Isaac’s Success Dims at Vicarage Road

With just 50 minutes playing time to show for his effort so far this season, the eggheads of English Premier League side, Watford, had declared Isaac Success as surplus to requirement and the Vicarage Road side is open to offers for the former Granada of Spain striker

Isaac Success has struggled to impress Vicarage Road faithful since joining the Hornets in 2016 from Granada and he has played just 50 Premier League minutes so far this season, leading to suggestions he could be loaned back to Granada for the second half of the campaign.

Success has continued to struggle for game time under Watford new boss Nigel Pearson and he appears not to be in the plan of the Englishman. English premier league side Watford is open to offers for the Nigerian before the end of the current transfer window.

Pearson only handed Success opportunity in the FA Cup before the Hornet’s elimination from the competition and reports from England have it that the former Leicester City boss has made it clear to the club that he won’t be counting on him for the battle against relegation.

Success has fallen behind in the pecking order and has failed to impress this season.

Meanwhile, Anderlecht and Cardiff City are interested in signing Success on loan, the Watford Observer understands.

The Nigerian striker has been made available for a loan move and featured in a U-23 game on Monday at the request of head coach Nigel Pearson in order to increase potential interest.

Enquiries have been made by both the Belgian First Division team and the Championship outfit regarding his availability, but a deal is yet to be agreed with either.

Success was in inspiring form as he bagged a brace of assists in his second appearance of the season to help Watford convincingly overcome the challenge of Coventry City in the Carabao Cup. It was a most welcome win for a club languishing at the root of the English Premier League without a win or a point then.

He is one of those players who had not seen much action this season until the game against Coventry City after injury hampered his pre-season preparation and he was not in top shape when the league commenced.

His chance couldn’t come early enough and against the Sky Blues, the former Granada player played like one possessed: closing down opponents, looking to get on the ball and showing the willingness to take on City’s defenders.

Just minutes after the half-hour mark his industry yielded the final pass which new signing Senegal international Ismaila Sarr converted to give the home side the lead their display just about deserved. A few minutes after the restart Javi Garcia’s men extended their lead with Isaac Success instrumental to setting up Daryl Janmaat for Watford.

It’s fair that all the applause for such a fine outing from a side struggling to score goals will be aimed at the men who got the goals on the night – Venezuelan Adalberto Penaranda got the third goal – but the Nigerian striker can be assured that his manager has taken notice of his decent output. The challenge for Success, however, is in maintaining such numbers.

Attackers are often judged by the impact they make in a game with regards to goals scored or assists supplied, something the former Malaga loanee has never really excelled in since his Golden Eaglets days.

Then as a talented teen, the Benin-born striker was the main star as the national team made it all the way to the final of the U-17 Africa Championships only to lose on penalties to the Ivory Coast. Success got seven goals in just seven matches at that tourney.

That same team, later in the year, went on to win the U-17 FIFA World Cup but Isaac got injured after the tournament’s second game. His sojourn in Granada and Malaga has not really been that productive with his combined three-year stay at the two clubs yielding only seven goals. Last season, Success only managed a single strike in 23 league appearances.

That kind of output will not cut him that many appearances this season. Javi Garcia has reinforced his strike force by bringing in Ismaila Sarr from Rennes, Danny Welbeck on a free transfer and the fleet-footed Venezuelan Adalberto Penaranda. With a team that already has Troy Deeney, Gerard Deulofeu, Andre Gray and Stefano Okaka, every single opportunity offered needs to be grabbed with both hands.

Success will also do well to adapt his game, improve his finishing skills and be ready to do a job for the team, down the wings or elsewhere, when called on.

On the international scene, the 23-year-old has lost his place in the Super Eagles squad and he’s not even under consideration for a call up given the amount of attacking options Gernot Rohr have at his disposal.

Last season, former coach, Javi Garcia was thrilled with Success and praised him after scoring a goal of the season contender in the Hornets 3-0 rout of Huddersfield Town in the Premier League.

”Isaac was working very hard before coming back for pre-season. He was fit, he was ready to play and he has been waiting for his moment, his chance, and now he’s showing his level.

”I don’t think there is a secret or something special. It is about hard work and being patient for his chance to play,” Garcia had said.

His 10 appearances, eight of those as a substitute for Success to score his first Premier League goal of the season last season against Huddersfield Town.

His move to England was expected to be his big break for his career; instead, the most prominent headline was an alleged dispute with four prostitutes in a Hettfordshire hotel.

After just managing just one goal in 19 appearances two seasons ago, the Nigerian sought new Haven in a hotel room with four hookers but yet failed to literally hit the back of the net of the hookers.

Success allegedly paid four hookers $2,000 for a hotel romp but failed to score with any of them after drinking two bottles of Baileys and the 21-year-old was arrested after angrily demanding his money back.

Escort Alexis Domerge said the Watford star boasted of his prowess in the bedroom after paying the women $2,000 for a hotel romp. But Success drank two bottles of Baileys and then repeatedly failed to score with the hookers.

When the women decided to blow the whistle on Success’s lackluster performance after 90 minutes, he angrily demanded his money back. He was arrested in the hotel lobby after cops were called.

But this season, not only was the forward not making the right choices, but he was not getting the right counsel to help him navigate those waters.

“In life, we come across difficulties, we come across challenges,” he began. “Some people are meant to get a solution to their challenges easier than others. I just think it was a difficult challenge for me, I was not around the right people to put me in a position to get a solution quickly and come back to my feet again.

“Then I got injured because I wasn’t fit enough, and when I came back from my knee injury I added a bit of weight and that made me more unfit. That slowed me a bit.”

“I had a different mentality then than now,” he continued. “Then I thought talent can do it all because to me I know the talent is there. I realised just before the start of this season that talent was not enough, and hard work will always beat talent. So I am more of a professional now. It took a lot of time to adapt to the Premier League system, lifestyle and professionalism.”

“I would like to say thank you to Javi Gracia and Watford that they had belief in me and have been giving me chances all season to build up my fitness level. Now, I am in shape and ready to go any time.”

“Whenever I get in five minutes, 10 minutes, I just try to make an impact on the team. That impact is going to keep on growing until I get into the team, and when I get into the team, it’s left for me to seal it up and say no going back.”

With a new man at the helms of affairs, Success had gone down the drain and could no longer found his groove at Watford.