the Hornets\u2019 fourth summer signing. The defender has agreed a three year deal at Vicarage Road Watford Sign Defender Francisco Sierralta On a Permanent Deal \u270d\ufe0f We are pleased to announce the signing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3241,"featured_media":565269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,33,5,25],"tags":[6593,1802,6378,296],"class_list":["post-565260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-league-football","category-championship","category-serie-a","category-watford","tag-francisco-sierralta","tag-udinese","tag-vladimir-ivic","tag-watford"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3241"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}