Was It All Worth It…

I remember when we announced our squad numbers in the summer of 2019, there were a lot of comparisons to Stoke, we had a lot of players on the books who on paper had no business being in the Championship (OK, many of those left at various points of the season, some without us playing a game), but, fortunately, the rest of the division was on its arse so we kind of strolled to promotion. Fast forward 2 years and we're no better off financially (and, crucially, without a wealthy backer like Stoke, no matter how incompetent they are, their billions are keeping Stoke somewhat competitive at this level), but having lost most of our players worth a carrot

 

There are some things which suggest Stoke are still a 'draw', like Alex Neil swapping an upwardly mobile Sunderland team for them...but is that because he genuinely thought Stoke have a better chance of promotion, or just because they chucked wads of cash at him?

 

Problem is, if your answer is no, then football isn’t worth it!

Because we’re not going to go to Europe. We might win a League Cup, fluke an FA Cup. Would that make it comprehensively worth it?

It’s unfortunate but it’s football, to completely establish yourself in the Prem for 10/15 year plus and win trophies at the same time to make the time worth it, is a near impossible task for us.

Hence why I pray everyday Red Bull decide they want to come to England!

 

Our average position in the league over our existence I believe is around 10th- 12th in the now championship, therefore we are exactly where we should be on that basis. if you have only supported us for 10 years then we aren’t in a good place but supporters of over 41 years will have had a great journey.

Although the current time is frustrating, there are lots of highs and lows still to come in all of our lifetimes, it’s what supporting WFC is all about!

 

We could have gone to Europe. It was in our hands. Had the club remained focused on it, we might have got there. We sacrificed it to lose 6-0 in a cup final. I didn’t enjoy the day out.

 

Utter piffle.

 

Question: Can one owner (barring an oil squillionaire) really elevate a small club far above its 'natural' position like Elton could back in the day? Stoke were the classic 'established Premier League club' until they weren't, Leicester even won the thing, and were looking firmly established yet are on the cusp of the bottom 3 right now, and even Everton who have been in the top flight probably longer than any of us have been alive have been looking in desperate trouble. Brentford and Brighton are certainly tremendously run clubs, but do they have a shelf life too?

 

I really didn’t enjoy the day out, promise.

 

It was in our hands, we were always neck and neck with Wolves, and we just didn't have the squad to see it out. Maybe if we'd lost earlier in the cup campaign we'd have done better in the league, but as it happened, our first choice players played a lot of football with injuries to our backups. Maybe if we'd have been more active in the transfer market in the summer of '18 we'd have done it too, but I don't think the players are to blame

 

Why, would you start supporting the team they bought instead?

 

All the success in the world is no consolation for banning Thermos flasks. Give us our club /flasks back Pozzo

 

Of course. It's recency bias to suggest otherwise, imo. Supporting a football club is all about moments. Moments to enjoy at the time, and to be able to recall years on. In the last decade we've had:

-The last minute winner against Palace in 12/13, which set the tone for a crazy, exciting season
-6-1 away at Leeds
-The Deeney Goal. A moment that I don't think will realistically be topped for anyone there to experience it.
-Play off final. **** day but many fans don't get the opportunity to have a day at Wembley
-6-1 win against Bournemouth
-5-1 win away at Barnsley
-Deeney league top scorer with 25
-5-0 win at Fulham
-5-0 win Vs Charlton
-7-2 win Vs Blackpool
-The run in to promotion, Guedioura taking games by the scruff of the neck
-The promotion clincher against Brighton
-Promotion celebrations
-3-0 vs Liverpool
-Ighalo's scoring run
-1-2 FA Cup win at Arsenal
-FA Cup Semi Final, another (******) day at Wembley
-13th in the Premier League
-3-1 vs Man Utd
-2-1 win at Arsenal
-2-1 win vs Arsenal
-4-1 win vs Chelsea
-2-1 win vs Spurs, 4 straight wins to start the season, joint 1st in the PL
-5-1 win at Cardiff, a Watford player scoring at hattrick in the PL
-FA Cup Semi final, one of the best games in our history
-FA Cup final appearance
-11th in PL, our highest finish in decades
-2-0 win vs Man Utd
-3-0 win vs unbeaten Liverpool
-6-0 win vs Bristol City
-The run under Xisco in general, looked untouchable
-Promotion again, with a record breaking defence
-5-2 win at Everton
-4-1 win vs Man Utd
-4-0 win vs Luton

Watching players like Forestieri, Prime Deeney, Vydra, Ighalo, Abdi, Capoue, Gomes, Richarlison, Deulofeu, João Pedro etc. Many of the best players to ever wear the shirt have done so in the last 10 years.

Of course, that's not to say the last 3/4 years haven't been a huge downturn, with depressing defeats, baffling mismanagement, piss taking of fans, and the shambolic handling of the Head Coach position.

But when you read the list above, and compare it to any given 10 year stretch (GT glory years aside) in the club's history, it's hard to argue we've had it tough. I dined out on the 6-1 win at Millwall under Malky for months. Under Pozzo, for a time, that kind of day became almost commonplace.

The supporters of 90% of clubs in the EFL won't get to see their side achieve a similar level of memorable days in their entire lifetime, let alone condensed into a decade.

Caveat that if within the next couple of years, Gino's mistakes lead to us supporting AFC Watford in the Vanarama, my answer will obviously change.

 

A great list of 35 highlights, thank you for reminding us of them all!

 

?? Did you not have a flag ?

 

Good post, I agree with most of it, but I'm not sure I see the play-off final as a highlight in and of itself, sure, it was our first visit to the new Wembley, and the season as a whole was so memorable, but for me, play-off finals are by design supposed to be against teams you can beat, not occasions to be soaked in. Besides, plenty of clubs across the divisions get to play-off finals, they're not super-rare occurrences like a cup final (or even a cup semi-final)

 

That's fair. I suppose the 5 years of relative nothingness that preceded the PO final made it feel more special at the time, to me at least. The build up, the trip to Wembley, the number of fans. All felt quite new and momentous.

 

pretty much Remember all those . Giving those big premier clubs a bloody nose was particularly enjoyable . Over the previous 25 odd yards since the original Graham Taylor era ended there were some highlights but few and far between . The rest of it was generally pretty dismal. So for me it is those moments I live for and I’m conscious that we may not get many of those for some time now .

 

Also if AFC Watford in a few years is what would make it not worth it, then it’s a weird one to answer because if Gino hadn’t come, Bassini was leading us to that reality anyway no?

So in theory, we ended up in the same place 15 years later with a load of highlights in the middle instead? Who knows! Impossible to answer conclusively, good discussion though.

 

We had the odd cup run out of nowhere in the 00s, although sadly, with the way football is, I think it will be even harder to make one cup semi for a club like us, let alone 3 (and yes, I know there are still a few EFL clubs left in the cup this season!)

 

The problem with this, is, for all of Bassini's many faults, he didn't leave us in as much debt, we were evidently very much salvageable. Another year or two without Prem millions, and will we be similarly salvageable under Pozzo?

 

That rag The Sun calling Pozzo out:

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/21684501/watford-pozzo-managers-justin-allen/

 

I just remember back to that season with Zola, when we were watching some of the football with The Professor (Abdi), Forestieri, Deeney, Vydra, Battochio, Cassetti, etc. That was a good season to be a Watford fan, even if we didn't get promoted. I enjoyed it so much out of my ~30 years of being a fan and that wouldn't have been possible without the Pozzos.

I agree with those that say we are going to have some ups and some downs. We had some good ups listed in @WatfordTalk's post, maybe it is just time for us to take some downs.

 

Miles out I’m afraid. The 7-4 game was in 2003, Howe was at Burnley in 2011-12.

 

Football goes in cycles, especially for a smaller club like us, but it does feel frustrating when so many of the mistakes we've made have been so avoidable, if we'd have stayed up in 2019/20 it does feel as though we'd have made a decent fist of being an 'established' Prem club

 

We survived for 4 years before being relegated but were never “established” and would never have become “established”. We were favourites for relegation in all but our relegation season (ironically) and had one of the 3 smallest playing squad budgets of all the prem clubs. We had to over-perform to stay up and it was only a matter of time before we were relegated. Right now Brentford and Fulham are replicating what we did in that 4th season. They will both be relegated in the next 3-5 years when their magic touch deserts them.

 

Sorry but I don't agree on this one. We should've pushed on. We should've bought the right players to take us forward after the Cup Final and we should've stuck with Javi or at least appointed better to replace him. The club is run by a man that won't listen, keeps on repeating madness and now we are back where we started it isn't a time to be thinking that's where we should be.

There should be anger not apathy. This is all on Gino.

 

People on here said the same about Palace and Wolves. Still waiting. Though if you keep listing teams that will ‘do a Watford’, one day it’ll happen. Keep the faith.

 

Both are bigger clubs. Palace are an exception though. Even though they are a bigger clubs you may not have to wait too long for Wolves.

All small clubs do a Watford, if they can survive that long. The Championship and League One are full of such clubs. The prem isn’t.

 

Palace have 3500 more seats than us, you can’t expect us to compete with the extra £3m a season revenue that pulls in, not when we’ve got signings like Bayo and Okoye to make and 3 managers a season to pay off, it’s simple economics mate.

Of course when the new 30,000+ (same as Brighton) seat stadium that would’ve also generated us substantial non-match day revenue (unlike Selhurst Park) was mooted, most fans didn’t want it, and rightly so as we should know our place. We wouldn’t want to give Gino yet more excuses would we.

 

You’re right. We have no excuse not to be neck and neck with CP and Brighton rather than slumming it with numerous similar sized clubs in the champ/league one.

 

Guedioura's goal was a genuine "1960's Batman THWACK" moment.

 

In fairness, both are now within 3 points of the bottom 3, in their most serious relegation trouble since getting promoted. Stoke were sort of in a gradual decline when they got relegated, but we showed the decline can be very sharp indeed

 

Well at the point we were neck and neck (or even ahead in some cases) with Brighton and Palace we had no excuse not to remain there, considering they have.