{"id":578858,"date":"2021-01-14T17:17:03","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T22:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=578858"},"modified":"2021-01-14T17:17:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T22:17:03","slug":"watford-sign-tiago-cukur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2021\/01\/14\/watford-sign-tiago-cukur\/","title":{"rendered":"Watford Sign Potential Troy Deeney Successor Tiago Cukur"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.watfordfc.com\/news\/official-hornets-sign-tiago\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Watford\u00a0have confirmed the signing of 18-year-old forward Tiago Cukur.<\/a> The Dutch-born Turkish youth international player turned 18 in November. After spending time with <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/feyenoord\" target=\"_self\">Feyenoord<\/a> and <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/az-alkmaar\" target=\"_self\">AZ Alkmaar<\/a>\u2019s youth setups, Tiago became a free agent.<\/p>\n<h2>Watford Sign Tiago Cukur<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cHe&#8217;s a really good size at 6ft 3in and is good in the air. He needs work, like all young players do, but he could be a really good prospect for this club.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u270d\ufe0f We can confirm the signing of exciting 18-year-old forward Tiago Cukur, who joins our Academy after leaving <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AZAlkmaar?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AZAlkmaar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Watford Football Club \ud83d\udc99 (@WatfordFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WatfordFC\/status\/1349748357972029441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 14, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Coaches Have Say on Tiago Cukur<\/h3>\n<p>In an interview on the club\u2019s official website, Omer Riza, <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/watford\" target=\"_self\">Watford<\/a>\u2019s U23 Senior Professional Development Coach, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watfordfc.com\/news\/official-hornets-sign-tiago\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>, \u201cI got a call about this young lad in Holland so we got him in. We had a look at him and from the first minute we clapped eyes on him, we saw the qualities he had. He can hold it up well, he&#8217;s got a great touch under pressure, is a really good size at 6ft 3in and is good in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The player, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.siamolaroma.it\/2020\/02\/11\/tiago-cukur-dellaz-alkmaar-a-trigoria-la-roma-anticipa-le-concorrenti\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">who was recently under close watch by<\/a> <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/as-roma\" target=\"_self\">AS Roma<\/a>, <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/inter-milan\" target=\"_self\">Inter Milan<\/a>, and <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/valencia\" target=\"_self\">Valencia<\/a>, earned himself a noteworthy player comparison.<\/p>\n<h3>A Player For the Future<\/h3>\n<p>Tiago joins as a member of the Hornets\u2019 U23 ranks, so he is not necessarily going to appear frequently in the first-team. With that being said, the first picture of him training with Watford shows midfield-star <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/a0666d3e\/Will-Hughes\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Will Hughes<\/a> in the background. The Hornets reserve the last couple of spots on the bench for youth players, so perhaps Tiago stands a chance of featuring in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>The contract he signed with Watford runs until the summer of 2022, with the option of a one-year extension. In his U17 days with AZ Alkmaar, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.us\/tiago-cukur\/profil\/spieler\/594276\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">he scored 11 times in 27 appearances in official youth-competitions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y6muChLdt7g\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The youngster, as described by Riza, has quick feet and good awareness. The composure in his finishing<\/a> helped him garner heavy interest from some of the top clubs in Europe.<\/p>\n<h3>Tiago Cukur Could Potentially be Deeney\u2019s Successor<\/h3>\n<p>Watford\u2019s club captain Troy Deeney is now 32-years-old. Despite being a consistent starter when healthy, the talisman is past his prime years. Averaging one goal contribution per 128 minutes this season is for sure a productive return. Nevertheless, 32 is usually the start of even the best of players\u2019 swan-songs.<\/p>\n<p>Tiago has similar qualities to Deeney. However, Watford\u2019s search for Deeney\u2019s potential successor (in the sense of being Watford\u2019s long-term prolific goal-scorer) started long ago. The signing of a young <a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/fa031b34\/Richarlison\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Richarlison<\/a> in 2017 can be seen as the first major reach in the search. But, Richarlison rose to stardom too quickly.<\/p>\n<p>A rocky relationship with the Hornets, and a hefty transfer fee from Everton, was enough to pry Richarlison away from Watford. Immense profit was made, but Deeney\u2019s potential successor was gone.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of young centre-forwards on Watford\u2019s books now, it is clear they have been stashing up. 19-year-old<a href=\"https:\/\/fbref.com\/en\/players\/e8832875\/Joao-Pedro\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Joao Pedro<\/a>, Watford\u2019s leading scorer on the season, seems most likely to be a prolific centre-forward in the top leagues. Whether that be with the Hornets or elsewhere remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>In Watford\u2019s youth setup, they have Ryan Cassidy (who is on loan at <a href=\"\/football\/tag\/accrington-stanley\" target=\"_self\">Accrington Stanley<\/a>), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.us\/fandje-toure\/profil\/spieler\/543533\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Djibril Fandje Toure<\/a> (who signed in the summer), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.us\/sam-dalby\/profil\/spieler\/470128\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sam Dalby<\/a>, and now Tiago Cukur as centre-forward options. Very quietly, the Hornets are buzzing closer to a long-term Deeney replacement. The current route involves developing youth \u2013 with Tiago being one of the valued players.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<br \/>\n<a id=\"V4R17VxrSTxAn09wyVWOag\" 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\/1253079932\" 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:'V4R17VxrSTxAn09wyVWOag',sig:'fBX0ybRwmrnGZiWUwaaIblDTE9NSO4PFXySYA5sciY8=',w:'594px',h:'402px',items:'1253079932',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\u00a0have confirmed the signing of 18-year-old forward Tiago Cukur. The Dutch-born Turkish youth international player turned 18 in November. After spending time with Feyenoord and AZ Alkmaar\u2019s youth setups, Tiago became a free agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3741,"featured_media":578890,"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":[33,1827,32,28,25],"tags":[6862,4240,7635,239,94,7633,7634,1352,296,1135],"class_list":["post-578858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-championship","category-academy","category-league-football","category-transfers","category-watford","tag-2020-21-championship","tag-az-alkmaar","tag-deeney","tag-efl-championship","tag-feyenoord","tag-tiago","tag-tiago-cukur","tag-troy-deeney","tag-watford","tag-watford-fc"],"modified_by":"Tom Cunningham, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578858","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\/3741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}