Oscar Garcia Appointed - Official.

One year apparently.

 

Looks like he only sticks around for a year at a time so makes sense!

 

Until the end of next season I think.

 

We need 2 systems we can play, sometimes you don't need 3 CBs, which was evident v Huddersfield.

 

I agree ... our squad is made for a back 3 but that can be effectively countered by a 4-5-1. At the same time I like a front 3 but not against a strong midfield so it pays to be flexible.
The one thing I am sure Garcia will do is improve our passing skills so eventually a Barcelona-esque back four may be the best option (though I'm not sure all of our wing/full backs are up to it).

 

Bepe got us to the top two, despite being a clown. I think we have the wrong man here now. Lacks ambition.

 

What I find odd is that some sources say he has a 1 year contract but he said himself the Pozzos said they don't mind if we go up this year or next. Why would he be commenting on next year if he may not be the man in charge?

 

Yeah, because coming out and saying 'we going up as ****ing champions' would have been the right thing to do.

 

I'm sure his agreement with Gino is promotion or jogoffski, but he'd be silly if he did not try and limit pressure getting to the squad


He does come across as very calm in interviews, so laid back he's almost horizontal, I think that could be a good thing

 

Don't understand his interviews.

He says he wouldn't be here if the owners said he had to finish top six?

We should be targeting autos, play offs are a minimum. Not finishing in the play offs would mean the sack surely?

 

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...e_joined_Hornets_if_promotion_decided_future/

A manager who accepts failure.

 

Reads that way. Don't like his mentality on the basis of his press so far.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29067515

and he called us tinpot and forgot he wasn't managing Brighton. :doom:

 

Are you really moaning after his first interview? He's just lowering expectations, why put a load of pressure on himself and the team?

 

"Oscar resigned from his position at Maccabi Tel Aviv, where he returned in the summer, last Tuesday (26th) but claims he did not start speaking to Watford until after Sannino departed. We understand he had held talks with the club whilst Sannino was in the job."

So, Smith calls Garcia a liar then. Good start.

 

A serious promotion challenge is clearly the aim of our owners and the club. They are providing him with an excellent platform to add to his CV. He clearly knows what is expected, and I agree with him. I like the fact there is no need for the word "must" to be used, even though it is without doubt the aim for everyone involved.

 

I believe he has the potential to be a really good appointment for us.

I'm not remotely bothered when we started talking to him, or what he says to the media about where we might or might not finish.

What matters is his coaching and management and our results.

Based on his past record, I'm confident they'll be good.

 

Agreed, he would hardly say, "WE WILL WIN the Championship, if we don't I will remove my testicles with a rusty fork and lob them in the pond."

That would be pressure.

 

There's a lot of spin coming out of the club at the moment. The Rosenthal affair left a bad taste in the mouth, and Oscar was appointed pretty quickly after Bepps resigned. Either he was an impulse buy, which is never good, or Frank is right. Obviously there are things that should be kept private, but I don't like being lied to.

Someone complained about Oli Phillips constantly writing about how much better things were in the old days, and I agree that he can come over as an old fart, but younger fans may not appreciate that things really WERE much better in the old days.

GT took over a club settled in the bottom two divisions and not only produced an exciting, entertaining team that stormed through the league, but also had the support of a brilliant off-field team - Caroline Gillies the marketing genius, Ann Swanson's revolutionary kids' programme - and so on. Fans were really made part of things in a way that had never been done before, and there was every reason to be proud of being a Watford supporter.

Bassett destroyed the team, and after GT left the off-field stuff withered and died.

We now have a pretty successful football business at Watford, with some terrific players and great entertainment on the field. We have a community programme and a youth development programme, as everyone does these days, but do you really feel that it's part of the DNA of the club? I don't know what the Pozzos look like or sound like, and have no idea of their personalities at all. We are supplied with a high-quality football entertainment service by a multi-national corporation which is good at that sort of thing, but we can't feel part of the club - despite the efforts of a few players and people like the 1881, we're just customers. Even the manager/head coach, who is the embodiment of the non-playing staff, is disposable.

I love the team and follow its fortunes closely - including spending far too much time on this site - and I don't dislike the club at all, but I can't say I particularly like it.

 

Without criticising you, I think its unfair to compare. Back in the 80's there was no internet.. there was no watford fc web site.. there was no observer web site.. there was no hunger for daily articles.. there was no twitter.. there was no instagram.. there were no forums.. there was probably 1/1000th the information flow and any bull5hit back then would have been a small percentage of a small percentage and very easily hidden or missed.


I'd say the Bassett appointment did far more damage than the Beepe appointment ever did. It did incredible damage, Elton got that absolutely wrong and the club paid for it by languishing in the championship for most of the subsequent c30 years. Elton's mistake was far beyond anything you could possibly accuse the Pozzo's of doing.

If the feel-good of the 80's withered and died it's because Elton and GT (unintentionally) killed it. That had nothing to do with the Pozzos....

 

Agreed, the only outlets of information were the Observer (every Friday) and Ceefax.

 

I don't think a lowering of expectations is appropriate considering we all know what will happen to him if we don't do well this season.

It just sounds stupid and weak. Just say it how it is.

 

I certainly felt part of the club during the last 10 minutes of the Huddersfield game. In fact, there's been numerous times when I've felt my connection to the club has been stronger since the Pozzos than before. The last week has been the most disrutive of the Pozzos time here, so the good feeling has been put on hold. I can understand that.

I think Garcia and the club are entitled to not comment on whether Garcia had been considered before Sannino left. They want the changeover to be as undramatic as possible. Unfortunately you have Frank Smith lurking in the background wih a complete inability to keep anything private. He is a journalist. Of course it's his job, but that man has drama incontinence."Oh the Pozzos said this about Beppe/his training methods/player fallout/Tom Rosenthal/Oscar Garcia? Well I've heard something different that I'll crowbar into my articles by any means necessary!"

This kind of sepia-tinged nostalgia for the old days isn't so much a wish for an old Watford, but for an old football. This is the way it is nowadays. The football HAS to come to the forefront. If the management team had to make a constant effort to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside we'd probably find ourselves in the Conference sooner than the Premier League. They do more than enough as it is. The players still have community commitments and do lots for the local area. I saw a photo last week of Fessi stood with a group of kids all wearing Fessi masks. Do you think they feel like they're part of a business rather than a club?

 

What about the Evening Echo?

 

Don't remember that but I did have a paper round delivering the Herald & Post in 1989 until its demise (1991/2 ish) who then became the club sponsors between 89 and 91.

 

A good post.

Except for the bit about Smith. I've asked others the same question. How do you know that he has a "complete inability to keep anything private"? He may be keeping loads private, that by definition, you don't hear about it.:doh:

 

He may well be, but he still went to the trouble of telling us all that he knew lots that he wasn't printing. It's still all an attention ploy.

 

I entirely agree with you - I never suggested that the Pozzos killed the golden era of GT1, when I was constantly astonished by new good things happening on and off the field. I'm just saying that while they've brought about a huge improvement on the playing side (though with room for further improvement) and of course in giving us financial stability, there's an enormous gulf between the club and the fans.

Yes, there's a Watford community of fans - the people you sit near, travel with, engage in internet discussion and banter with, the 1881 - but that's nothing to do with the club. There's our community of fans, and there's the club providing a service. In the 1980s we were all made to feel part of things. Obviously that's partly an illusion, since we had no say in the running of the club (and no need for it, as everything worked so well), but I really felt we were all it in together.

Troy remembers what it was like to be a fan, FF and Batto really connect, Pudil tries, but these are individual efforts. The club is run by the Pozzos, and what they think we should have we get. They have no connection with us, and no interest in us other than as customers for their business.

 

There hasn't been a connection between any league club and it's fans except, AFC Wimbledon, for decades.

 

A liar and a coward

Great start

 

I think football has changed in general, it's big business not only in the Prem but also the Champ and L1/2. If traditional club-fan relationships still exist at all I'd look for it in non league...

 

There's a lot of truth in this, but experienced businessmen like the Pozzos are easily able to buy in some marketing talent and come clean with us when issues arise. At other clubs the owners are visible, and even deign to show up at matches. We hear what these owners have to say, and it often bears some relation to the truth. At Watford we're told what the Pozzos need us to know, even when it's obviously not true. I don't like that.

 

Do Watford still do the "At My Place" nights?

I went to 2 of those during the Dyche season and met players like Deeney, Gavin Massie, Bond etc as well as Nick Fox, Dyche himself etc

Those made me feel really close to the club...?

 

Cant have that can we, a journo trying to attract attention to his articles?

Personally, I just don't understand all this.

No-one, apart from Smith himself knows, what his sources are, what he has heard, how much of it comes from the club, how much from outside the club, how much is in confidence and how much isn't, how much he has kept quiet, etc, etc? Yet, there are so many "expert journo's" on here that think he got it all wrong. If he was the best journo in the world, he would have still had to make a number of judgments (how much to say, what tone to take, etc) over the past few weeks, and probably would not have got them all right.

Maybe one of his headlines was a bit "sensationalist" but that is what headlines do, isn't it? Anyway, it was right in the end!

I want our local paper to be trying to anticipate things, telling us what they know, as much as they can, and their opinions and views. If I just want the news, then I can wait for the official announcements, about 2 weeks later.