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$23m hint Irankunda will ‘make this team his own’ next year as his ‘challenge’ becomes clear
Nestory Irankunda was straight down the tunnel following Watford’s defeat at Oxford United on Saturday – but will he exit Vicarage Road in the same swift manner this summer?
Visibly fuming after the Hornets’ 2-0 defeat to the Championship relegation strugglers, the Aussie sensation was one of the only players to escape audible criticism at the Kassam Stadium – and not just because of his hasty retreat.
As the clocks go back, it’s the time of year when Watford fans start looking to next season. Even the eternal optimists have now conceded Ed Still’s hotchpotch Hornets have no chance of sneaking a ticket to the end-of-season Premier League lottery via a top-six finish.
Off the field, the recently released accounts for the 2024/25 season show a club as reliant as ever on player trading to keep its head above water.
A £12.5million (A$23.6m) loss was only offset by £15.8million (A$29.85m) raised in player sales before June 30, 2025, as Hornets owner Gino Pozzo declared his intention to ‘challenge for the playoff places’.
That challenge has fallen flat on its face and the appointment of Still – older brother of former Southampton and Lens boss Will – has not had the desired impact.
All of which means the Hertfordshire side will have to rely on player trading again this summer. While it’s unclear quite how much the club needs to raise from the summer transfer window, what is apparent is big names will have to be moved on to plug a shortfall in revenue now the Premier League’s parachute payments are a thing of the past.
Captain Imrân Louza tops that list, but who follows the Moroccan maestro out the door is anyone’s guess.
Irankunda’s name would not have been in that conversation until a couple of weeks ago. Now the explosive forward could be playing his way into the public eye at just the right time.
Fresh off his attention-grabbing celebration and brace in the Socceroos’ win over Curaçao, the youngster scored his fourth Championship goal of the season as Watford drew 1-1 with Charlton Athletic on Easter Monday, an otherwise tepid affair that had his fingerprints all over it.
The robust wideman had thrice tested the Addicks keeper before finally finding a way through in the second half. The pick of those efforts was a 25-yard knuckleball that left Will Mannion beaten before cannoning back off the crossbar.
In his maiden season in English football, Irankunda has developed a knack for the spectacular – check out his free-kicks in back-to-back weeks if you haven’t already – and that effort would have been another worthy addition to his burgeoning showreel.
When he was picked out by Louza’s perfectly weighted pass with 16 minutes to go, he showed Amari’i Bell a clean pair of heels before arrowing a postage-stamp finish into the bottom corner. The familiar acrobatics came out and so too did the Michael Jackson moves seen on international duty recently.
The same move had been on display at Loftus Road as the Hornets’ Good Friday turned into a bad one at the hands of Queens Park Rangers; Rayan Kolli mimicking Watford’s No.66 after opening the scoring.
It was a moment of release for Irankunda, who had been getting increasingly wound up until that point – and after, for that matter. But he is maturing in front of Hornets fans’ eyes.
Where once he would have earned himself a cheap booking for throwing the ball away in disgust at the award of a free-kick, he stopped himself. Earlier in the game, the 20-year-old had shoved the aforementioned Bell in the chest as he took a throw on but got away with it – he hasn’t always been so fortunate.
That comes with the impudence of youth. So too does the fearlessness to try things others wouldn’t.
Even after dragging the Hornets level, Irankunda had time to force another smart stop out of the overworked Mannion with a deflected effort that needed pushing round the post.
While other more senior members of the team could be accused of downing tools as a fourth season in England’s second tier comes to a familiar end, Irankunda’s desire to press on and find a winner was evident.
While Still seems unlikely to be at the Vic beyond the season finale against champions-elect Coventry City on May 2, Irankunda could end up being one of the big beneficiaries of his otherwise forgettable 15-game spell as head coach.
Moving the former Bayern Munich starlet into a central role – like the first coach of the season, Paulo Pezzolano, had done – has enabled him to get higher up the field earlier and put his electrifying pace to better use.
The big knock on Irankunda, though, remains the consistency of his output. Those four Championship goals comprise two free-kicks, another stunning, swerving consolation in defeat at Stoke City and last Monday’s well-taken finish against Charlton.
The challenge now is to prove he is capable of delivering less spectacular goals and more spectacular figures, while cutting out the displays of immaturity that have frustrated officials and coaches alike.
Next season the Hornets will not only be without their talismanic captain but at least one of Giorgi Chakvetadze, Othmane Maamma, Kwadwo Baah and Rocco Vata.
All of whom have had injury issues this season and throughout the course of their Hornets careers, opening the door for Irankunda to make this team his own before earning his own, inevitable, big-money move.
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