That's one view, and a view that the club and many others would probably agree with. But I think the club communication is (generally) terrible. It might be that the fans of the club are not so important to them as they used to be, the financials would prove that. After all it is the parachute money that will keep us afloat this coming season, not the fans. Nevertheless, if they think the fans are worth having, then I think they should engage with them in a far better way than they do. I work in the civil service and they have a similar communications method as Watford Football Club. Don't say anything, unless it is an official announcement that has gone through several layers of clearance, and only (if possible) when they are absolutely certain something is happening. If they do use "ambiguity", they do not explain why the ambiguity is necessary. They don't treat their stakeholders with respect or as if they actually care about them, even though they may actually care deeply. After a couple of months in the role I was shocked to hear from the stakeholders I was working with, that I have made more communication with them in those weeks than my predecessor had made in 5 years and they actually felt that we were in the same side. The better relationship has in my area at least, over the past few months, paid real dividends in how my stakeholders are dealing with the lockdown. Watford don't "engage" with their fans anywhere near enough. They inform us when necessary, and little more. It is almost like they communicating with their fans is something they are forced to do as a duty, rather than because they want to keep us informed because we care. They seem to believe they should keep us in the dark. Even the fan involvement in the badge was done in an unsatisfactory way, clunky, stilted and frustrating for anyone that was interested. We don't need them to save up the news until they tell us that seven players have moved on from the club so they can tell us all at once. Why do they feel that we don't care why the Cucho loan deal has been arranged as it is. After hearing about him for a couple of years, it would have been great to have some idea (from the club) why he isn't with us from September, but might be from January rather than us speculating as to work visa's, or ability, players view, etc. Why do they wait until they have a glossy video before they tell us their new kit is going to be launched. I personally don't care if Watford play in yellow polka dots this season, but many do. Why the cloak and dagger efforts? Personally, I think there is a lack of respect in our direction. But, you are right. If the club does not want to engage with their fans, there are plenty of reasons they can think of, why they shouldn't. As you say, why should they acknowledge a story across the nationals and BBC about our potential new coach, when they don't have to and if we don't matter? In the longer term, whether the fans have been fans for a year or 60 years, they like to feel involved in the club and are more supportive and forgiving,when they do feel part of the club. In my view, the club would do well to remember that. There are plenty of better ways to communicate and engage with the fans - if they want to.
I give up with you guys, I'm not DEMANDING anything, and where do I ask for the club to ANNOUNCE that we have signed him??? EDIT: By the way I'm glad that at least ZZ seems to understand the ethos of what I have been saying.
Agreed, Burnsy. hornetboy1 mentioned that Adam Leventhal tweeted that Ivic is expected to arrive at the weekend and that an announcement should be made on Monday. It makes sense to wait for him to arrive before they put out all the relevant publicity. The club would also be justified in being cautious after what happened with Pape Gueye. Arakel has made a good point. Perhaps the contract has not been formally signed - even though it has been agreed. That could be the reason that Ivic's appointment has not yet been officially announced by the club.
Perhaps Vlad hasn't signed the contract, perhaps he doesn't have a fax machine or printer at his home in Greece to have done it during the week, perhaps he will do it when he gets here this weekend. The club might think its not right to announce 'he's signed' when he hasn't - quite yet. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why the club can't announce.
Again, I disagree. WFC announced Gueye in good faith. And fought to keep him, and lost out to a club that was happy to may much more. Why is that such a disaster? These things happen, and the fact that players renege on contracts shouldn't be hidden from public view. And, if Vlad cannot sign because he doesn't have a fax machine, why can the club not at least acknowledge that they are talking to him? What harm can it do? Speculation can be far more damaging. I don't understand this compulsion to keep everything completely secret until a contract is signed, particularly when we have seen that actually signing a contract (Gueye), doesn't actually mean someone will join us.
But why need to talk? Because a few fans are impatient? The fall out of the club acknowledging talks and then the deal falling through, knowing some of our fans, will be greater than the annoyance of a few who simply can’t wait another 24-48hrs. And then any subsequent person approached will know they weren’t ‘officially’ first choice and/or will drive a harder bargain contractually as we will be deemed as being more desperate. There are any number of reasons why it’s sensible to keep quiet. I agree that the clubs communication as a whole is poor. But anyone expecting some sort of update on Ivic before an an official statement of his appointment? Really?
I totally agree ZZ, and that is all I have been trying to get across, but as usual certain people on here try to fudge the issue by twisting my words. I'll will ask one final time, where have I said I want the club to ANNOUNCE the signing of Ivic??? I HAVE NOT DEMANDED OR EVEN ASKED FOR THAT!!! However, several posters have intimated that I have done just that. I do wish that people would actually read my and other peoples posts before spouting off about things that have not even posted on here, and yet it happens all the time
So what do you want? The club to acknowledge we are talking to him? What’s to be gained from that? You already know that we are and that it’s a done deal. What extra benefit are you getting from the club officially telling you? The club stand to gain nothing at all by saying ‘we have concluded talks with Ivic and subject to him signing a contract in the next 24hrs, he will be the new head coach’ ...what if he arrives and he decides against the deal? The club are derided everywhere once more and the PR is a nightmare. Why create that situation just so you can tell some fans what they already know?
I think we should discuss all ongoing negotiations for players and head coaches, giving our rivals a firm heads up on exactly we are in the process just in case they want to swoop in.
I don’t think we know that at all. Isn’t it possible the original information was mistaken? Or premature?
Looking at the morons posting on the BBC comments section it is the usual tropes. He will be gone by Christmas. Watford are a badly run club. Pearson was never given a chance. At Watford Manager of the Month is the actual job title. Worthless little club.So the usual patronizing, ill informed drivel. at19gg was trying to defend valiantly and there was a certain StuBoy doing the opposite.
We still do not know what happened in the dressing room exactly. We can surmise what might have happened. Something serious enough for Pearson to be removed. Just him not CS. The idiots on there were banging on about beating Cesspool 3-0 (a couple of very bitter Kopites happy that we have been relegated) and how NP was doing a tremendous job. Yes a great job in that we were playing one half of football with some baffling choices and tactics.
There was a time when local newspaper was a main source of information for the fans. It was kind of a natural thing for a club to use and trust people they knew and respected. Fans enjoyed their service, papers were able to sell and clubs knew that they were usually presented in good light to the people. It worked three ways. In our case we and the club were lucky to have a local media, and espesially a local journalist, who was a true professional, who had eye to serve the fans and the club. He was not a yes man who only informed the positives, but he certainly respected the clubs needs as well. Sometimes there were cituations when the they didn`t agree, but always they found the way back to continue to serve us the fans. It was a time when Elton, Taylor and Mr Phillips respected each others needs. And it continued even with some new people. Today we seem to live in a different world, even though we as fans would need the same basics; accurate information and indepth analyses of our beloved team. Owners of a football club may have some different opinions how to arrange information. They have their own needs. They are trying to make money and fame with the information they produce. Earlier it was like Hornet hotline, but nowadays it is internet related sources, which they try to sell to the fans. They try to make most of it with deciding the time and source of a latest news. And that is how they want to make most positive result money and fame wise. I am not sure though what would be the main way to get it work again to serve us and our needs. We seem to be happy to click the most selling news, even though it may not tell us anything new or important. We may settle for just a short piece of news instead of a decent piece of journalism. And media sells what we buy; news which they can achieve most cliks. It is not important anymore to write properly; just to make news atractive for people to click. Maeby it would need personel to change? Someone to write decently and not like selling more. Maeby for a club to understand that serving local people now by respecting local media, it will generate more interest in the long run: more talk in the town, kids growing to the the fans of local team and so on. But are we too far away from that already? At the moment it is not working anyway. It would be wise to at least make some kind of information what is going on. Those were the days when Oliver had the chance to talk straight to the manager and club...
Why is that more likely to be reported than that he has actually been appointed? The point is that until this is confirmed officially, it is still just third party information. We don’t ‘know’ for certain.
Well that is a stretch, I agree. But still - I can see why people might take the mick out of us. Several posters on here thought the decision was questionable, to put it mildly.
That's just crazy talk. It's far more likely that he's signed, the press release was pretty much ready to go, but he has since fallen out with Gino and Giraldi and they are now having second thoughts.
I'm going to make a suggestion. It's clear that the words you've capitalised are the ones you're most upset and emotional about. Seeing as you like capitalisation so much, why not blow up the font on those words? Or even better yet, make those words bold! If you're really feeling crazy, you could colour those words red to show your fury. Attaching an image like the one below would leave none of us under no illusions as to just how angry you are.
At the time I thought it was madness but as the 'details' have emerged although surmised you can see why he might have gone. Albeit we might have also been tempted to wring a few necks and tell Floppo what is what. As for the other fans of other clubs. Could not give a flying fig what they think. So long as we return to the PL this season all will be well.
Something must have happened to warrant a dismissal. Verbal or physical. And everyone has been told to keep silent about it. It will no doubt come out in the wash.
The rumours of a bust up were denied, but Adam Leventhal later discovered from two different sources that there had been a "significant disagreement" at half-time in the dressing room between Pearson, Shakespeare and two players. Leventhal did not identify the players, but they could have been been Massina and Deeney if another source is to be believed.
That is what it seemed in the immediate aftermath and still seems that way to many outside of Watford. It will come out eventually in due course as to what exactly happened.
I agree with you, zztop, that the club's communication is poor. I have experienced similar problems when I have directly contacted them. I received an acknowledgement from a secretary on one occasion and was informed that the relevant department would reply to me, but I heard nothing more. The club online shop is much better at responding, but then it is in the business of selling merchandise. My point was that subsequent poaching of Gueye (who had signed a contract with Watford) by Marseille may have caused the club some embarrassment after they had made an official announcement that Gueye had signed for Watford. Gueye never arrived at the club. This may be one reason why they prefer to wait for Ivic's arrival before making an announcement. I hope that Marseille will be forced to pay appropriate compensation to Watford.
I doubt it was a gamble, I would think that Pearson put himself in an untenable position with the club, either at half time or full time at West Ham, the interview he gave at full time was very " surly " to say the least, I think he knew the end was near, he appeared to have lost it with the players and obviously senior management!
The timing was odd (not that I think had he stayed it would have made much difference..) but the statement given by the club really was so terse making me think there was much more to him going than a bad result or two. I mean almost every other manager that has gone apart from Silva has had a thank you or something along that line even if they had been totally useless. I can see without any reasons why people on the outside would question it. But I didn't agree with the argument we would been certain to stay up had Pearson stayed.
The delay in announcing Ivic is common sense. Saves a lot of time and effort to announce the appointment and sacking together.
Exactly my point. While I perhaps shouldn’t have said we ‘know’ what’s happening, this isn’t a court of law - for the sake of the topic at hand, I’d say there is enough out in the public domain for us to be pretty convinced of what’s happening or going to happen in the next 48hrs or so. I just think it’s odd, that on this matter, a few people think we should be told something officially in the interim.
