Fao Fellow Sexagenerians

Bearing in mind we would have been in the top league for 10 seasons by then, we would have had a much stronger base than the clubs you mention, who only played in the top division for 3 & 1 seasons. I'd argue that things hadn't developed to the point where a club has to spend all (at least) of the Prem money to attempt to stay up; wages etc hadn't exploded that much at the outset and so it would have been more feasible to use the Prem money to strengthen a well-founded base. Our youth scheme was still producing good talent back then, talent that could still have performed well in the top tier.

 

Personally, I shuddered when he was appointed. It was as if Elton had started to believe in the media's lazy conflation of GT's style of play with Bassett's (very successful) ultra-direct-long-ball style he had used at Wimbledon. His squad there was full of players ideally suited to that style; the squad GT left him most definitely was not, and the players Bassett brought in to try to make it work just weren't good enough.
Reports suggested that Elton decided to appoint Bassett despite 'concerns' being raised by others on the board.

 

I hoped at the time the club would have tried to follow the example of the Liverpool 'Boot Room' succession policy; appoint from within the coaching staff so as not to rip apart the squad's DNA...something they belatedly try to do after sacking Bassett.

 

It would have been interesting to see how Harrison would have performed if his first task was to 'continue' GT's work, as opposed to having to try to rebuild a train wreck, which I agree he was not up to.

 

Hope your exam revision went better!

 

It did.

 

Yes though Harrison's issue was that he just wansn't cut out for management as he later accepted, and all his interviews (and later pranks at England level !) proved. Ward would have been the man, made of the right stuff, but perhaps too inexperienced at that time ? However frankly anything would have been better than Bassett as it turned out.

 

Yes, I'm sure Ward would have been a better choice, and I always had a feeling that GT was almost training him up for it.

 

Yes, certainly with hindsight but not sure at the time he would have been ready. Also worth remembering that it wasn't just a case of a steady had on the tiller. We had lost Barnes (and Falco was it, or West ....replaced by Senior !!?) so were going to need some changes...

 

I believe we would have stayed up initially, but after 2-3 years we would have inevitably ended up in the championship because our entire operation is built on sand.

 

Not relegated like Stoke, WBA, Swansea, Norwich, Southampton etc then ?

 

I also wonder if the club wanted to go for a bigger name? Relatively speaking, we were quite high-profile back then.

 

I agree. Bassett, who was actually from Stanmore, was very much the ‘wide-boy’ manager of the time a bit like Harry Redknapp, which fitted well with the ‘us against the world’ image of Wimbledon, but not so much with a Watford squad that was relatively sophisticated by then with signings from Spurs, Arsenal, Everton etc.

 

Nah definitely not, not with the Pozzo's world renowned amazing scouting network in play...

 

As GT said, he didn't take John Ward to Villa with him initially because he fully expected Watford to appoint him as his successor. If I recall rightly, Ward was in hospital at the time having had an operation on his nose when GT visited him with a bunch of grapes and told him he was going to Villa.

Bassett was Elton's appointment and he wanted to be able to announce the successor when news broke that GT was going to Villa. He drove round to Bassett's house with Muff Winwood after watching the Coventry v Spurs FA Cup final and offered him the job pretty much on the spot and without discussing it with the other directors.

 

Ah, that's helpful info, thanks. It's all SEJ's fault, then.

 

There's a much fuller account towards the end of a book what I wrote once. Bassett's take on events was very interesting. I found it hard not to have preconceptions – having witnessed the immediate and dramatic destruction of the team in 1987 – but he made a fairly persuasive case and (dare I say it) I found him very engaging and charismatic.

 

True. I forgot about that. Easily done atm.

 

But how much money did teams get for staying up back in those days? It can't have been life-changing as the early Prem history is littered with teams (some smaller, like those I mentioned, some quite a bit bigger) who spent time in the Premier League only to fall away. Point taken that we would have been an 'established' top flight team by then, although on the other hand every club is 'established' until they're not (see also: 2020)

 

But it’s all to do with the money available relative to the minimum outlay required to be competitive. It’s all very well getting £100 mill plus if it costs £110 mill to try to be competitive. That was not the case in the early days of the Prem when the opportunity existed to organically improve in time to be in a position to enjoy the increased riches with an already adequate squad.

 

This.

 

Fair point/good question.

Tbh, I don't know. I only know that on our side of the fence at that time (my granddad worked at the Club; Mum, Dad and one of my sisters were STs; I went to home games whenever I was in town), not one of us, or those we went to games with, wanted Bassett as the next manager.

 

I was following the game by text whilst my wife and I were out for a couple of beers this afternoon.

When we went 2-0 down so early in the game, and I expressed my anguish, she said "You really should give it up." When I explained that it actually doesn't work like that, after following the Club for so many years, she replied "Well what is the point of the heartache most Saturdays and sometimes midweek too???"

Gloom and doom go so well together...

 

Tell her the reason is because the highs eclipse anything else.

Tell her that Deeney's goal v Leicester for example brought you more pleasure by far than anything she has done in the whole time you've been together.

Better than your wedding day, the best sexual experience she's given you, the birth of your kids. Everything.

She'll understand then.

 

Ever considered a career in marriage guidance?

 

Half Price tickets for us Over 60s away at Cardiff next Saturday (£10) AND proper traditional football standing on the terrace!

I'm going of course, and hope to see many more us geriatric grey beards, all hopped up on Fibragel waving our zimmers and stamping our tartan slippers and walking sticks.

The air rich with the heady scent of denture fixative.

Is that Toshak fella still playing for them?

 

He's at the back with John Charles m8.