Joka was brave bold and enigmatic. Didnt stop me wanting him booted out when initial results were bobbins. Same for Flores. Same for all of them really.
Cathcart (very good), Ekstrand (mid-Championship defender), Connolly (played like 5 games), Angella (scored a few and decent with his feet, but mid-Championship defender), Hoban (mid-table Championship defender), Bassong (upper-end Championship defender and definitely improved us, but played less than a quarter of our games and left mid-season), Pudil (crap), Paredes (crap), Layun (unsuited to the league), Tozser (good deep-lying pivot, but was easily bypassed defensively), Munari (I'm honestly struggling to remember him! I think he started well, but lost form and was dropped by Joka before we went on a good run of form?) and Watson (was there for half a season and instantly improved us, which gives me confidence that Toszer and Munari were not good enough defensively). How many did we keep, even as fillers, for our Premier League squad?
Third Division title 69? 4th Division title 78? Second Division Champions 98? Play off winners 99 & 2006? Had we won the Championship it would have been our highest level trophy yes.. but not our only one.
No worries.. gave me a reason to make up a Watford trophy montage I wonder what actually counts as our highest honour.. old 3rd division title or Championship play off winners?
The play-off trophy is false one. You only have to finish 3rd at best to have a shot at it and it’s just something to wave on the day at Wembley if you win. Remember, you get nothing in the way of a trophy for finishing second - as we well know...
True.. they might just as well wave a cheque around at the Play off final! But is it worth less than our highest "normal" honour.. the 3rd level title?
Pretty sure, if you are talking about honours, that either FA Cup Runners Up, or Football League Runners Up are our highest.
If it helps your confidence with this bet and my awful gambling luck lately, only I could lay money down on man city v wigan and actually lose!!!!!
It's what the cup is a about. They were played off the park by 10 men, 83% possession to 17%, 26 shots to 4, 14 corners to none, but won.
Yes.. well they always list runners up places in any list of honours but i bet Willis will say you don't get a trophy for coming second
Yes. Players make a difference. Three strikers who are rated very good by the standards of their division is pretty much a luxury. I don't have any stats in front of me, but surely Deeney, Vydra, Forestieri and Abdi were all scoring shed loads of goals when we got promoted. I'm sure Guardiola is a very fine manager, but look at the players he has at his disposal.
Couldn’t agree more. Players 90%, manager 10% in my book. I hate the cult of the manager these days, which was really ramped up with the arrival of the self-publicist Mourinho.
How can you all forget the Cupa de Ibiza which proudly sat on top of paperwork on a filing cabinet in the ticket office for years?
In Hamleys at Christmas the guy trying to sell my boy one of those hover footbalk things told us he was friends with Munari. I said he was good when the sun was shining but then went AWOL for months. He said he was hating the weather and also was injured that's why his form went off so much.
We finished officially 4th in the FA Cup in 1970 - I was at the first 3rd/4th place play-off for the semi-final losers at Highbury against Man Utd that season which we lost 2-0. Don't think we got a trophy though and the concept of a 3/4 place in the FA Cup was quietly ditched soon after in 1974. Not many clubs have finished 4th in the FA Cup though.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Cup_Third-fourth_place_matches