That time under Dyche was some of the worst football I’ve ever seen in the 40+ years I’ve been going.
Udinese's history pre-Pozzo is largely bouncing between Serie A and Serie B. Since Pozzo ownership they've pretty much been a mainstay at the top level, especially since Gino got involved.
Yeah it was gash. Though the fact he eventually got a tune out of that shower of ***** available to him is credit to his ability as a manager. Hodson, Iwelumo, ****inson, Yeates, Buaben, Loach, Mirfin..... Should have been relegated
We won about 7 away games in a row I think. Sean Murray looked like a future star .. Sordell was sold in January and some chap called Deeney moved up front . Interesting that we finished in the middle of 3 other PL clubs .. and Derby . 9 Leicester City 46 18 12 16 66 55 +11 66 10 Brighton & Hove Albion 46 17 15 14 52 52 0 66 11 Watford 46 16 16 14 56 64 −8 64 12 Derby County 46 18 10 18 50 58 −8 64 13 Burnley 46 17 11 18 61 58 +3 62
The Pozzo family's strategy behind buying Watford is, and always has been, to make more money. Whether through short term slave trading (aka player ownership), significant medium term interest paying loans or in the longer term selling all or some of their stake in the club for a profit at the right time for them. Much of what is done is as smart in business terms as it is abhorrent in respect to our football club. I agree with a lot of the sentiment in your post Nath. I will add though that I was born in the old maternity hospital in King Street just 400metres from the ground and grew up in the town. My relationship with the club is for life. Meanwhile the Pozzo's relationship with Watford is temporary. It will end when they perceive that the profit they can make from a sale of their business (their long term strategy) outweighs the money they can make from player sales and loan interest (the short and medium term strategies). Hang in there. This is your club.
I didn't know we could sign new a new owner and Leadership team in the January Transfer window. Excellent news.
So many quality away games, including the playoff game at Palace. I'd give anything to experience that atmosphere again, especially when Young scored. Plus the league was absolutely seething that we'd gone from relegation favourites to ruthless bullies. The arrogance and subsequent tears from Leeds in the final was absolutely scrumptious
One thing I hate about our fanbase is the lack of backbone. Most other Club fanbases would make it clear about the lack of support for the board. You can’t even boo a ***** performance these days without getting looks because “it might upset the players” and “we’re here to support through thick and thin”.. Fark that! Oh wait, we have Sam Ucko on Tw@tter , “the voice of WD18”, that will criticise the performance of the players but then immediately apologise for everything he’s said because of players ‘mental health’. It’s these very players that are ******* my mental health! Sh1t houses.
The 4-1 (?) win at promotion rivals Sheff Utd was particularly brilliant with Chris Eagles (who'd previously been on loan at Sheff Wed) scoring and celebrating in front of the Sheff Utd fans. We were on such a roll we'd have won the next away game at Leeds too if we hadn't gone down to 9 men after being 1-0 up. But then we might have achieved auto promotion and missed that PO SF win at CP and the PO final win at Cardiff so maybe better that we lost....
Maybe whilst being really disappointed at recent results and performances, most fans don't feel that The Board are failing them and it's only a vocal few who believe they should get the **** out ? I certainly feel they have made mistakes but have also brought us the second most successful period in our history and it is far more likely our prospects will nosedive rather than improve if they were to leave.
Quite right. We also would of missed out on a crashing header from Jay Dermitt who opened the scoring before we scored a pretty comical second goal then scoring one of the most easy to give penalties in the history of the PO Finals. We should of gone up as Champions that season. Some of our attacking play was a joy to watch. Just such a shame we were decimated with injuries to King and Co. making a quick return to the Championship almost a certainty. But hey, at least Paul Robinson got to lob Foster.
This times a farkin 1000 This isn't a conference side with lads doing other jobs. It's the big league, if you can't handle the pressure then you're not meant to be there. Ekong deletes his twitter and its all "poor William". He's a clown who decided his stellar form warranted a YouTube career. It's about time this squad gets a massive dose of reality to be honest
The backspin on that 2nd goal at Cardiff was fantastic. I was directly in line with the goalline and couldn't believe the ball seemed to be sucked back into the goal. All following a throw (corner?) that should have been given to Leeds but was wrongly given our way. Very lucky goal in many way....but a brilliant moment.
Thing is with Aidy is that was his season. Everything fell into place, and he had a squad of leaders and mavericks that completely bought into his ethos. You watch the highlights of that game, and the psychological torture they put on Leeds started in the tunnel and it meant it was always going to be 90 minutes of total dominance. Shame it never worked for him afterwards, but from what I hear he is still a great coach respected by many. Perhaps that season was the only time he'd really have the group necessary to put into practice what he wanted to achieve
Soft as anything. All we hear is players making mistakes constantly, and having to apologise for their almost scandalous errors. And they lap it all up when our fans bend over and apologise back to them for being ‘mean’ to them on Social media. When have these players done anything right??? not just on the field, but off it too.. In fairness, at least the players have to guts to apologise (on some occasions)… Heard sweet f@ck all from Duxbury et al with regards to another shambolic transfer window for our defence.
The trouble is that their reality is completely different to most other realities. They do live the life of opulence,drive ridiculously expensive cars and live in wonderful locations. Most have done nothing but train for a professional career since the age of 6. In comparison to individual sports where only the top 60 make money,footballers CAN be mediocre and be as rich as Croesus. Rarely do they have any affinity to the club they play for. They do the best they can to further their own career but are usually looking for a better offer. This is modern football. Unpalatable but unlikely to change.
Couldn’t possibly say how many fans are fed up with the Pozzo’s now without a good ol’ poll but it appears that serious questions are being asked as to whether they’re the right people for this club. Would be nice to have a proper in-person fans forum where actual fans can ask the important questions.. the ones that both Duxbury & Giaretta have swerved by making sure that the club only selects the easy questions for their laughable Hive Live streamed interviews.
I know, and my points clearly weren't just about Munoz - they were about the coaches we've had in general, and the process we go through hiring and firing them.
They're certainly not the right people if we expect to become an established prem club. They just aren't rich enough which means that every £ we spend has to come off for us to compete ie like Dennis, unlike Rose, Kucka etc. There was a league table shared some time ago that showed we have the poorest or second poorest owners IIRC ? So if there's a billionaire ready to buy the club, I'd be very happy to see them sell, but I don't see buyers lining up, esp now with the uncertainty covid brings.
Yes the sad face of modern football. Add to that the predictability of the leagues each season, it's very easy to hate the game.
I do. But as ST ( sorry forget number) said on another thread,I love Watford. I was born in Garston and I'm stuck with Watford. I can't stop caring anymore than I can hack my own leg off. Bit of a ****** but there we have it! Happy New Year everyone!
Lots of empty seats yesterday, not just at Vicarage Road but elsewhere. I'm sure mostly because of Covid but it's not a surprise apathy is setting in. Football in general is in a real mess. Greed from the big organisations in charge who cannot think past the dogma of striving for perpetual growth, or see that the dominance of two or three super teams is eventually going to kill interest. Postponements and the opaque rules about what should and shouldn't lead to a game being called off is now impacting the integrity of the competition but the pressure is on to finish on time because of the absurd winter World Cup on the horizon. A case of a game that has grown so fat cannibalising itself that pretty much everyone bar the supporters of the top two or three are growing dissatisfied with the 'product'.
I'm the same though no longer a ST holder. I get far too emotionally involved in our performance and score but really couldn't care less about any other results unless they help us. Really don't care who wins the league or finishes top 4. Never watch MoTD anymore unless it's one of the very few occasions when we have won. Never bother to watch the big live games on sunday showcasing the top 4 clubs.
I think the reality is if Gino (somehow) sold up there is an 85% chance we go back to being a mediocre Championship club. Look at Burnley, they were taken over by Americans using a leveraged buyout and there a is real possibility they still drop this season. The flip side is Gino got us into a fantastic position then squandered it by making a series of bizarre decisions that were entirely unnecessary. We are obviously punching above our weight, yet at the same time that doesn’t make it any less frustrating when bizarre and avoidable decisions are made.
The more I look back on it, the more I wish the top 6 clubs went ahead and fked off and joined the Super League. With them away, at least we have and all other clubs have a reason to be in the Top Flight of English football and have something to play for.
There are many fair points here and of course they are business men. However the medium term strategy of lending the club money for their own oversized return is not supported by the filed accounts over the past years. As at June 20 - of the £95m of debt only £8m was from the Pozzos and at an interest rate of around 3% Maybe the June 21 accounts when published might show a change.
I had this conversation with my brother in law a while back. He's a proper armchair Arsenal fan, and couldn't understand why I'm not in the least bit interested in watching other games. Asked me, "do you even like football?". I told him that after being a season ticket holder since the mid 90's, having dragged my arse to 500+ games that I have no enjoyment of football other than 3 points for Watford. Everything else is just noise I do wish I could be a casual fan, and it's why I won't be pushing my son to support Watford. I thought I wouldn't give a fark about the result yesterday, but once again it left me livid.
They swerved them at the in-person events too. And Duxbury very obviously looked down upon the fans that were there for asking difficult questions - so chose to look at his phone 99% of the time instead as Deeney started swearing at fans.
