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BLIND, STUPID AND DESPERATE
 
Player profiles:
Hameur Bouazza
 
Position: Striker
From: Youth Team
Career stats: Soccerbase
He is: Still full of potential
Past Profiles: September 2005, September 2004

Profile:

After being scouted from a Paris Academy, Bouazza joined Watford’s academy before signing professional terms. Powerfully built and of Algerian origin, Bouazza is a pacey striker with an eye for goal and sure to become a key member of Aidy Boothroyd’s Premiership squad as one of only three recognised strikers at the club alongside last season’s top scorer Marlon King and Play-Off Final penalty scorer Darius Henderson.

Bouazza won the club’s Young Player of the Season award in his first breakthrough season, scoring his first goal on his starting debut against Preston in February 2004. He regularly featured as a substitute in the latter stages of the 2003/2004 season, showing his potential with lots of bright play.

The 2004/2005 season saw Bouazza’s first full season at the club, being involved from the start and his development continued under Ray Lewington. He featured on a regular basis as a substitute, lighting up Watford games with his shows of pace, skill and power. Sixteen starts and twenty substitute appearances were only supplemented with three goals, two of those coming in the Carling Cup campaign that saw Watford reach the semi-finals. One draw-back of his game noted by many supporters is his apparent unwillingness to shoot. His ever increasing power and pace sees him end up in many good finishing positions but he doesn’t always take the opportunity to get in an effort on goal, something which Aidy Boothroyd will no doubt work on.

Despite a number of substitute appearances in the 2005/2006 season, and a couple of starting appearances, Aidy Boothroyd allowed Bouazza to go to League One Swindon on loan for three months. In thirteen appearances at The County Ground Bouazza found the net twice and produced a man of the match display infront of the Sky cameras. He returned to Vicarage Road in December and found himself back on the substitutes' bench. Five games later he found the net in fantastic style, rounding off Watford’s four-one demolition of Sheffield United. Bouazza then fell foul to the metatarsal curse and missed almost three months of the season, but found himself fit in time to take up a position on the substitutes bench for the Championship Play-Off Final. Bouazza didn’t come on, but is sure to be a vital player in Aidy Boothroyd’s Premiership squad and as his development progresses he could become a great player for years to come.

Dan Porter
Last updated: August 2006