Emmanuel Dennis: Watford’s Valérien Ismaël reveals plans for Nigerian AFCON reject

Emmanuel Dennis moved to Istanbul Basaksehir on loan from Nottingham Forest, but couldn’t make an impact as he had no goals or assists in six months with the Turkish club.

Watford F.C. head coach, Valérien Ismaël, has revealed his plan for Super Eagles forward, Emmanuel Dennis after he rejoined the club from Nottingham Forest on a six-month loan, Soccernet.ng reports.

Dennis, 26, has been out of first-team football action since November until he featured in Watford’s 1-1 draw against Southampton two days ago, playing only fourteen minutes.

With a tight Championship schedule, The Hornets will take on Blackpool this evening and the coach in his pre-match presser, revealed his plans for Emmanuel Dennis ahead of the game at Hillsborough.

“We said before the game that we used the cup game to assess the players and to give them minutes. It gives us more information about Dennis, his level, and how we have to work with him. It’s about finding the right balance at the minute. We will see throughout the next weeks how we can manage him better,” the French manager told the club’s official website.

The 48-year-old also added that he brought the Nigerian to the club to make the fans happy and will do what it takes to achieve that goal.

“I’m not worried about his quality; we know that he has the quality. Our job is to make sure that he comes back to his level. We want to help him, and we will do everything we can to improve him and have success with him. We want him to score goals for us and make our fans happy,” the Frenchman added.

Emmanuel Dennis was included in Jose Peseiro’s AFCON 2023 40-man provisional squad list but didn’t make the cut for the final 25-man squadlist that travelled to Ivory Coast.