Why Watford Have Collapsed Under Marco Silva

I agree completely. Games are closer. League is closer. 8 more games a season.

With 10 games to go anyone from 16th upwards can usually still make the play offs. Anyone from 14th down can still be relegated.

Chance of giant killings rather than being the slain giant.

It is great being in the top league especially with the finances it brings in, but the Championship is a great deal more entertaining!!!

 

The only benefit of being in the premier league is that we have a better chance of winning a cup as we have a better team. By every single other measure it's much better being in the championship (assuming we'd be one of the better teams....).

I reckon.

Edit: oh wait, I quite like being on match of the day. But I only watch it when we win. Which is hardly ever, so I wouldnt miss it much.

 

Even motd for us is usually just the goals at the end plus a few comments about the other team. Only thing motd gives us is more than 1 gantry level angle of the goals.

 

Sliva is finished at Watford. It is only a matter of time before he walks or is sacked.
When he joined the club l had high hopes, but he wanted to leave after 9 games and it is alleged that he told the players that he was off and who he wanted to take with him. Players lost faith and trust in him and don't care for him . It is no wonder that the team has been totally crap since then.
The players are not interested at all. Relegation is a real possibility for the team under the current cloud that hangs over Watford.
No one will sign for us during the atmosphere at present. The fans, board and players are unhappy. The manager wants to go. We look like an embarrassment to football.
I do not have the answers to the problems, Watford owe me nothing as a fan, but l am fed up at reading all the crap and seeing the club become a laughing stock during the past few seasons.
Why does this happen? We are in the Premiership. Millions pouring in from the EPL and television, yet we seem to **** it up. We have survived up till now, will we survive this season?
We will run out of luck soon, that is certain.

 

Most of what you have written is conjecture - it may hold some truth, it may not. I suspect parts of it are and some less so. But I want to ask you about the bits in bold...
Bold Point 1. How do you know this? Although it may be easy to say footballers aren't bright etc etc, I am certain that they have a certain level of professional pride in their livelihood. I'm sure that they are acutely aware that by downing tools and getting relegated does nothing for their standing in the game or will attract many welcoming offers of further employment. I just do not believe that the squad are that bothered by the Silva/Everton thing, even if they may have been to begin with. Injuries and defensive frailties are crippling us, along with Silva's inability to adapt to that quick enough. He needs to change that.

Bold Point 2. How on earth are we messing it up? Where do you expect us to be? We are in our 3rd consecutive season and as things stand, likely heading towards a 4th (although, I agree thats open to debate with some). I think its more a point that progress in the PL for a club our size is always going to be achingly slow. And fans perhaps just aren't as happy to wait the pace that it happens and want faster results. Its not ideal to continually have a season divided into two halves of good and bad form and that leads people to get carried away both ways when we are in certain patches of form. So I ask again - where do you think we should rightfully be if you think we have ****ed it up so far?

Silva was an idiot. A massive one. Anyone could see that he should have distanced himself but he didn't. Whether that leads to him leaving in the summer or not, no one knows. I personally think he won't. But I base that on no more fact than the fans who think he will, granted. I do think now is a time for the club to be together though.

 

I don't buy any of that. Silva has messed up it is true - he was stupid to think of moving so soon (Rodgers springs to mind). However he stayed and I believe he wants to succeed not fail. I do not rate him now as much as I did before Everton but still reckon he is a sight better than Mazzarri. I think he will stay till the end of the season. Pozzos do not like changing mid year.
The players are not interested at all ???? Really - what is your evidence for that - the second half against Southampton? No - they have been knocked out of the early season form by Silva's stupidity and injuries but I still reckon our squad is as good as anything mid table in the Prem and we will survive.
New players now would only be worthwhile if they are truly better than we have - I think we have a better chance of recruitment in the summer.
As for the club being a laughing stock - where do you get that from. Some stupid reporters go on about managerial changes - although we are not nearly as bad as some. I bet most of the 80 or so clubs below us would swap places in a heartbeat.
I am grateful to the Pozzos for what they have done for us and am enjoying even the difficulties that come with top flight football in the Prem.

 

At halftime v. Southampton, Silva was on the brink. Had there not been the 2nd half turnaround, I think he would have been gone. I think he is one bad result away from the trigger being pulled.

 

At half time against Saints and 2-0 down Gino came out from their hospitality area on his own, first out back into the Directors' seats.

Alone, quietly, reflective and intently staring at the tunnel.

I was wondering what he was thinking, what had been said.

He sees everything and gives nothing away. He is a class act.

 

But it is starting to feel like time we heard from him again. We're a needy bunch and I don't think we've heard a peep since 2014. Duxbury and Giraldi have ended up contradicting each other in public within a few weeks. Another head coach is sinking and seems intent on damaging the club on the way down by stoking controversy on transfers, injuries...and god knows what else he'll find to whine about next.

 

Of course players will sign for us, the wages we pay are immense.

 

I took the view the press give of Watford when l used the term laughing stock. It has been stated in this thread before.
I agree, many would swop places with us, but how we handle ourselves in the Premiership is poor. That is my opinion and this site is for opinions..
A manager sets the tone in any industry. Silva set a poor example over the Everton situation, but the relationship seemed poor with the board before Everton came calling. This is why l feel the players are lacking interest. It appears that Silva thought Watford would not block his wish to leave and became too confident of his worth.
We seem to have a terrible PA with the public and media. Why is that? It is not this year, but for the past few years. We just seem to get it wrong. Granted, we are not kissing the ass of the media as Bournemouth seem to do, but we come across poorly. This what l meant by messing up.
I do not completely follow your idea that the professional pride will save the day. Football is just another job to some. Bus driver, builder or City broker. If your boss is leaving (if you like them) or has his head turned , you will do your job, but it could be said that you may just do the basics to get through. This is a natural reaction to begin with, but it will not last. It is how long it lasts for it the issue. The players need to get their 5hit together or the Championship awaits.

 

Not so compared to some other teams, but l take your point.

 

Eh? He’s a class act because he finished lunch and sat on his own?

 

The final para could equally refer to keeping

The final para could equally refer to keeping Silva in charge for another game.

 

Gobbled his lunch & felt slightly flatulent?

 

This is a huge moment for Gino.

Performing in the next 15 games like the last 15 will see us, almost certainly, relegated.

And yet the last thing he wants to do is fire Silva.

A replacement unfamiliar with the Prem is v high risk & Pozzo wouldn’t pay the blackmail wages a FSA type would require.

Gino will also be keen to shed the (rather unfair) hire ‘em, fire ‘em label which he has acquired. He’s one of the most strategic people in English football.

I wonder if he didn’t see hiring Silva as his GT moment. Selecting a bright, young, progressive manager to take the team to the next level, over a number of seasons.

The ideal is to keep Silva in place & avoid relegation but his instincts will be to be to take positive measures in a crisis.

That’s what his father will have taught him.

Big dilemma!

The obvious way forward is for Pozzo & Silva to have a major clear the air conversation.

I just wonder whether Gino can find that within him. He is the boss which should be respected.

A lot of conjecture here but Gino makes me think of a former colleague, a patrician Italian who had inherited his business.

I remarked that the boardroom table was a new, round one & asked how people would know where the head of the table was.

My friend simply didn’t understand the question.

 

The directors don't eat anything at HT. Certainly not lunch or are you trying to be funny?

I would expect Gino to remain dignified, well mannered and intelligent even when he eats though.

The last line stood on its own.

 

I really don’t get the reference though?

 

I have heard him speak on a couple of occasions and he speaks with great clarity,authority and purpose.
I would endorse totally your sentiment.

If it were Gino's table you would not need anyone to be seated.
The way the man carries himself would tell everyone who was in charge.
He has charisma.
The only other person I can compare him to that I have met is Nadal.

 

Have you ever met Roger?

I haven't but I was behind Rod Stewart at security at LHR.

A great sport &, when invited to take off his belt by the security fellow, Rod broke into a spontaneous striptease.

 

Do you think we are in a relegation battle now?
Stoke - the bottom 3 team that were six points below us could go level with us if they beat us on Wednesday week

 

Honestly, no. Because there are too many teams between us and the bottom 3 regardless of points so there are 10 teams in more danger than us as it stands. Maybe I’m an optimist in saying that and I can definitely agree that we will be in trouble if this continues. But right now, at this moment, no.

 

Sky Sports even considered Everton still in the relegation battle so we very much are.

 

I admire your optimism. I would liken it to the person who has fallen off a 20 storey building and claims he is OK as he has only fallen 15 floors so far. All the teams below us are closing the gap - and some very fast. I agree we might survive but to think we are not even in a relegation fight is hard to argue.

 

No but Mr IBB has on many occasions and says he is charming, if a little smug.I suppose he is entitled to be though!
Rod Stewart's son Alistair is at school with a lad at our club.
He sounds a bit of a wheeze by all accounts!

 

It was only a matter of time. All his own fault. Let's see what happens now. Garcia does not have a good record at all. 8 teams in 10 seasons.
Survival is a must.

 

Except,it seems, they do.

 

Excuse me asking IBB but I seem to have read somewhere you have a tennis connexion?

 

Not at all Sting!
I do indeed.
I am a Level 5 Master Performance Coach and LTA Tutor and was fortunate,through David 'Captain Pugwash' Evans to play full time tennis for four years.
I was ranked No.2 in the world in the 35 and overs ( albeit for three weeks and probably due to someone's puppy ruining the computer!)
Regards to Andy and Stewart!

 

Fantastic - quite some achievement

 

Yeah, but could you do it on a cold Tuesday night in Stoke?

 

It's Wednesday this season.