For someone Watford spent €8m on, Obbi Oulare hasn’t exactly produced the goods, and that problem is persisting seeing as he’s now on his fourth consecutive loan.
Spells at Zulte Waregem, Willem II and Royal Antwerp failed to see him get any significant game time, and one of the main problems with that has been his weight.
Standing at 6’5”, the 22-year-old is always going to weigh a lot, but he’s never really managed to remain at his optimal weight, which is believed to be 98kg, and he blames some of that on the Hornets staff.
Sport/Foot, looking at his current situation, quote the player as saying: “At Watford, I weighed 105kg at one point. Muscle, eh! However, on the pitch, I felt sluggish, and when I spoke to the staff, they laughed. In England, they have a very particular view on muscle training. In Bruges, I avoided the weights room because I have a tendency to put on weight quickly.
“When I arrived at Watford, I wanted to put everything on my side to succeed, but they forced us to drink juices, and I put on weight. I had a few arguments with staff members for them to listen to me.”
When he arrived at Antwerp for his last loan, Laszlo Bölöni was immediately worried about his striker’s weight, predicting ‘the scales would suffer’ when they finally found time to weigh Oulare (he was 102kg at the time).
Now at Standard Liège, and a hip operation later, it feels like a lot of his problems are behind him.
Since signing for Watford, he’s only scored eight goals in four years.
So far, he’s got one in three for his new club, finally starting a game in a 1-1 draw against Sint-Truiden.
There’s a feeling this could finally be his time to shine, and if all goes well, his future will be in Liège and not at Watford, as there’s a clause to buy in the loan.
We’ll have to “weight” (sorry, not sorry) and see.
