Something's wrong at Watford. Before you dismiss that as a statement of the bleedin' obvious, hear me out. I've yet to meet a twitchier regime. It began when they decided to keep television, radio and newspapers away from their training camp at London Colney and switch the weekly press conference to the portable building at Vicarage Road. Instead of mingling informally with players and staff while they polished off their tagliatelle, journalists were offered a restricted diet of Adrian Boothroyd plus one player. Considering that this could have been such an exciting time for the club and that the Boothroyd era had so much to offer that was fresh and challenging, it's extraordinary that Watford burrowed into their protective shell the way they did. To be more precise, it's a shame that Mark Ashton, a dashing James Bond figure of a chief executive, sees it as a personal affront if anyone outside his clique exchanges pleasantries with anyone inside it. He gave the mayor a dressing down for daring to "reveal" plans for the new ground redevelopment – plans which were available on the club's website. Then I was upbraided for talking to the former editor of the now-defunct supporters' website, "Blind, Stupid and Desperate", because his dad allegedly opposed the redevelopment plans. To cap it all, the mayor's invitation for me to join her in the directors' box was squashed – by the chief executive. advertisement Suspicion has turned to paranoia. As well as politely refusing every request I've made for one-to-one interviews with Marlon King, Ashley Young, the chief scout or the bloomin' groundsman, Ashton's beleaguered press corps recently issued a warning about fraternising with friendly members of the board, of whom there are several. The one thing guaranteed to get you into tight corners is censorship. I'd like Mr Ashton to read this open letter and soften his approach to PR: Dear Mark, We know you're in there. There's a gnawing sound coming from your office. We reckon you've been sharpening your teeth on the edge of the desk, ready to bare them at the world if it gets too close. You've got it all wrong. We come bearing gifts. If this is how you treat your allies, we'd hate to get on the wrong side of you. Please remember that you are chief executive of Watford Football Club, not the dictator of a banana republic. Paranoia seems to have taken such a hold that a simple "Good morning, Mark, how are you doing?" is likely to have you consulting lawyers before releasing a carefully-worded response. I know some sections of the media had Watford relegated the moment we won in Cardiff but there was no need to adopt a siege mentality. I certainly wouldn't have paid to watch them through bad times and better ones if I didn't want them to succeed. You invited me into your office before the season began and I was impressed with the pyramid you'd drawn on your chalk board. "Even if the top gets dislodged," you said, "the foundations are secure." Then the Cold War started. I thought we were getting somewhere. Put away the polonium and we still might. Happy New Year. Sadly, three more defeats around Christmas have left Ashton and Boothroyd with some serious pointing-up to do. Whatever Ashton says, relegation is bound to shake the foundations. Ground redevelopments don't come cheap. The next tier down is stuffed with clubs who thought they could bounce back before the parachute closed. Of course, Watford aren't down yet. Aidy may still find a couple of players in the January window. Loan deals seem the best option. Persuading an experienced striker that he has a permanent future with the bottom club might require hypnosis. Vicarage Road supporters are, by and large, a moderate, suburban lot who neither raise the roof when things go well nor moan loudly when they don't. Most can't understand what our club are doing back in the big time. Boothroyd has etched himself a prominent place in our folklore but tackling the Premiership with only one recognised striker (Marlon King) while believing you could breathe fire into the rest must be a misjudgment. It wouldn't hurt so much if we hadn't made the same mistake under Graham Taylor last time. What's the point of going up just to come down again
Tony Francis is a top bloke, came back with him on the train recently and is a genuine Watford Fan, he speaks the truth and writes how he feels. Don't want to open a can of worms but the refusal of the club to speak to a Journo who is a fan tells me something is not right.
Certain parts of the media i can understnad him avoiding given the bad press we have received of late however this approach is not going to improve things.. if anything it will alienate the ones who are on our side.
Hmmmm, interesting...i can only think that Ashton and Boothroyd were worried that the trainees might be seen and transfer deals lost as a result, re: journo not being allowed to view training. With regards to the re-development, Ashton has always been secretive about the plans...whether that be right or wrong is up to the individual. One things for sure, they got us here and whilst they are in charge i guess we have to trust them all. There might be other explanations than the one the journo is trying to make...but we have been here before Watford observor, old message board etc
A good article I feel. Not too convinced by the negative talk about the ground development - any true fan would know WFC have been working on this plan for a couple of years and promotion can never have seriously been considered as a genuine financing option. Other than that though it kinda sums up what some have already been saying about our board. They're an odd lot - obviously 'the r word' can't be uttered until certain.
To be quite honest that's the only bit that reads like something that either a)didn't come straight from his backside or b)is blown out of proportion because he's got a problem with Ashton.
Watford afraid of the press? Seems rather odd that the board what try to stop the media talking to our players although we rarely get positive words anyway. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/sport/2006/12/28/sfnwat28.xml
this is a can of worms that won't go away. the criticism will increase as the gap at the bottom grows and the platitudes from aidy and gs continue accordingly. if ashton and gs dont mend their ways and accept that criticism can be constructive and is a healthy thing the image of the club will deteriorate and never recover. as francis says take a look at the number of ex-'big' clubs scraping by in the championship. the WO used to be a healthy reflection of what was happening at the club, now there is nothing. For all Ollie's faults he was independent and honest.
just posted this on another thread about this, not knowing it had already been discusseds. anyway by twopenny worth...... "this is a can of worms that won't go away. the criticism will increase as the gap at the bottom grows and the platitudes from aidy and gs continue accordingly. if ashton and gs dont mend their ways and accept that criticism can be constructive and is a healthy thing the image of the club will deteriorate and never recover. as francis says take a look at the number of ex-'big' clubs scraping by in the championship. the WO used to be a healthy reflection of what was happening at the club, now there is nothing. For all Ollie's faults he was independent and honest."
Thing is Tony Francis is a top quality journalist, we came back on the train with him this Season and he is a genuine Watford Fan.
What on earth could be the reason for this? What's next, Aidy sending Burkinshaw to do his MOTD interviews? If this is true is it any wonder the MB went? EDIT: Just noticed the 2 threads so merged them.
Although you may consider Tony Francis to be a respected journalist his ramblings are starting to take on the same tone as Ollie Phillips. Whilst professing to being fans they constantly criticise everything to do with the club even if it is in done in the form of humour. If they spent more time believing in the new regime maybe they would be doing more good rather than constantly undermining everything the club is trying to achieve. We all have a right to our own opinions and views but there is a fine line between this and becoming a critic for the sake of it. Here is a link to his lasted offering: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ma...A1YourView&xml=/sport/2007/01/03/sfnwat03.xml
Dont like the sound of him. I've emailed the articles to a friend of mine who is a journalist to see what he thinks or knows about the guy.
Well we were poor in the 1st half and whilst a draw was good we do need to get 3 points to have any chance of staying up. He talks about all those players we COULD sign....but how many would want to join now in our position rather than join a club higher up/stay at their club? Some decent points but I feel he is another one of those who just expects players to come the minute we make a bid for them. BTW - If he checked the rule book there was no chance any players could be signed and play at Fulham as the FA was closed so the transfer registration would not go through.
Don't you think that may have been tongue in cheek? Francis seems to be getting pretty depressed it seems to me, compared with his pieces earlier in the year.
Maybe it was! ??? Will he carry on writing about us in the Championship do you think or is this bloke a part-time Premiership fan? You cannot compare Francis and Mahon as the same..one at leasty does run around doing is best and performing.
Couldn't have put it better myself. I know for a fact over the past 4 weeks we have had numerous people train with us, three quarters of whom we probably won't ever know about. if they are trying to do deals without it getting out and alerting others then fair play. Of course that could of been the day martin o'neil came down to check on Marlon
I think there is nothing more sinister in keeping the jurnos away from our training ground than the fact we have had several trialists training with us over the last few weeks ! Aidy has learnt from last season, when he lost out to other clubs on a few transfer targets, mainly because it became common knowledge because of the media that we were interested in them, which alerted other clubs to them .
This is what my mate had to say about Tony Francis in an email to me. He's also added an article he put on a Norwich City website about their Palace match and the eir ground redevelopement. Thought you might fine it interesting but it is quite long so dont moan at me please. Tony Francis has a house somewhere in the Midlands but certainly has a base near here. Tony is a TV journalist whose face would be known to you. He used to do the news 30-odd years ago, then was a Midlands correspondent and presenter of shows like Pebble Mill, then he was ITN's sports correspondent. Now is a freelance and produces his own TV shows, mostly about the countryside, walking etc. He does a weekly football column for the Telegraph. When I was doing my work for the Sunday Times we became quite friendly because we were writing similar pieces and often pitched up at the same game. I saw him at Watford-Arsenal, when he seemed happy enough and asked normal, non-agressive questions at the press conference. From the pieces you sent me, I'd say he is a Watford fan who has fallen out with Ashton because Ashton is very touchy about the ground redevelopment plans which are all due to be considered by the council this month. I think he (Tony) is wrong to drag his personal dispute into the public because I don't think Telegraph readers care whether he is invited into the directors' box or not. Norwich played poorly against QPR but won and really well against Palace but lost. For long periods Palace could not get out of their area. After talking to Delia I am quite confident about the future. When you've got ten mins you might like to write what I've written for that Norwich website...... MY BIGGEST and constant annoyance about the way the local Norfolk papers cover the affairs of Norwich City is that the level of analysis is so shallow and that there is no attempt to put achievements and failings into a national context. Yet sometimes I have to concede that individual football matches defy profound scrutiny. For instance, there is no point in attempting a detailed evaluation of the defeat at Crystal Palace. Instead, the verdict on yet another miserable afternoon at Selhurst Park can be summed up in two words, suitably sanitised. The two words are: “Stuff happens.” Those of you who were not there (and I note that includes most of those discussing the match in detail on the Wrath of the Barclay message board) will never believe this, but Norwich played really well. For 25 minutes Palace could not leave their area. Then they broke out, won a corner and stole the lead. City regrouped, deployed their 4-5-1 system effectively again and pinned Palace back once more. Then, a hoofed clearance landed at the feet of Gary Doherty. Those feet let him and City down. He stumbled and, as he picked himself up, tripped Youssef Safri who was scuttling back to cover. That festively plump Suffolk escapee Shefki Kuqi scored and that was that. The clumsy blunder was not what the Doc ordered. But stuff happens. The only long-term conclusion that it is safe to draw from one more dispiriting trip to SE25 is that Palace have bigger problems than Norwich. In fact (and this time I’m not cleaning it up all that much) their future’s sh**e, their chairman’s orange. Perma-tanned chairman Simon Jordan has only recently managed to buy the freehold of Selhurst and it’s a decrepit old dump. The Arthur Waite Stand, the hovel in which away fans pay £30 each to sit, cannot last much longer. It is patched up every year just to get its safety certificate. It is certainly not the sort of place where you want to linger before the game sampling the catering (did those of you who went notice the unhealthy way the hideous slices of processed cheese were stored at the burger bar?). The other stands need an extreme makeover as well and so Jordan must either borrow tens of millions for rebuilding or stump up the money himself. If he borrows, he or the club will have to finance the repayments. If he provides the cash, the fortune he built up from cheap phones and expensive phone contracts will be whittled away. Either way, there will be less to spend on players. And, I hope that by now, you’ve seen the relevance to Norwich of the Palace problems and what I mean about putting City’s achievements and failings into a broader context. Before the nervous but welcome victory over QPR, I had cause to walk completely around the outside of Carrow Road and, as I completed the circuit, I took stock. The old South Stand was, just a few short years ago, as shoddy as anything at Selhurst. Now, in its place is the Jarrold Stand with the bigger, much improved ticket office which houses a staff who are efficient and helpful (both rare qualities in football). Inside the Jarrold stand, here’s a dry, bright, welcoming area for a pie and a pint and, my wife assures me, there are no queues for the clean Ladies’ loos. Around the corner, the hotel is taking shape. Next to it, the smartly branded Barclay melds seamlessly into the City stand and both have hugely improved facilities. The shop could be bigger, but turn one more corner and you find the entrance to Delia’s -- although, for some inexplicable reason they’ve chosen to omit the apostrophe. They haven’t omitted anything else. It’s a fine restaurant. I know the remodeling of Carrow Road doesn’t make the football any better, but surely one of the reasons attendances are so good is that going to games at our stadium is such a pleasant experience compared to the attrition involved in visiting many other grounds. There were fewer than 17,000 punters at Palace, for instance. And surely, when we are considering where our club is at the start of 2007, proper credit should be given for the rebuilding of the ground by our current board. They’ve done it with manageable, structured borrowing and some shrewd land deals. And they’ve been able to fund spending on players which Robert Chase would have considered heretical. We should look around ourselves at Carrow Road a bit more discerningly and those of us who go to away games should compare and contrast. Every time I have a conversation about how magnificent Carrow Road has become, someone tells me: “The fans don’t notice and don’t care.” Well, they should.
Carrow Road is a prime example of what Watford should aspire to as a stadium. In fact, why don't we buy it off them now the transfer window is open?
Imagine the problem of trying to move it. All workmen up there have missing fingers and suffer with severe NFN disease.
