Rather curious that we have Italian owners and an Italian manager but not one single player from there. If the Pozzos don't have any faith in either Italian or English players then what hope do we have ? They would rather flood us with 20 odd players from completely different countries who can't help each other to integrate - bit like the Sheikh and his harem - main thing is they don't understand each other The other aspect is that they come cheap ! Apparently Shakhtar Donetsk have 11 players on their books from Brazil the result being no integration problem because they can all help each other. I would settle for a German goalkeeper, an Italian defence, a Dutch midfield (or Scandinavian - full of 6 foot Vikings) and an Argentinian attack That is if we can't go back to the days when all players were called Stan or Alf !
Some interesting comments here and it seems to have taken this defeat for some to arrive at the conclusion a few of us reached several seasons ago. The Pozzo model may have rescued us from some previous dreadful mismanagement but it's also gone a long way towards breaking up what I think Yorkie described a few posts ago as the family club we used to know. We have to live in the present of course...and nostalgia is nostalgia...but if you alienate your older, traditional fanbase you do have to put something recognisable in its place. What is it? I struggle to know, admittedly from a distance these days. Is survival in the EPL and its dubious values the be-all and end-all? Half a dozen teams with almost unlimited financial backing will always dominate, leaving the rest to scrap for crumbs. Players will come and go swiftly, following the money. Fans will pay more and more and I will start to sound even more like a grumpy old git! Destroy the County Championship cricket and I might give up on sport altogether and take up underwater basket-weaving!
I never thought I would ever say this Theo but I am jealous of Luton Town Not their fans, or their town, but the clubs youth development network and also the role of the Luton Town Supporters Trust - members of Supporters Direct. The thing I miss most of all about the past is the loss of the Harefield Academy - if a club is only a buyer of players and not a producer of them then something has gone badly wrong. Football clubs are held together by their history, and by the playing legends they have produced - this is what links the generations of fans. Where is our next legend coming from ?
I think you have hit the nail on the head Theo. It is not just about Watford, but the whole setup in English football. Games are arranged not for the fans but the TV channels. The larger the investment into a club the greater the revenue from TV payouts follow. Clubs have had their traditional operating systems stripped away so as to provide large dividends to outside sources. There is talk about 'business models' for clubs, 'naming rights' and 'merchandising', which apart from deciding if to buy a club shirt or not, fans have no say in. Did they ever have much of a say I wonder? Certainly the supporters clubs did get to be heard, and worked to a degree with their teams. Chipping in a few pounds to be a member is pointless today as you will not be heard, and the money just might about buy you a halftime coffee.
Unfortunately we now have a culture at Watford and in football generally where the players have so much power that they can quickly get a manager sacked if he dares to criticise them or don't like the way he works... I agree we almost have too many players coming and going that it doesn't help in terms of consistency and unity. Also it is disappointing we haven't got any youngsters coming through - which means we won't have anyone to sell on which wad the Pozzo model in a way. Mind you do think these people saying "I'm never going again" or "had enough of all this" are probably being a bit OTT if not emotional and reacting to last night. I mean sure it's rough but that was kind of expected and as we know football can change quickly again. Although guess it's very expensive these days and the players are a world away form us punters! Even Ranieri seemed to be totally disgruntled with them.
I had to watch this in the pub last night - and when a Canary fan appeared out of the blue in this isolated northern Scottish outpost I just knew it wasn't going to be our night. Mind you, the same old failing was evident - right from the start we sat back and let the opposition control the flow of the game. When the opposition are a team in an even more fragile state than ourselves, that is both hard to understand and unforgivable as far as I'm concerned - it seems to be CR's favoured game plan unfortunately. Having said that, we picked up our game and dominated them for most of the first half, but sadly fell to pieces after conceding a rather fortuitous goal in the second half - and I don't care what VAR said, I still think that Samir was pushed in the lead up to their second. "Dennis getting sent off" - I'm tempted to suggest that his last two performances were his payback for not releasing him to Nigeria. He did very little against Newcastle, next to nothing last night - and now he'll be missing for what's left of ACON anyway, so he may as well have gone. He'll find it hard to get back into the team if he carries on like that. "but not finishing on target" - I'd change that to remove the last two words - the match stats for once showed us to have had more goal attempts, more shots on target, more possession - in fact just about more of everything bar goals. "Defensive errors" - strangely, I thought we looked more assured at the back with Samir & Kabasele than we have virtually all season. I think too many errors in midfield may have just put too much pressure on the whole defence in the second half - we may need to bolster midfield by changing to a back three and pushing Kiko forward? As to CR, it wouldn't surprise me if he either gets the push or walks away as Zola did - it looks as though he has done all that he can do.. I'm not overly worried about what the media/other fans think about our 'revolving door' - there's an old idiom that says "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." For me, the opposite is equally true - he isn't working out, so is broke and does need fixing. I've no idea who is capable and willing to take on the job though - and it may well be too late to save us this season anyway.
If it's any consolation, Everton lost at home to Villa today. So they are theoretically still within reach...
The main problem for the Pozzo model is that the Manager/Head Coach does not have enough say in the recruitment of players or enough time to build a team and impose their philosophy and tactics on the players We are also missing Deeneys leadership the pitch, Sissoko is not bad but he does not drive them the way Deeney did Maybe a young manager with the best of the younger players could rebuild the team in the Championship even if it takes two years to do it and be a long term success
Just watched the highlights on the Watford website and alongside the stats there is no way we should have lost that, hit woodwork twice, missed by inches a couple of time and two very good saves by their keeper, and then two individual errors plus a slightly unfortunate own goal gave them three goals The strange thing was we actually looked better after Dennis was sent off but could not convert the chances With hindsight we should have sent him to AFCON and he might have come back in good form
Trouble is we did but yes another day could have been different. IF only we could defend and give ourselves a chance .
Trouble is that Bachmann just does not instil confidence in our back fours and midfields minds, so they play in a nervous way and possibly knocks them off their normal game. Having confidence in your keeper is so important for defenders
We have had some awful luck earlier in the season and last night it turned big style. Earlier in the season both Sargent's goals would have got the heave ho from VAR. I wouldn't take it too badly if I were you. The bottom four clubs are now all six points off a point a game, so it's all to play for. MoneyMags got lucky at Leeds today, they could have been two or three down at half time. One of the bottom four is going to survive, possibly even two if some one else gets sucked into the melee. We just need to hope it's Watford and Norwich.
