Cogs/clappers/gino Backers Roll Call

Point remains though. Petchey gets no credit for two stands because he sold Dyer and Furlong. Pozzo sells Richarlison, Lukebakio etc, ramps ups huge external debt and builds a Meccano stand and people argue he’s wonderful. Some of our fans are strange.

 

Not really sure why the inferiority complex about the SEJ still persists on here. The front of few rows are possibly a bit like that due to being thrown up after promotion in 2015 but the rest used perfectly normal football stand construction methods. Metal frame, concrete terracing, cantilever roof. Certainly not temporary in any way. The company that built it (GE Events) had a lot of experience in constructing temporary stands but had moved into more standard constructions when Pozzo gave them the work. Look at pictures of any new stand when it was being built outside of the top echelons in England in the past 20 years and you’ll see they’re the same.

I’m not knocking the points you both make in the rest of your posts - the SEJ being rebuilt was a good return for 3 years of Pozzo ownership, less so for 10. And yeah, it seems since then only the corporate bits of the stadium have had any money spent on them (meaningless murals and a couple of corner infills aside).

 

Not quite right. The VR stand was built in the summer of 93 but was not ready for the first few games of the season when fans had to relocate elsewhere. Gerard Lavin scored the first goal in front of the stand the day it opened in September 93.

 

where’s that rumour come from? Is there a source please?

 

Would be very interested to read if you can cut and paste? I’m no longer a member. I have no doubt Gino speaks to his Dad on a regular basis but as I understand it WFC is all on Gino and this decision especially so.

A few years ago Udinese went through a rough spell and the fans were on their backs. Pozzo senior reorganised things and put together a team of executives to take things forward. His daughter Magda has a senior role and is very well regarded. I gather Udinese is not a one-man fiefdom in the way WFC sometimes is.

 

I do try to say “under investigation for money laundering” when discussing our good friend which is factual!

 

I think the word speculation there is key. While I am sure Giampaolo Pozzo has an interest in his son's business and how it's doing I really don't think he's anywhere near close enough to WFC have an opinion on the head coach. At a stretch I'd say Pozzo Snr would have encouraged his son to do what he thought was right, go with the courage of his convictions. Even that is speculation but nothing I've heard suggests Pozzo Snr has anything to do with the running of WFC and hasn't had since he handed the reins to his son a number of years ago. WFC is all on Gino.

 

I think in the 90s, whilst we were pretty rubbish, the club still had a soul. It was trying, albeit not that successfully, to rebuild something akin to the glory days of GT & SEJ's tenure in the 80s. However I think that has been ditched by the current owners in the pursuit of money and stability in the promised land of the Premiership. The mercenary attitude towards managers shows they'll stop at nothing (apart from looking at their own faults, that is) to get us to a place where our annual aim is to avoid relegation, which is not much fun really. Despite the very occasional victory against them, we can't compete with the big 6 throwing money around like confetti in order to prevent any other team 'doing a Leicester' ever again. So yes, I agree, let them **** off to the European Super League - with no FA Cup, no League Cup for them either - and reset the league pyramid. And we should reset to GT's values as a starting point.

 

I had a fight with Lavin when he was a lodger at my parents house

 

Fair enough. I last went into that stand for a summer exhibition, pro celeb match where Max from Eastenders scored a penalty. It was very basic behind, with portacabins as food outlets.

In any case, it's the bare minimum you'd expect for 10 years of ownership and over a billion of turnover.

The fact is, people keep praising our stadium, which is fine for where we are, 10th in the Champ, but for where we were and where our owners seem to think we need to be, it's an embarrassment.

Owning the club for 10 years, you don't deserve adulation for making one basically sensible decision in adding a 4th side to the ground, which has probably already paid off in Match day revenue.

 

Be careful what you wish for. I've heard other parties that were interested in buying us in 2012 were actually looking to make The Vic a one-sided ground. Thankfully we ended up with the Pozzos, the only owners in world football who know how to get stands built.

 

I'm not sure the club was trying terribly hard to rebuild the 1980s glory years in the 1990s – certainly not under Petchey, who insisted that the club be self-financing and was extremely reluctant to put in any of his own vast fortune. (He was richer than Elton John, remember). And that was fair enough because he was absolutely transparent about what he was doing.

But the club withered. Anyone remember them playing crowd noise over the tannoy? Extremely embarrassing. The hideous RCI sponsors logo (even uglier than Stake), which was one of Petchey's companies. Petchey showed no real interest in getting promoted to Division One at a time when it would have been achievable. He wouldn't have needed to do a Jack Walker/Blackburn level of investment but when we look back now if he'd owned the club in order to pursue glory and nurture its soul he had the means to do that. He didn't invest in the training facilities at a time when other clubs were doing so. And he sold two valuable players so the mandatory redevelopment of the stadium. He didn't *choose* to build those stands, the Taylor Report required him to do it. All of that is quite fair enough, in a way, because Petchey never promised to do anything other than force the club to pay its own way. Things only got eggy when the team was in real danger of getting relegated under Roeder and he cobbled together the finances for a few loans and a couple of astute signings to keep us up. Roeder then worked near miracles – albeit in a pretty dull way – to get the team to within touching distance of the play-offs. Remember when Jackett was in charge for a year and the most Petchey would stretch to when we were crying out for goals was Keith Scott on loan. Admittedly, the Elton John-led consortium was just around the corner and Petchey didn't want to spend a penny more than necessary by that point, but still.

The erosion of the club's soul lately is a different thing. It just feels like they've run out of road. Their USP, their competitive advantage has been wiped away as the top clubs in the Premier League gallop off into the distance and are even further away from us now than they were in 2012-15 when we had a chance of mixing among them. All that's left at the moment is a husk of debt and a group of talent-spotters whose best idea amounts to taking a fist full of notes to a car boot sale and hoping to stumble across a gem no one else noticed.

 

Fair point. Seems I had the rose-tinted specs on!

 

Thanks for posting this. Just a touch before my time, so it’s really interesting to read.

 

Thing is, I was a teenager until the mid-90s and so everything to do with Watford was exciting. The first away matches with friends, rather than my Dad, on the coach. The first away match I drove my first car to. The feeling of the entire week revolving round the game. Going to Prenton Park, Blundell Park, Bramall Lane, Fratton Park etc for the first time – the performances and results mattered intensely but they weren't the be-all and end-all. There was more to it.

I think the game has become quite a clinical experience. The grounds and pitches are undoubtedly better but the game has become homogeneous. From the soporific Premier League anthem, the stadiums that all look very similar, even something as basic as the transfer window. Back in the 1990s there was that potential thrill of suddenly signing a player out of the blue right up to the end of March.

There were quite a lot of things that compensated for the fact Watford weren't very good between 1989 and 1997.

 

One of the issues with Petchey was that when he bought the club from Elton, he inherited a sum due from the club to owner. Elton had never intended it to be paid back and thought it was being waved as part of the deal. Somehow it wasn’t and Petchey then insisted that it should be repaid to him at a time when the club really didn’t have funds to do so.
I think I’ve recalled that correctly ??

 

I would put good money on short odds that Papa has schooled his boy during the International Break.
Now, the history of my bets is as one with our own form
Bets: Today @ 14.06 at Newmarket. Horse: Skysail. 27 runners
My friend is the owner. Worth a punt at E/W. Odds are 7/1 at the moment.

 

You are right. The loan from EJ was not separated from the deal to buy his shares. An error by his financial team. Petchey was astute enough to notice, keep quiet and demand payment as if it was his money. As they say before signing, read the contract.
GT said at the time that the most expensive outgoing was to an 80yr old who will never play for us.

 

Finished 13/27.
Might be better if it were between a large bap with lettuce, onion and tomato.
Oh well.

 

Correct.
Apart from ‘waived’.

 

I enjoyed reading your thoughts about Jack Petchey, EnjoytheGame, and agreed with your sentiments about him. However, did not Elton John buy Watford back from Jack Petchey before Kenny Jackett was appointed as manager from 1996-97 (when Graham Taylor was the General Manager) and before Keith Scott was signed briefly on loan in 1997?

 

Thanks for the correction, WillisWasTheWorst, that the Vicarage Road Stand was opened in September 1993. I took the information that the Vicarage Road Stand was first used in April 1995 from Wikipedia. I thought that the date seemed strange, but I was not able to check it anywhere and I did not remember the date because I was not living in the United Kingdom and was not able to attend Watford's games at that time.

The incorrect date does not negate my point that the Graham Taylor (formerly Rous) Stand was opened in 1986 before the Jack Petchey era nor Jumblina's and my point that the two stands, which were built while Petchey was in charge, were mostly financed by the sales of Dyer and Furlong.

 

I don't see what the point about how the stands were funded has any bearing in the first place, let alone why it bears repeating.

 

The point was that Petchey should not be given any credit for building the two stands because he sold Watford's best two players (at that time) to finance the construction rather than putting any of his own money into the club and (as EnjoytheGame mentioned) he was required to build these stands because of the Taylor Report. Apologies if I did not explain the point clearly in my previous comment, but Jumbolina made the point succinctly in his earlier post.

 

No. GT came back as general manager in spring 1996. Elton and his consortium didn’t take full control until spring 1997. You may remember the celebrations before the 0-0 draw with Bury in spring 97 when bury clinched promotion and we were stuck in mid table when GT came on the pitch and confirmed that Elton was “coming home”.

 

Yes, fine, but you’re inventing things in your own head. Do you know it happened or are you guessing?

 

Seriously ? Why bother pointing out a typo ? You’re not marking homework.

 

Do you think Pozzo funded the East stand with his pocket money?

At least Petchey left us at pretty close to net zero. Pozzo has gambled our future for his ego and his own interests.

 

I don’t like to see forum standards slipping.
(It was a joke.)

 

No smoke without fire.
Gino was in Italy, meets with his Father and that dog turd DoF. I suspect it was for a dressing down.
Edwards has gone, DoF keeps his job.

I would guess that Pozzo Snr has a very close eye, but hands off at the moment role regarding Watford.
Watford FC is a subsidiary of the Pozxo business collection.
Yes, he is giving his Son a lot of rope, but as in many businesses, at some point someone will step in and change the culture before it is too late. Unfortunately, that boat may have sailed.
Another poster was right. Udinese did go through a turbulent time. The club made major changes and now appears to be running well.
Perhaps Pozzo Snr daughter will get a role at Watford if her Father grows tired of the negative vibe at Watford.
If a press release that states that Gino doesn't care what the fans think or the media thinks is true, then change may come sooner than we think.
I must stay the arguments over what stand is better isca poor show and deflects from the dross on the pitch.
The squad is just not good enough for the Championship