Interesting article... http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/watfordfc/watfordfcnews/11536817._/ What do people think.... I think we just move on..... (bit odd that the second part is a complete disconnect from the first)
"Watford to hold open training session at Vicarage Road" ?? No mention of Ollie, speaking or otherwise....
I guess wrong link... http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sp...b_and_its_owners__rendered_a_laughing_stock_/ I think it's simply time to move on and get behind the new guy. Pretty much everyone knows, (Pozzo himself) they didn't handle the McKinlay thing very well, and made them look a little silly... but they felt they had the wrong man and made the change quick rather than in 6 months time. Seems almost like a 'filler' article that's a week late, when they should be previewing this weekends game, and telling us who is fit and who's not
Not much choice but to move on. It would be good to know what the real reason for McKinlay's departure was though. Maybe something will come out at the club/fans meeting. WO quite often use an article from the previous weeks paper on the website making it seem rather late. Ollie doesn't write too often these days about Watford FC and the second half of the article is more in keeping with the reflections of the past that he does put pen to paper over. Seems though that he cannot stop himself from looking at Hertfordshire from the Tarn. I know the feeling.
This is an article printed originally printed in Friday's WO then only put on line a week late so not Oliver Phillips fault. As far as I can see he has been commissioned to write a series of articles reminiscing about the old days which he has then added most weeks a few paragraphs about the current week; hence this article.
I'm with him there - or at least I am if we're talking about "top-flight" football. There's still some hope however in the lower leagues where money doesn't dominate to the exclusion of virtually all else.
The first half of Ollie's article is a lamentable waste of column inches. In fact I found it rather irksome more befitting of Jeff Powell or Martin Samuels. Normally I agree with Ollie but this article is particularly poor imho. Reality check time: the Pozzo's have assembled a squad that should at least secure promotion, if not easily; Sannino struggled to get the best out of them (for whatever reasons - discipline, training methods, team selection, tactics, whatever) and fell on his sword; with OG it's just more unfortunate for him than the club or the rest of us, but his backroom staff cannot be said to have upped the ante without him; with Billy he had not really had sufficient time to stamp his mark but, again, he had not really improved things with a somewhat laboured win and a fortunate draw. Obviously it could have been handled better by the Pozzo's (make him interim head coach and see how he fared as the obvious thing to do rather than the full on appointment) but given the traumatic time at the club I think the mistake is forgivable if not entirely understandable. So now we have Slavisa Jokanovic who is now charged with the task of getting our players to perform at least to their abilities and hopefully induce that synergy (more power than the sum of its parts) that all the most successful teams have - look at Leicester last season (and this, perhaps) and the fall from grace of Man Utd since the Hairdryer retired. If Jokanovic manages to do this then we all know that our wildest expectations for this season are achievable. The Pozzo's have laid their cards on the table and backed it with a significant portion of their football acumen. We owe them our full support for the rest of this season at least for this alone. Notable, too, that Ollie couldn't even mention Jokanovic by name. Disappointing. And yes, I am mildly interested as to what happened to the two budding reporters. I wanted to be a physiotherapist at their age, instead I design buildings. Funny how things turn out.
I agree with all the comments to the article! He should be put out to pasture IMO, his kind of unjustifiable negativity should not be allowed to take column inches!
I do not understand Oliver Philips. He was a journalist and stopped so why does he now write these texts which read like he does not like the club any more?
coming close to being a watford fan for almost 50 years i have grown up with olivers great imput.We haves seen good and bad owners come and go over the years he would be able to give the fans a little inside info on the club . For that i respect him but marking comments about our current owners without any inside info makes him look a bit of an old fool
I suspect Ollie knows little more about the internal situation at Watford than most of us do. Of course realistically he can say what he likes about the club these days - he doesn't need good relations any more. I still feel he has the well-being of the club at heart. He does have a point though. I'm still scratching my head as to why McKinlay was appointed in the first place if "experience" was required by the Pozzos. On the face of it there appears to have been a massive breakdown in communication somewhere. Then why it took 8 days for them to realise that he was the wrong boss, I simply don't know. Once appointed, he should have been given some sort of a chance. I am likewise less than impressed by the appointment of Jokanovic - like I was with Sannino. Garcia did seem to me to be an ideal appointment - the basic need for Championship experience does seem to shout from the roof tops. Time will tell I suppose, but I have my doubts - and I suspect I am not alone. Still onwards and upwards. Usually it's a manager working to put a team together, currently it's the reverse!
Someones take on what was said last night at the fans forum. On the manager merry go round- Apparently Beppe wanted to go back to Italy. Garcia- they thought would continue in position after health issues and weren't expecting him to leave. Appointed Mckinlay straight away as two games coming up. Gino Pozzo had reservations on appointment and decided needed manager with winning experience They offered original position back to Mckinlay but he didn't want it and paid him up accordingly. Duxbury said appointment was his mistake and apologised.
