Watford Fc - A Deeply Rotten, Toxic Club

The evidence was there last night, not an ounce of fighting spirit between them.

 

I was referring to Capoue being a particular problem. Sorry, my post wasn't clear. To me the majority of our players have terrible attitudes, I just wondered what evidence there was of Capoue being an instigator.

 

If you think about it, we, as fans, are angry with the club and questioning the rationale of supporting them because of the manner in which the organisation operates. For us, we are stuck with the situation, as no matter what, we will continue to support them, albeit having a whine or two along they way. For players, they have other options with no binding commitment to the club, other than contracts that can be bought out or run down. How many of the squad do think have a genuine affection for the club? Maybe Cleverly, Cathcart (because he has been here awhile), Foster?. Other than that we have players who are aspiring to higher levels and using us as a stepping stone, journeymen or players past their best who secured a final payday. When you have players like that, like it or not, they simply cannot find the passion and fight necessary to climb their way out of a slump. It just doesn’t feel right in the club at the moment. Another stint in the championship beckons and it is where we deserve to be. We just do not have the financial clout, status/reputation or local or international fan base to compete at the top level. We have given it a great shot over the last decade and you can argue that it is a rotten club or toxic, but I don’t buy that. Mistakes were made, no doubt. The reality is that we are finding our true level after punching above our weight for years.

 

This has frustrated me about Watford for years. If you watch the best teams keeping possession at the back, they soon make a positive forward pass into midfield or the defender carries the ball forward himself to look for the opportunity to pass. We usually pass it about for the sake of it and then either run out of ideas or get closed down to the extent that a long high 50/50 ball is the only option.

 

This is usually down to having no coherent patterns of play, so they don't instantly know what they're going to be doing with the ball, combined with gutless and lazy players further forward refusing to drop and/or show for the ball, so the defenders aren't presented with easily apparent options either.

It makes us insanely predictable and easy to press, as well, because there is so obviously only ever one player and one direction the ball is about to be moved in, if that.

 

It is based on something, so unlike the Deeney screeching last season it isn't based on hot air and hysterics. Capoue was the worst of the lot for being bad news around the training ground. It was touched on lightly when Duxbury did his FTRE podcast last year as well which re-affirmed what I had been told.

 

I'm sure you've seen the answer posted by others on here before I logged back on. You could tell from Luther's response to the Gray video how disappointed (and angry) he was. Shocking way to treat probably the no.1 club legend.

 

Fair enough.

 

Totally agree. Look at how respectful Luther is about Watford compared to Fatty John Barnes.

 

"The transfer window is when he comes alive; he's already thinking two steps ahead."
Except with central defenders, where he's 5 years behind.

"We don't like having numerous days off. The training ground is a place of work, where you've got to get ideas and strategy across to the players. You can only do that by having a certain intensity of work ethic."
Just read today on twitter about the players being given 3 days off after losing at home 0-3 to Norwich and no wins in 8, lol.

What an absolute crock of sh1t. No wonder we're so bad. These two should work in politics.

 

And yet when Barnes occasionally comes back here the club appear to roll the red carpet out for him. Magnificent player but nowhere near Luther regarding respect for the club.

 

You just utterly fail to appreciate his genius: he is, in fact, seeing two steps ahead, to the future of the game, when 1-5-5 formations have reinvented the game as we know it and the position of centre back no longer exists. Gino is helping usher in tomorrow. Don't hold up progress, luddite.

 

I can’t really explain my current feelings . I’ve resigned myself to relegation and to a large extent I don’t really care about what we do manager wise . I’m not turning into a bed wetter by any means but I am seeing the atmosphere at Watford described as toxic in the media on a recurring basis, so I can’t deny there is something in that .


Maybe I’m just a bit weary. Having missed the championship season I have seen us win just 3 times in my last 24 visits to the vic , amongst those some real tonkings and more recently whilst surrounded by away fans. I don’t think I can go to another match until March now, so glad of the break

I still do support our owners though and believe they are the best chance of getting back up . I like Watford being a premier league club , that’s just my preference . The toxic behaviour and mercenary attitude people speak of is modern day football unfortunately . You don’t get many Kenny Jacketts or Luther’s any more . If we are going to compete with the big boys we probably have to lump it . I understand why some supporters wouldn’t want that though and would rather be a mid to lower championship team with a few of our youth team products turning out regularly . Ive had years of that and likely to have many more years once the Pozzos are gone .i enjoy us sticking it to the big boys on the off occasion we do it . It makes it all
Worthwhile .

 

Team second favourites for relegation at the start of the season are second bottom. How shocking. Was obvious that we'd struggle and the usual suspects would get terribly upset. Phenomenal achievement to stay in the top flight for 5 years last time. Will never happen again, we don't have the finances to stay in this league without someone bankrolling us. I think the owners have finally realised this, like the owners in 1999 and 2005 knew from the word go. No more £10m-£20m buys. Back to being a championship side with occasional brief promotions to the prem and relegations to League 1, as a club of our size can realistically expect.

 

A 'The usual suspects' clang!

A low for you, Tut.

 

You mean play Bachmann as an outfield player? Might improve our chances of keeping a clean sheet!

 

I think when he says "comes alive" I imagine it means acts like a teenage girl with an identity crisis who has access to her parents credit cards.

 

Agree with much of what you say here, but do struggle with the little old watford mentality that permeates through us (comment not directly aimed at you but in general). We don't have the financial clout (which lets be honest is the biggest driver for success in modern football), however teams like us can compete for a prolonged period and be successful if there is a Blueprint and clear strategy set by those at the top and bought into and implemented by those down the chain. And for Watford for the first few years back in the top light we had that. For whatever reason, arrogance, bone idleness who knows, for the past 3 years we have no such plan and that is why we found ourselves in the position then and yet again now.
So as fans, yes we should measure expectation accordingly but surely we should strive for and expect more, and expect and witness a clear identity that we can get behind. Only then if these elements fail do I think is where we can resign ourselves to our financial circumstance.
I dont know how we execute it, but we as fans now need to pull together and show the Ownership that we're not happy

 

Good point however we are not one of those "best teams"
When teams drop 11 back and let the opposition CHs have the ball and play on the break
it is difficult to play against unless you have the best players.
During the 1st half our CBs were pinging the ball and switching play well
That said , I agree with most of the disgruntlement on here

 

For supporters of a certain vintage this is something that can never be forgiven.

 

Agree.

Luther and Tony Coton were my first two football heroes.

 

I never saw him play but completely get what he is to the club. I won’t forgive them either.

 

Sir Luther of Blissett was not a technically great footballer but was a wholehearted goalscorer who would never give less than 100% .
Luther , Viv Richards , Ian Botham .....my sporting heroes
Giving my age away there !!

 

I was 10 or so when Luther ran riot up front. WATFORD were a family club with faith in their manager and even though small, fought against the big boys and finished 2nd in the league. The current owners I must say have destroyed the heart of our club. When successful we cheered but when things turn south what do we have? Nothing absolutely nothing. It is sad, soo sad. My dad took me to stand on the old vicarage road end, I took my sons to sit in the rookery. I'm ready to walk away. Our players are in it for the money we have no youth policy so where is the clubs heart?

 

Don't walk away, GT or Luther wouldn't like it .

 

In fairness it’s either roll out the red carpet or a bariatric ambulance.

 

Exactly. You can blame Capoue or Gray, but they are symptoms. The disease is our leadership and their unbending strategy.

 

Hooray! Someone finally trying to rationalise our shitstorm of a club.

Cogs gonna COG.

 

That's 1. I still maintain we haven't got more than 5 hardcore COGs that post regularly on here.

 

We beat Everton 5-2 away and Man United 4-1 at home this season. None of our games in the seasons of 1999/00 and 2006/07 came close to that. Add to that winning 3-1 at Norwich (the closest we came to that was a lucky 2-0 at Reading) and our opening day win against Villa (the only games where we came close to that in flair and attacking style were the 4-2 against Portsmouth when we were all but relegated and possibly the Gravelaine-inspired win against Southampton). That's four games already that show things needn't be anything as bad as what we saw on Friday night. Even with recent cloth cutting we should be more competitive than what we were during those single seasons in the Prem, where just winning a game or even scoring a goal was an achievement.

The bar may have been lowered from what it was during the five year period but it's still higher than what it was when we really didn't have much money and most seasons a midtable finish in the second tier was the best we could hope for. You can't blame many for getting angry and upset.

 

We've flipped a few. I'd like to thank my colleagues. You've done some good work yourself.

 

Need to work on the Twitterati next...

 

As I posted earlier, we’re currently performing no better than an Aidy Hoofroyd championship team that sold Ashley Young and had Marlon King injured for most of the season, but some will have you believe it’s inevitable due to other clubs having more money and decision making doesn’t come into it.

 

That's 2.

 

Sorry, what is a COG?