Watford Fans Outside This Forum

Apart from a few outlying trolls, the majority of people on this forum agree that the manager is an unqualified joke of a yes man, the squad is horrendously unbalanced and lacking in quality in key areas, that our top earners are dragging us down by offering appalling value for their wages and that our owners have shown for around 2 years straight now that they have lost the plot and are in a tailspin.

However, is that reflected in the wider fanbase? Are there still people trusting Gino to get it rigth, feeling that Xisco needs a full pre season, certain that Gray and Deeney are going to click and bang in the goles?

Please share comments from the wider world from our fans to see, is there at least a groundswell of sensible outrage at the utter incompetence that surrounds pretty much every aspect of our club.

 

Outside of this forum my friends are in two groups:

1. They have given up with the club and football - not sure if they will return when grounds open up again. Mixture of not missing it and the utter shambles the club has become.

2. Livid at the mess in the club. Want to support but the contempt shown to the supporters is pushing them away. Last night was a tipping point in anger towards the club.

It’s a shame fans are not allowed in, last night would have been utterly toxic. As it is I believe the club are totally unaware at the groundswell of anger among supporters.

 

Would it make much difference if the hierarchy was aware of current fan views? They’ve seemed pretty tone deaf to the fans for several years.

 

To have fans shouting abuse at you will, of course, have an effect on both players and board. They are totally insulated from it at the moment.

 

Well, it would for most owners, yes.

 

I sense that you are not a fan of Gino?

 

We have members of the fanbase claiming they were crying about an Instagram video where Xisco was (I assume) singing in his car - along with others saying they 'love him' because of it. I'm not sure their ambition really lies in Watford being a successful club.

Equally, having a look around the wonderful world of #watfordfc - it looks like the coach is getting much of the criticism - a little towards the hierarchy but Xisco seems to be both loved as 'one of us' and also being the convenient scapegoat to others.

 

FTRE are asking for 'questions for the board':
https://twitter.com/watfordpodcast/status/1356520392639344641

 

Forums tend to attract the more polarised views, a lot of people would never even think to post on a forum and their general view on things about most things is a probably just a bit ‘meh’.

As we’re all forum types with all pretty much become polarised as extreme bed wetters, with a few a notable exceptions.

The main problem I see with the ‘Dyed in the wool’ cog types who are all over twitter and who I guess represent more of our fan base, is an inability to accept that it doesn’t matter what things were like before the Pozzos and what good the Pozzos have done, that still doesn’t mean they couldn’t and shouldn’t have made different choices.

If I was homeless, bought a lottery ticket and won, then spunked all the money and ended up homeless again I’d be a ******* idiot for spunking all the money away. A lot of our fan base would think that was absolutely fine though, because I was homeless before so that absolves me of any future mistakes however obvious and avoidable they happen to be.

 

I'd say yes, looking at Matt's latest bhappy blog.

https://bhappy.wordpress.com/

I'm not one to throw stones though, and I generally enjoy reading this and Bsad back in the day. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, whether they are right or wrong, daft or sensible. It seems on Twitter the wind is only blowing one way on this subject at the moment, but then I probably don't read enough to see all the COGS or bedwetters on there.

 

The only hard questions they'd have for the board would be about their favourite cheeses whilst they have them a hot stone massage.

Top trolling from them though.

 

My mates are either disengaged with it enough that their views are "it's not great, but there's lots of time", and those that follow it more closely are getting genuinely concerned. It's a relatively positive bunch, but a couple are at something of a loss to find anything promising and can't see where on earth we are going. There was a lot of talk about "how is this any different to under Ivic?" yesterday.

I'm by far the most negative. The rest are either not bothered enough and just remain optimistic in the face of evidence or are beginning to become quite critical.

 

The mey defences for the Pozzos mistakes seem to be that earlier mistakes have hamstrung them so that they have to make their current mistakes.

'You cant blame 2021 Gino Pozzo for this because 2019 Gino Pozz awarded a 5 year contract to a player that we can't sell anymore so we are stuck with him.-

 

I think the Pozzo's are lucky we are in a pandemic. The atmosphere would probably not be too healthy right now and I think most have had enough of what's gone on for the past two years.

Watford fans are quite a passive bunch on the whole and will put up with a lot, but the lack of investment or willingness to correct obvious deficiencies in the squad, together with the scattergun approach to head coaches and the lack of a clear direction, no message from the owner, I just think it's got all too much.

To be angry now, is not to be disrespectful to what they've done for us in the past. They were brilliant owners, but they are not brilliant owners anymore. It's very obvious. The lack of communication from the top is a lack of respect as far as I'm concerned. The fans forum SD did was just dreadful. It was meant to bee a PR stunt, but he didn't tell us anything apart from corporate BS.

Where is the ambition, where is the mission statement? It's not there because it doesn't exist. If the owner is not interested in improving the club, is not totally into it, putting Watford first, then he is not good for the club. He needs to come clean and state his true intentions, reaffirm what he's doing and the plan to achieve it. If Gino does something like that, I think he'll win over quite a few supporters, but if he remains as tight lipped as ever, then the resentment towards the Pozzo's will only continue to grow.

 

Pretty much hit the nail on the head. As you know there was a thread about the biggest mistake, however on further thought, their biggest mistake was not learning from the past mistake(s) and compounding them. We all make mistakes in many areas of life, it's what makes us adult, by using past experiences and resilience to right a wrong and not repeat the same mistake again.

Whether you think the biggest mistake was signing Gray or re-appointing QSF is irrelevant if that is the only time it happens, not all clubs get all transfers or managerial appointments right.

What grates me most is that Pearson aside, since Silva, it's clear the club have appointed a yes man that won't complain to much with interference from above and more importantly from within. The continuous failure to sign a top level central defender in every transfer window from at least January 2017 is unforgivable, they took their eye off the ball because they have it stuck in their heads that resale value of defenders are low while missing the point that not being in the PL is worse than not making a profit on a good defender. But we all suspect that the real problem for too many years that there is a toxic influence in the dressing room, until that boil on the club's arse has been lanced we are going nowhere in a forward direction.

I don't blame Xisco, he's been brought in to do the club's bidding. The only thing I can think of is that Gino goes to bed every night wishing he'd sold Deeney to Leicester in 2016.

 

Get on some social media groups and there is the blinkered group who believe we have had it worse with the likes of the red helmet, then the other side that can see what’s slowly becoming of the pozzo regime.
I shall put this question towards the Alberta hornets group and get back with the responses.
My opinion is to Gino, thanks for the memories but time to sell up and go home help your old man run your true love udinese.
As for xisco he’d be better suited as an assistant he seems to of galvanized these over paid millionaires with fresh fun training but is out his depth tactically.
If Gino was to sell it’s not going to be for chump change so we would be handed over to someone with ambition and deep pockets I’d hope.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I'd argue Ivic wasn't a yes man, which obviously ended in tears as he spoke out about the recruitment and didn't let the players take the p1ss. The football was awful, but with hindsight, it's not really much different from what's being served up under Mr Jokey Fun, the players best mate, aside from his initial bounce.

All owners make bad decisions, but Gino has coasted along thinking that English football must be the same as Serie A. His biggest mistake though is not only in poor recruitment, but specifically in not bothering to really look at players and see if they have backbone, fight and will to win. We have assembled a team on paper that looks decent, but is 80% full of bottlers or players who don't care if they win, lose, play or rot in the reserves.

 

Isnt it usual for us to play better when fans are in the ground? Maybe we would be doing better points wise if the fans were at the ground. Its interesting that the team's slide down the PL was after the covid restart. Maybe Watford FC needs fans at grounds badly for an extra percentage success. Just a thought.

 

True but that's an over-simplified comparison of course. It implies all they had to do was "not spunk away the money" and we'd happily sit as a prem club forever. What it effectively suggests is that they should have secured their new found wealth and sold us once they got promoted, stuck the money in the bank and enjoyed a fantastic retirement. Actually that's exactly what I would have done ! We were always going to be relegated one day, and all it would take was a few poor decisions, which have come in spadefuls over the last 2 years.

Football means far too much to many people on this and other forums. We are still higher in the leagues than we should be (more larger clubs below us than smaller teams above us) and we are still higher than we were when the Pozzo's bought us.

 

What does it matter what anyone thinks about Pozzo? We don't get a chance to vote him out or overthrow him in some other way. A question for those who want him gone: what are you actually doing to get Pozzo out - apart from posting on here and congratulating each other for sharing the same opinion, which is, frankly, pathetic

 

There are three common denominators here:-
The owners, the fans and Troy Deeney, all three have been here since the Pozzos took over!
The owners run WFC as a business to make money
the Fans follow their beloved team in many cases inc mine for a lifetime
Troy Deeney was in the right place at the right time and has done extremely well out of it!

The owners will sell for as much at the most opportune time for them one day!
The fans will remain until they are too old to attend the games or operate/ add to social media!
Troy Deeney will retire with too much money, too much time on his hands and too many hangers on!
We live to fight another day/season
Amen.

 

This is always the argument of an idiot. It would be like Boris coming out and saying Covid isn't as bad as the black death.

 

Udinazi?

No man, you da nazi!

 

It's funny the people who make this point are usually the ones who think it's every fan's duty to go to games, sing and cheer on the players, even when losing, to help them have in this moment a good feeling.

Of course we can't execute a corporate coup or trigger a clause in the ownership to get him out, but we can make our feelings known. Sure, there are Glazers and Ashleys of this world who put down such deep roots you aren't getting them out, but Pozzo is a pragmatist. He has no ties to Watford and already washed his hands of Granada. It might well be he's already thinking of a way out. 20,000 people calling him a **** every home game until he does, might just accelerate the process.

 

We've had our best home form ever without fans in the ground

 

I’ve often thought about ‘how is the best way to get out points of view properly across?’ but the truth is that the pandemic entirely insulates them - as the only dissent the get is on a forum they don’t read and comments on Twitter which they can ignore. They would have to actively go out and source the discontent - and why would they?

I think there’s also an arrogance about them running the club. We are just fans so how on earth could we possibly have any idea how to make better choices and decisions than them?!

In a perfect world, with no pandemic, and with owners willing to properly listen - it needs a series of fan forums. One a week, for a month...so plenty of fans have a chance to get their voices heard. If you’ve got a question, you get to ask it...and once answered, the moderator returns to you and asks ‘are you happy with that response?’ And you get a right of reply to the answer. Because that’s where the problem lies - the questions are vetted and the answers are obfuscated...and they move on. And it gives the impression that they are putting themselves up for honest debate whilst being open and transparent. But they are not.

And those attending shouldn’t be made to feel scared of asking questions, as Duxbury and Deeney clearly made them feel at previous events. Yes they have a right to answer questions as they see fit - but they have to recognise the place from which the questions come. If someone asks a Troy why he doesn’t score from open play, or questions the squads desire, don’t get on your high horse - but think ‘Why do fans have these questions? What’s making them ask it?’

Until they are willing to listen and have a properly open forum, it won’t change.

 

I saw a group of Watford Twitter last night blaming Miles Jacobson for the fans reaction due to the fact that it's 'easy' to do well in FM.

It had set fans expectations too high.

Let that sink in, expecting to perform against the team 19th in the Championship after 5 years in the PL was too high an expectation.

 

One of the issues of living in the modern era, in the time before Twitter people like that would shout at a postbox and no one would take notice.

 

I think the way this forum has gone in recent years is symptomatic of what has been happening in society at large. Things not going well? Let's blame someone for it and defend our position without entertaining the idea our own perspective might be one-sided or might even be wrong. Heels are dug in on both sides, people get frustrated and angry, accusations and insults follow. Brexit? The government's handling of covid? BLM? Trump? This forum? All the same albeit in various degrees of scale. All with social media and being stuck in lockdown on & off over the last ten months adding fuel to the flames. Just take this this thread as an example - anyone who doesn't agree wholeheartedly with the spittle-flecked rage of the OP's opinion is branded an outlying troll.

Outside of whatever argument some people get entrenched in, on here or in the wider world, the majority have a less polarised opinion one way or the other and don't want to get pulled in to something that makes them angry. I think I've become one of them. I rarely comment on this forum now. I've ignored some people on here. I still read many of the threads but rarely the matchday ones because I know the ranting continues - I've got more productive things to do.

As for the club? I've learnt since lockdown that I can live without committing time and money to following Watford. I don't see myself buying another season ticket whether we go up, down or stay in the championship. Since seeing the team in (ahem) 'action' at home to Cardiff back in November, I've watched us on the TV two, three times at most. Maybe I'd have watched us more if we were playing well, maybe not. I'll still be as passionate a fan but from a distance, buying the occasional ticket now and then.

Yes, the club's in a bit of a mess at the moment. Not in a Petchey or ITV Digital level of mess though. Never mind, we'll get over it at some point in the future, all part of supporting a club whose realistic level is probably somewhere mid-championship. We'll over-achieve for a few seasons, we'll under-achieve for a few seasons. We'll have good owners, we'll have bad owners & coaches, good players and bad players. Play exciting football and boring football. Just no point in getting angry about it when things take a downturn. My outlook is now 'Enjoy the good times and grin and bear the bad times, not much we can do about it either way, really!'

 

This post made me laugh.

The state of the club atm, we would not get 20,000 attending, more like 14,200 calling him a ****.

 

I don't think fans have a duty to do anything and, believe me, I probably spend more time moaning at the team than cheering it on. 20,000 people abusing him every week might make Pozzo decide that its time to move on, but hysterical comments on social media by a couple of dozen sulky blokes with bugger all else to do all day will, I suggest, have little impact