Our favourite "columnist" has had another dig

If you can tolerate a visit to the Daily hate, then you can read the latest dig from our favourite, rotund, footballing know-all regarding the sacking of Walter (don't worry - he slags off other clubs to).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo.../Shame-journeymen-players-managers-fired.html

Thoughts?

 

Think he's right this time.

 

"No doubt there was surprise in the boardroom, then, to be 5-0 down after 58 minutes. Yes, the opponents were Manchester City, but even so. Watford were at home, the team had been released from Mazzarri's shackles, as requested. Here was the chance for the players to shine without his overbearing control.

Instead, they recorded the club's heaviest home defeat since the 7-1 victory of Swindon in Third Division (South), September 6, 1951. Maybe, just maybe, the board backed the wrong horse."

Or perhaps you could actually do some research into the horrendous defender injury list, perhaps brought on by the Italian Stallion, and realise the horse was already ripe for flogging no matter who took charge of the game.

Idiot.

 

I was thinking 'he's got a point' but then I clicked on the link to 'Mazzarri lost dressing room after 10 minutes' and thought 'obviously doesn't read own paper' .

 

I am pretty sure that the players had a large part to play in Mazzarri failing, and then leaving. After all, it is the players that play on the pitch, winning or losing the points.

But that is all about what a good manager/coach is there for - to get the best out of the squad. Walter just couldn't do that. So a club then has a choice, whether to get rid of the coach, or get rid of all the players in hope that he can handle the next group of players better - an exceptionally expensive and risky option.

I've been banging on about something all season - the mindset of the players and coach. It matters more than the ability of the individual players. It is the difference between Leicester winning the league and playing like a relegation side.

A good coach does not just need tactical nouse, the ability to draw triangles on a board, or the ability to pick his team and make subs at the best times. He needs the ability to get inside the players heads, get them totally on board and get them playing to the best of their ability. That is something Walter couldn't do - but it is an essential quality when the players have the power and money they have.

Divisions (in any squad, team, club, workforce, business, partnership) always lead to failures.

As sure as eggs are eggs.

 

I'm disappointed it wasn't a piece by Jeff Powell.

 

The second sentence switched me off

Anyone who forms an opinion based upon that sentence is wrong.

 

Actually thought it was an interesting read, I know I will be slated for daring to have an open mind about an item in the daily mail.

 

The article has 1 or 2 reasonable points, however it's clear that they're completely by accident when you continue reading the article and see just how poorly formed the writers opinion is. As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day

 

Whatever Wally's failings - and in my view there were many - there's no doubt that the Pozzo policy of head coach disposability encourages player power to an undesirable extent.

 

Out of interest, has there ever been player power unrest at Udinese?

 

And, of course, the comments on the article are mostly to the tune of "small club Watford think they're a big club" etc.

Interesting comment from one punter, however; shared here without comment.

 

Surprised it took him over a week to be honest.

 

Regarding that anonymous comment posted on the mail regarding Okaka being a disruptive influence - obviously it could be a wind up and total fabrication - but I remember when he scored his first goal against Everton, he ran straight to Wally and embraced him which I can't recall any other player doing all season. That alone would suggest he'd be an unlikely candidate to cause Wally any problems, unless the other players have fallen out with him because he actually got on with the manager? Maybe would explain why Deeney took the opportunity to have a bit of a go in the final minutes at Chelsea?

 

"look no further thatn Okaka for the probem at Watford, he used to play for Anderlecht and he caused the dressingroom to become toxic and the manager was eventually ousted, Okaka does not see a reason to be on the training field every day, does not see a reason why weight needs to be carefully monitored, he saw the rules of the manager as an unnecessary and unwanted burden on a players social life and he spread his poison through Anderlecht's dressingroom and has done exactly the same at Watford, Okaka thinks he is above rules and will cause a hornets nest ready to unsettle any manager who dare to tell him what to do"

- T Deeney

 

I agree. A great coach has the ability to develop leaders who in turn make the rest of the squad buy into the process. Almost like they thought of it in the first place. And when the players have reached as far as they can go he changes the system.

 

He's had another pop. I'll paste it here so you don't have to bother clicking on that rag:

It is four years since Porto won the Portuguese league — 2012-13, a significant drought for a club who have 27 titles, plus 40 other domestic trophies and have been European champions twice. Yet it’s not all bad.
Porto came second to Benfica this season, meaning they progress immediately to the Champions League group stage. They were only six points off top, too, with a marginally inferior goal difference.
There is certainly promise for next season.
Either way, it’s a better run club than Watford who, 136 years after being founded, still list a runners-up spot in Division One in 1983 and a losers’ medal from the 1984 FA Cup final as their greatest achievements.
And yet, despite interest from Porto, Marco Silva chose Watford for his next career move.
He went to Hull on a short-term contract at a time when everyone thought they would be relegated, took them down anyway — losing 2-0 at home to Sunderland and 4-0 away to Crystal Palace in his crucial end-of-season games — but enhanced his reputation sufficiently to spark interest from better Premier League clubs.
Waving Hull farewell as a sought-after free agent this summer, with almost perfect timing, in came Porto. Yet negotiations broke down, apparently, and now he’s a Watford man.
How fortuitous it has all been. If Silva plays the game as well as he plays the Premier League, Watford should look forward to a very good season.

Not content with slagging us off - he's also managed to have a dig at our new manager. I know the sensible option is to ignore what this buffoon writes, it's just that there's a nasty undercurrent to the vast majority of his articles which also reek of arrogance - i.e - he's right, you're wrong, he's smart and you're dumb - when in fact it's the opposite that's true. He's that lethal combination of ignorance and arrogance that a large proportion of the fools that read the Daily Hate lap up without question. It's drivel such as this piece that plants the seed in uninformed football fans minds that we are "all that's wrong with the game".

Ask yourself this - do you think he would have written the same article had Silva gone to Palace after turning down Porto.....?

 

Silva couldn't possibly have chosen Watford over other options. He was clearly lying about the Porto interest just to get a bumper contract. Obviously. Clearly.

People see what they want to see.

 

Porto can't compete financially or coverage-wise with the Premier League.

 

And his nasty club the spammers finished a massive 2 pts above us despite having a public funded stadium handed on a plate and when did they last win the league

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

 

These articles do tick me off but I just look at it as pure jealousy. The reality is you can't fight jealousy. When people see a "medium" size club like ours doing well but not doing it the way they like, they want it to fail. Then when it doesn't fail it bothers the hell out of them. They get jealous. They wish their club was run as well as ours. These so called "experts" who support "big"clubs are spending millions and millions more than us each year to just finish above us by a couple of points. That aggravates them, because they believe their "big" shouldn't be near the likes of us in the league but they are, despite a bigger fanbase and more money.

The funny thing is, Watford are going to be around in the Prem for a long time as long as we have the Pozzo's and don't over stretch ourselves. This bothers the "experts" because they would love for us to go down as we are all that is wrong with football. The truth is though, they know we are a well run club in our own unique way.

Let the jealous experts have their say, look forward to the future and the absolute scenes that will take place if/when we get into Europe.

 

Martin Samuel and Andy (The Viking) Fordham. Giant Haystacks' love children separated at birth?

 

What am I missing? There may be many reasons, obvious and personal, that prompted Silva to choose Watford over Porto.

 

Have we had better seasons than '82/'83 & '83/'84?

 

Why read anything this bearded buffoon writes?

He is the latter day Powell,same paper too iIrc?

 

I genuinely can't bring myself to read anything from that paper.

Let's face it, apart from a brief spell when QSF arrived the media have never had any love for our club.

Or been bothered to find out the facts and report them properly.

 

I wonder what our favourite pundit would have said if he'd been writing when GT turned down West Brom to come to 4th division Watford. "No ambition", I suppose.

 

I agree with all you've written here.

I'll add it's not just MS that has an agenda, it's the entire football community in general that really dislikes "The Watford Project".

There are constant little digs, contemptuous remarks and in some cases a complete denial we even exist. We are unfashionable, and always have been, and it seems to rile the establishment when we rise above our "natural status", whatever that may be.

It was the same in the 1980's, under GT. We got no credit, only distain. Jimmy Hill called us imposters on MotD, saying we were taking the game back 20 years. We were bad for football then and we're bad for football now.

On the other hand, the media absolutely loves Bournemouth. Is this is a form of racism? Yes, it may sound a bit controversial, but Eddie Howe is English, most of his signings are English. They are perceived to be doing things the right way. The fact that Bournemouth's owner is a wealthy Russian businessman is conveniently overlooked.

Here's what Howe says about the club's owner:-
“He cares deeply about the club. He wants to do things the right way, he has invested in the facilities not just the playing squad but he has put his own money in to take his club into a different era.

“You’re definitely not guaranteed success in football, and he’s taken a brave stance and thankfully it’s paid off for him.”

I think the same thing could be equally said about Gino Pozzo. He put his money in when the club was failing, with debt. He has also invested in the infrastructure.

I just think we are seen as a vanilla club, with nothing to boast about. We are not "Little Bournemouth", who are a modern day Wimbledon or Wigan bravely giving English football their fairy tale story.

We've been around the top two divisions for the past 37 years (apart from 2 seasons). We are a small town club, not a big city side. We shouldn't be where we are.....yet we are, defying all logic and will just not go away......I think this is what p1sses people off the most.

We are the 17th best side in the country........I think we deserve a little bit of respect for that.

 

He's not writing articles like this for us though to be fair. He's writing them for like-minded individuals who would like us to go away, but are getting a bit fed up that we refuse to do so. Of which there are many.

 

Just to assure people - the article came up under #watfordfc on Twitter, but with the bit about Conte. I wondered why a piece about him was being linked to Watford, so clicked on it and discovered the rest of his ill-informed rambling.

Yep, Jeff Powell still works for them. I believe his hatred began when Elton gave the manager's job to GT instead of his "mate" Bobby Moore (got nothing against Moore, decent man - it's the fact that Powell truly believes they were best buds whereas in truth it was just a case of Moore being the polite gentleman he was to all members of the press).

The part that mostly annoyed me about this article was the slight on Silva. Until he became our head coach, I'd only seen positive things written about him across all media - but now he's at Watford it took barely five minutes for the first negative piece. That, and as I said above - he wouldn't have written the same article had circumstances been identical except Silva had gone to palace (a team who have also never won the top division, and lost in multiple finals and don't actually have a second place finish in the top flight to be proud of).

 

But Bournemouth have been a much better side to watch over the last two seasons. We have been pretty boring, tbf. That must contribute to the anti Watford feelings, particularly on TV when entertainment is the operative word.

Obviously as a life long fan and supporter I would never switch who I support, but to anyone neutral, Muff have more of an attraction.

 

And lard boy's had another go: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4571380/Mahrez-s-plea-cut-run-just-cheap-shot.html

Silva used Hull for his own gain

If reports are correct that Marco Silva will return to Hull for three of their best players, he really is the gift that keeps on giving. Silva did not, after all, keep Hull in the Premier League, but now – having stayed up himself by landing the job at Watford — he is back to strip them of their best players.

Kamil Grosicki was recruited on his watch, as was Omar Elabdellaoui, who was only ever on loan; but goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic was a Steve Bruce signing from 2012, the club having been alerted to his talent by Nick Barmby. With Hull's owner ever more reluctant to reinvest, a relegation fire sale could prove hugely damaging to hopes of a Premier League return.

Ultimately, Hull was only ever going to be a stepping stone for Silva; it was always about his future, and the club was just his vehicle.

Whether or not you think that Silva is indeed using us as a stepping stone - you could point that accusation at many managers currently involved in the game - the main thing here is that it's another negative article about Silva, and as I've said before, prior to his arrival at Watford the press pieces on him were all positive/complimentary. Malteser mentioned in a different thread that when Talksport were discussing Silva recently, they'd also suddenly changed their tune on what type of coach silva was/what his level of ability is.

I don't want to keep repeating myself, but had Silva gone to Palace or was the replacement for golden boy Eddie at muff - then we'd only be hearing about how wonderful he is and what a coup it is for those clubs to get him. Of that I am certain.