Play Off Final On Saturday

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by John Jonny Johnson, May 24, 2023.

  1. Markoa$

    Markoa$ Squad Player

    Fully expect us to be in a relegation battle next season. Wouldn’t be shocked to see us go down.
     
  2. Markoa$

    Markoa$ Squad Player

    He’s not allowed out this late. His mum and dad forgot to take his phone before bedtime.
     
  3. DaveWFC

    DaveWFC Five Star Man

    WGC is a no-go area for Watford fans now since we screwed their team out of a friendly a few years back. Their fans are nasty f*ckers. I'd get my head kicked in.

    Haven't been to Harry Potter world, though I was in one of the films a few years back. God, it was boring.
     
  4. lm_wfc

    lm_wfc First Team

    At least we've all got a team to support in the PL every week and reason to tune into MOTD.

    Silver linings
     
  5. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Even Palace and Bournemouth!

    Linker will be loving it all.

    Probably make up for the fact Leicester might go down.
     
  6. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    This is not just a promotion, this has propelled Luton into a different stratosphere to Watford. There is now probably over £300m between us and Luton.

    With our £130m, nicely created by our incompetent owner, and the £170m Luton are now guaranteed, who currently have no debt, it’s all gravy.

    The gulf between us and them is now massive. Cheers Gino.
     
    Pozzo Out and SkylaRose like this.
  7. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    All depends on how they spend it but suspect they will be wise.
     
  8. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Oh yes, parents still need to tuck him in bed with his Harry the Hornet plushie and read him a bedtime story. Then it's off to the land of fluffy clouds and rainbows.
     
    reg_varney likes this.
  9. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    It’s not all doom and gloom. We may be able to pick up some of their reserves on the cheap now as they are bound to upgrade.
     
  10. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    Yeah! Who ever is playing the scummer’s
     
    lm_wfc likes this.
  11. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Who won?
     
    I Blame Pozzo likes this.
  12. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    It's an odd thing really but appears just like the 2019 FA Cup Final, yesterday's play-off final never happened. Can't find a trace of it anywhere.

    I suggest we all just move on.
     
  13. Aberystwyth_Hornet

    Aberystwyth_Hornet Squad Player

    Everything we are not, with a manager we treated badly. Will need to avoid all news channels for at least 48 hours.
     
  14. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    I think Gino deserves a bit of credit here, after flailing around with 18 different managers in 10 years he finally landed on a good one!
     
  15. NWH

    NWH Academy Graduate

    Some small part of me is pleased.

    Luton getting promoted with a fraction of our resources whilst being managed by a guy we sacked earlier this season has to be a wake up call for Gino. It's the ultimate humiliation, the ultimate rebuke of his decision making in the last few years.
     
    3000 likes this.
  16. Saliva

    Saliva Academy Graduate

    Let’s not forget he sacked Sean Dyche straight away who went on to considerably bigger better things.
     
    NWH likes this.
  17. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    No one was that bothered or surprised by that though.

    And we did not too badly ourselves generally.

    Other managers have done well since leaving us too.

    The Edwards situation is very different- particularly when you consider who he has gone to and achieved whilst we struggle in mid table .
     
  18. Sahorn

    Sahorn Reservist

    Spot on.
    I just feel sick.

    What a total embarrassment, especially after our public pronouncements about supporting Edwards through thick and thin etc

    And the football world will never let us forget.
     
    NWH likes this.
  19. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    It's quite normal for new owners to bring their man in when they take a club over, and besides, with the players we had at the time, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to entrust them to Sean Dyche! Obviously Pozzo ain't gonna be feeling as annoyed as we are about the scum, but will the penny finally drop that the issue at the club isn't the head coaches maybe he should start sticking by them? Oh, what am I saying, of course not!
     
    WillisWasTheWorst and wfc4ever like this.
  20. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Totally agree - why I say there weren’t too many complaints about Dyche going .

    I don’t think Pozzo ever saw Edwards as a long term option .

    Only Duxbury did.

    I doubt the former will change in any way .

    Same for fans who want instant success and demand change if it doesn’t happen .
     
  21. Loyalhornet

    Loyalhornet Reservist

    It is for now . But they will have to spend a large amount of that in premier league wages/transfer fees /getting a ground that is fit for purpose. They will also have to deal with some ego /big time Charlie issues if they are to have a chance of staying up . I expect they will go for more of the Norwich /Huddersfield /Cardiff approach and not spend significantly . Where are those teams now ? Maybe this is wishful thinking but this doesn’t necessarily mean the gulf will last for long . I think they may have gone up too quickly to be honest .
     
    HornM25 likes this.
  22. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    While clearly this isn't a bad thing for them (apart from Derby, it's never 'too early to go up'), it's a bit of a false economy to say it's worth £170m to them as some of that will witter away immediately and a lot of it they'll need to spend just to be competitive next season
     
    Lubaduck likes this.
  23. Lubaduck

    Lubaduck First Year Pro

    We shall just have to suck it up for time being and accept that they will enjoy their summer .
    But it will soon be August and the start of the new season and I really can't see Luton's "industrial"
    style of football troubling too many sides .
    Given that they will in all likelihood be given a good shoo-in week in week out I wonder what will happen first?. The current incumbent at Watford to be sacked or the morons that follow LT screaming for RE to be sacked after 9 defeats and a draw in their first 10 matches ?
     
  24. Lubaduck

    Lubaduck First Year Pro

    And when they come back down they won't have the lowest wage bill in the Championship, they will have one of the biggest and this is what the parachute money will be spent on .
    Most teams unless they are being bankrolled get in a dilly of a pickle financially after relegation.
     
  25. Moosegasm

    Moosegasm Reservist

    I didnt know Karmic Schadenfreude was even a thing until Rob Edwards took Luton to the PL after Gino sacked him.
    1. This is total humiliation for Gino. To sack a manager who then gets your tiny brokeass rival promoted months later is off the scale of incompetence. The man is a complete idiot. If he wasn't the son of his father, he'd be flipping burgers in McDonalds.
    2. Rob Edwards talking about Watford, Forest Green and Luton: 'The one thing I will say is the common denominator between Forest Green and Luton is really really good people, good plan, top players, honest people'. Clearly a reference to Scot and Gino.
    3. Rob would never have got us promoted. Troy, Duxbury and Gino between them have created an unmanageable, debt laden zombie club with no spirit or soul whatsover just a money extracting, player trading platform with questionable financial antics.
    4. As no one would be stupid enough to buy our debt the only solution is for Gino to return to Barcelona, replace Scott and set up a new club structure and hierarchy more consistent with what Watford fans believe to be our core values.
    5. Gino should never show his beady eyes in Hertfordshire ever again.
    6. My body count is now 58. I took a brief haitus after getting vaxxxed, the haitus turned into a sabbatical and then into a lengthy trek through the desert. I even started to doubt myself but then the rains came, flowers bloomed and multiple oases appeared like Luther Blissett goals in the 1980s. At least one hornet is still delivering some end product! Over to you Gino you car crashing into a burning trainwreck failed little caeser disaster zone.
     
    SkylaRose likes this.
  26. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    You could sort of say the same about us in that regard in 98/99. When we won the Nationwide Division Two title in 1998 I never dreamt we would be anywhere near the playoffs come May the following year. What we did that season was nothing short of a miracle. We had a squad full of decently good lower division players who performed way above their level (largely thanks to the brilliant management of GT and KJ). When we beat Bolton at Wembley I think we were all in dream land. I knew we would go straight back again but just being there was worth the ride. We also did not spend above our mean, but did manage to pay off a large debt owed to Jack Petchy. We brought in Neilson from Spuds and the Icelandic Warrior Helguson. We went back down the following season with no disgrace and came close to coming back up the following season.

    Luton are now in that same era. They have a squad of average players who will (hopefully) get battered for the majoirty of next season - but they will probably be smart with their spending. It's been said time and time again on here, but Gino lost all sense of control over our finances when we finished 11th and were knocking on Europe's door for most of that season. What he failed to do was upgrade an aging squad espeically in defense. We had a decent midfield at the time, and maybe needed another striker to replace Deeney/Gray. That was not impossible to do. Instead, he neglected to the squad and we fell away badly. We have continued to fall away and are getting lower and lower, with only slight upgrades to the side. It's a real shame looking back on where we where in 2014/15 to where we are now.
     
    Lubaduck likes this.
  27. Steve Leo Beleck

    Steve Leo Beleck Squad Player

    Where is this quote from? Not saying he didn't say it but only place I can see this "reported" is that guy that gets his kicks out of pretending to be a journalist on Twitter.
     
    wfc4ever likes this.
  28. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I think they’ll have a chance of staying up. No way did I expect Bournemouth to stay up but they did. There’ll be a lot of small fish in the Prem next season. Burnley, Bournemouth, Luton, Sheff Utd. There’s always a lame duck from this season’s middle pack as well. There could be a group of 5 strugglers. They just need to finish above three of those sides. They are together as a unit and their home ground will be an advantage to them. No one will want to go there.
     
  29. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    I thought I'd be royally pi**ed off this morning but I'm not. It dawned on me how it must have felt to be a lu*on fan for the last 20 years, Twenty f***ing years! It may do us some good to be in their shadow for a while,

    Good luck to the inbreds.
     
  30. Moosegasm

    Moosegasm Reservist

    Post match press conference available on youtube. The key word in relation to scot and gino would appear to be 'honest'.
     
    Steve Leo Beleck likes this.
  31. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Everyone thinks a team promoted will do a Derby but none do.

    Some good points in there but typically fans want Troy back now to boost morale and motivate the squad !
     
  32. Robert Peel

    Robert Peel Squad Player

    I completely agree with points 1-5.
     
    K9 Hornet, Moosegasm and fuzzy73 like this.
  33. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    Would be brilliant if their opening fixture was Man City away. Talk about a baptism of fire to PL.
     
    Lubaduck likes this.
  34. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    I think we've all missed this to a certain degree. Welcome back Moosegasm :)
     
    Moosegasm likes this.
  35. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    Whether we care to admit, or like it, or not, they are an incredibly well run club who have gone from non league to the premier league in a relatively short period of time, on a shoe string budget and with zero debt. Yes they’ll need to spend about 5% of what promotion will bring them on ground improvements and no doubt some of their players will have promotion clauses that will easily be covered by a £100m+ windfall (wage bill currently £6m, so even if they double it then that’s not going to be an issue is it). Yes of course history has examples of clubs who go giddy at the sight of all the extra cash and gamble on trying to retain it, but nothing about how Luton have operated in the past decade suggests they’ll be one of them. There isn’t a rule that says getting promoted to the PL means you have to squander a very real and meaningful windfall. And of course parachute payments of £55m and then £35m help cover the higher wage bill if and when they do get relegated.
     

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