What on earth is going on at Watford FC?
17 permanent Managers/Head Coaches in a little over 10 years, is quite an astonishing stat. A stat that has been banded around almost every media outlet and of course all around social media in the past 24 hours, as yet again Gino Pozzo rolled the dice in the Watford dugout.
As Monday lunchtime came around, I had a quick scroll on Twitter and all of a sudden the various outlets began to reveal that the Hornets had parted company with Rob Edwards after just ten league games, yes really 10 matches. Mind you incredibly that isn't the shortest reign in Pozzo history, with Oscar Garcia (health reasons) and Billy McKinley all spending less time in the Vicarage Road dugout.
I have to say when I read the news my heart sank, surely it wouldn't be true and surely the board hadn't abandoned the planned "reset in culture" just 8 weeks into the Championship season. But sadly a short time later, the club confirmed the news and Edwards' bags had been packed, before 15 minutes later the club confirmed the appointment of former West Ham & West Brom manager Slaven Bilic as the new Head Coach (I'll get onto him later).
Over the years, the media have slammed Watford for their hire/fire policy, I've had many a debate about it in the local pub and my friends have given me plenty of stick in the group chat, but I could always see a rationale behind the decisions made to move managers on. But like many fellow Hornets, this one makes zero sense to me, not necessarily because of form or performances on the pitch but by what had been promised by Watford Chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury in the summer. In what was a then refreshing interview with the Watford Observer, Duxbury said the following:
Gino Pozzo just wants the club to be successful and playing sustained Premier League football. That’s always been his only ambition for Watford. I am on exactly the same page.
“However, he accepts that the way we try and work to deliver that had to change. We know that we could not carry on as we were. Watford Football Club needed its culture back.
“In Rob Edwards, we have appointed a manager we all totally believe in, and a manager who will lead and drive that change.
“We will be supporting Rob Edwards come hell or high water. We believe that he will deliver what we all want: a sustained and successful football club we all can be proud of.”
Now I'm not an expert, but sacking a manager after 10 games doesn't appear to be supporting someone "by hell or high water". What I would say is these words came from Chairman Scott Duxbury, as opposed to owner Gino Pozzo, who from the club statement appears to be the big driver behind this decision. But if you're Scott Duxbury, surely at this point your position is untenable, any trust that was rebuilt from the above words has been decimated, we've been lied to and the complete opposite has happened to everything promised. For me it's those above promises that make this decision hard to understand, accept and get behind, it clearly shows there's no cohesion at senior board level on what we're trying to be as a football club and I for one am fed up with it. Duxbury must surely resign as Chairman if he feels he's also been misled by Pozzo, if not then the anger to come also deserves to come his way, it's his words and he should own them one way or the other.
I've attended every game since the beginning of last season, home & away every week in what has been an absolutely pathetic 15 months for the football club on & off the pitch. We've seen a succession of managers that we as fans built no connection with, in particular Claudio Ranieri and Roy Hodgson (I could write a whole blog on those two alone). That coupled with a despicable two home wins in the entirety of the last campaign and a season where a manager clapped the opposition fans on the day we were deservedly relegated (step forward agent Hodgson, made for a depressing season. However, for all the hatred towards the pathetic recruitment of both players & managers, not once did I question the owners. They had delivered a stream of success since coming to Hertfordshire in 2012, 6 years in the Premier League (5 of which were successive), two FA Cup Semi-Finals and a visit to the FA Cup final (although less said about that the better.) Therefore, I trusted them to make things better and was even more on board after those above comments, following Edwards' appointment.
After the misery of last season, I was so enthused by the appointment of Rob Edwards, a young manager who I thought (naively) would be given time to rebuild the broken bridges of the previous 12 months. Edwards immediately came across like he cared, he came across as so desperate to connect with the fans and bring us on a journey with him, it was at the very least refreshing to see after recent appointments. I am not outspoken to say most supporters would've been fine with not achieving promotion to the Premier League if the compromise was stability and we could see something was coming together.
I say this because frankly the results and performances on the pitch have been steady without being anywhere near spectacular. At the time of writing, we sit just a point off the play-offs having lost just two games so far and beating some of the other promotion favourites. However, we're yet to win away and performance of late have been below par but that is absolutely to be expected with a young manager. The reaction from fans to Edwards' dismissal tells you that people were reasonably content with how things were going, particularly on the back of what they'd been told about us sticking behind the manager "come hell or high water".
If I have to summarise the appointment, Pozzo has disgracefully made the entire thing a complete waste of time. He and his team failed to give Edwards players to fit the system, particularly in wing-back and defensive areas, an area which has needed badly refreshing for a number of years and was going to be crucial to us building something "The Edwards way". Then after the first bump in the road, we pulled the trigger, quite frankly I'm sickened by the way Edwards has been treated and sickened that owners have decided to once again play Russian Roulette in the hope of immediate success.
In the positive column for Pozzo was that we've somehow managed to keep Joao Pedro and Ismailia Sarr, two players who definitely have the quality to ensure we remain in the promotion hunt. That coupled with the likes of Hamza Choudhury, Kourtney Hause and Keinan Davis, gives Bilic a strong enough squad to mount a challenge. But Edwards had to deal with the uncertainty of keeping the aforementioned Pedro and Sarr, an unavailable Davis and ultimately a 4 of a back 5 that didn't fit the system he is known to play. It was a rough hand to be dealt and I for one thought he was steering us in a steady direction.
Despite the recent negative results, Edwards had the vast majority of the Hornets faithful on his side, the only really blot on his copybook came after a quite turgid display up at Blackburn where his side failed to muster a shot on goal. It was a performance he quickly apologised for to supporters both in person at Ewood Park and in his post-game media comments. During his tenure, he came over to all four sides of the Vic every game, engaged with the community ethos of the club and came across as a manager I was proud to see represent my football club. As I conclude on his era, I wish him nothing but every success and really hope he makes Gino Pozzo eat humble pie in the years ahead. A great shame the board couldn't stick by what are now empty, pathetic and pointless words.
S
Slaven Bilic - The latest man through the revolving door.
It would be wrong to finish a piece that has been wholly negative on Slaven Bilic, he is the innocent victim in this. Welcome to Watford, Slav - what a task you have on your hands, to re-engage a team who are likely to be bewildered that Edwards has gone and to convince a fan base whose negative energy is likely to be directed towards board level in the immediate future at the very least.
When the appointment was made it didn't take long for me to start chatting about Bilic, it does help when your best mate is a West Ham fan! He tells me that Bilic will get us playing, he will get the fans onside and with the talent at the top end of the pitch will have us competing for those promotion spots. I certainly hope he's right.
I look forward to seeing his team take the field at Stoke on Sunday, I hope he can get some good early results and at least allow us to have something to sing about in what is a fractious time to be a Watford fan. Mind you if he doesn't start well, it would be no surprise if he is the next to clear the manager's office at the London Colney Training Ground. He's under immediate pressure but I am enthused by his arrival, he's done it at this level before and he has my full support despite my mentioned anger at Edwards' departure.
Gino Pozzo - What next?
It wasn't long ago banners containing the Italian's face were erected in the stands, followed by cries of "Here's to you Pozzo family, Watford loves you more than you will know" from the Golden Boys faithful. Goodness me, how times have changed, social media isn't always the barometer but there is anguish, outcry, disappointment and even talks of protests against Pozzo. Trust has evaporated, fans are frankly embarrassed by the way we behave off the field and the lies in the summer have the fan base at a toxic breaking point. As I mentioned, despite the wider football world being against their principles, I have always been pro their ownership amid the great things they've achieved, the fact they kept the club connected to its community (Giving the stadium to The NHS, naming stands after legends of the club, the way Graham Taylor's sad passing was handled with dignity and class). But in the last three years, the club has been in an absolute rut, the whole thing feels entirely soulless, the heart and spirit of Watford FC is slowly decaying and it's pretty hard to watch. That has come by more than sacking Rob Edwards, it's things like the bizarre handling of Luther Blissett, the use of a super agent who sits next to the owners every week that is facing an upcoming court appearance on serious fraud charges and most recently the reversal on sacking the most pathetic sporting director the club has had under their stewardship. The removal of Edwards really was the final straw for many, as for me I just feel absolutely numb by it all, for the first time I am not sure what we are, what is our future and how we recover because the football club has just become toxic on & off the pitch in the past three years.
It's going to take a lot to rebuild trust, I'm not sure even promotion back to PL will repair the damage for many. But a start would be for Pozzo to actually communicate with the supporters, to my knowledge he has given one external or internal media interview in his 10 years in charge. That simply put is not good enough, you are a custodian of a community asset, fans should have an idea of what you are about as a person, it is criminal we've not heard from him in the past couple of years in particular. Now is not the time to roll out Duxbury, we want to hear from the horse's mouth. Fans have every right to ask what is going on, what is the plan for the future, why is the club operating with Mogi Bayat and importantly how do we go about getting back on the right route after what has been nothing short of a depressing three years at WD18? I see the Watford Observer has reached out to speak with Pozzo, if he has any sense I'd suggest he talks to his loyal supporters who are spending thousands of pounds following HIS football club up & down the country.
Despite the appointment of Bilic, it is clearly a return to the previous culture (can you call it previous if it's not changed?) it's short-termism in the hope of getting promoted. The first landmark will be if Bilic is Head Coach when football returns from the Qatar World Cup? It wouldn't surprise you one bit if he wasn't. I can take the short-term cycle of Head Coaches if everything else off the pitch is correct, but until Bayat is nowhere near our club, they start treating players/staff/legends better and bring some soul back to the club, their trust is broken with me. Enough is enough.
Only time will tell what lies ahead for the Pozzo era, but for now, they have a fractious and mistrusted fan base, who quite frankly need the heart and soul returning to its football club. Elton John said at his concert he wanted to see some "fucking passion" on the field, well it's time for the owner to show the same off it and either get us back to the club representing the values that made us fall in love with the Hornets or seriously consider taking their plans elsewhere.
Written by Adam Rowe - 27th September.
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