Spending over a reported £9m on Adalberto Peñaranda from Udinese around this time last year, Watford will have hoped the loans he has been sent on while they wait for him to qualify for a work permit will have helped him develop and be ready for life in the Premier League.
Spending the first half of the season at Udinese, another Pozzo owned club, the Venezuelan forward struggled to get regular game time, which led to the deal being cut short and the 19-year-old being shipped out to Malaga in La Liga instead for the remainder of the campaign.
Having previously spent a whole year in Granada and doing rather well there, Watford were hoping Peñaranda would recapture some form in Spain, but they were wrong.
AS in Spain point out that from a possible 720 minutes, the young forward has only been on the pitch for 147 of them, and hasn’t featured in the last five games.
This will be a cause for concern for Watford, who spent a large chunk of money on the promising forward.
While no reason has been given yet for his absence, him appearing on the bench for the last two games is certainly better than him being left out of the squad altogether, and the Hornets can only hope he’ll be back in Malaga’s first-team soon enough.
Either that, or a future at Vicarage Road seems rather unlikely for the Venezuela international.
