When Adalberto Peñaranda arrived at Watford for a fee of around £10m, certain expectations were placed on the now 22-year-old.
First, however, there was the matter of getting his work permit, which he now has, thanks to his 16 caps for Venezuela and a bunch of loans, and there was hope he could finally establish himself at Vicarage Road three years after his arrival.
However, a move to Eupen in Belgium was arranged late on in the summer transfer window to get him the regular football Javi Gracia couldn’t promise at Watford.
It began well enough, with the player appearing in the starting XI for the first four games before disappearing completely, only to reappear once for seven minutes in a 1-0 loss to Zulte Waregem towards the end of November.
Speaking to Meridiano on Instagram Live, the player explained what happened.
He said: “I didn’t like some of the exercises the manager had put in place at Eupen in training sessions. They seemed pointless to me and after that discussion, he didn’t call me up anymore. I regretted that action, and I went to see him like a man to apologise”.
However, with just six appearances to his name in the first half of the season, he was swiftly sent back to Watford after asking the Eupen manager to let him leave (he accepted), where he was meant to feature under Nigel Pearson.
He told Meridiano that ‘at his return to Watford, he met up with the manager, who told him he was counting on him, but he first needed to get back in shape having gone a month without training’.
Unfortunately for Peñaranda, the Covid-19 pandemic stopped all that in its tracks, and he’ll now have to wait longer to see if he can finally break through long term in the Hornets’ squad.
