As QPR welcome Watford on Monday, LFW looks at the Hornets’ unique ownership situation in the wider context of the British game, and gauges opinion on their new manager Giuseppe Sannino.

Overview

Now here’s an interesting case study for our ongoing discussions on both football ownership and what exactly the point of all this is any more anyway….

The idea of feeder clubs is raised in this country every now and again, usually in the wake of an England defeat to Mauritius and usually by a journalist, pundit or Richard Scudamore who subscribes to the Sky Sports ideal that the only thing that matters is the Premier League — and of course the Champions League during the week — and anybody who is concerned with football below that level is actually a little bit silly and certainly wasting their time.

We look at Spain sweeping all before them and we look for what they’re doing differently — other than employing five times as many youth coaches and teaching their kids ball skills from an early age, rather than letting unqualified dads run youth teams and relying on whichever lad happens to have developed a bit quicker than all the others to power his way to victories on full sided pitches in the pouring rain. We see a midwinter break and think that might be an idea, and we see that Barcelona and Real Madrid have B and C teams playing in lower divisions, where their young players can go and play competitively, but still within the club’s ideal, and develop a lot better.

Then we see tiny clubs like Accrington, York, Grimsby, Barnet and so on struggling to scrape a team together and remain solvent each year and we wonder, wouldn’t it be better for them to be Liverpool B, Newcastle B, Man Utd B and Arsenal B? Wouldn’t it be better for our young players to escape the comfortable confines of the academy set ups and get out and play some real football? Wouldn’t it be better for these clubs to know their financial future was secure, and that their team will always be competitive?

Luckily, as with the midwinter break, we very quickly decide that this all sounds bloody hideous and while the Premier League is clearly all very lovely and successful there is plenty of enjoyment to be had elsewhere, often at a more affordable price and these days frequently providing a far more entertaining match. And if our little local club is only financially able to sustain itself in the Beazer Homes North Division Six then that’s fine, that’s where it shall reside, and it will still be ours and we’ll still love it. Liverpool B indeed. Do me a bloody favour.

Watford, however, sit somewhere in between the two models. Still, ostensibly, an independent English club, under foreign ownership like so many, but also linked to Udinese in Italy and Granada in Spain in an arrangement closer than we’ve ever seen before in this country. Last season, the first under the ownership of the Pozzo family who of course own the two foreign clubs as well, they had ten players on their books either signed or loaned from Udinese and Granada and they brought in another seven from Italy this summer. Their fortunes, it seems, will now forever run in tandem with two other teams — last year Udinese had Matej Vydra going spare and that loan signing almost helped propel Watford into the Premier League, this season they haven’t had anybody as good sent to them and they’re struggling in midtable.

So, the obvious conclusion would be that there’s even less point being a Watford fan now than any of the other similar sized clubs to them. We’ve debated on these pages many times before what exactly the point of fighting to get into the Premier League is — given that you have no chance of winning it and you’re essentially paying sky high ticket prices to see your club deliberately exit both cups early to desperately try and preserve seventeenth place — but really, honestly, what is the point when ultimately you’re only doing it to further the education of another club’s players?

But Watford have had rather a gut-full of this sort of talk. Ian Holloway had plenty to say about it as his Palace team — itself boosted substantially by the loan market — fought with the Hornets to try and win promotion from this division last season. Is what’s going on at Watford any better, worse or more or less damaging than what’s going on at Cardiff or Hull for example? Is it any worse than how Flavio Briatore treated QPR and their supporters? Watford recently replaced Gianfranco Zola with Giuseppe Sannino who brings a typical Italian manager’s CV to the table — 13 clubs in 17 years, four promotions recently — much as Briatore’s first appointment Luigi De Canio did at Loftus Road.

Everywhere you look there are football club owners, increasingly foreign, who see the exposure and television money available to Premier League teams and see a chance to promote their business and make money. Even our own very popular Tony Fernandes is using QPR as little more than a marketing vehicle for the Tune Group — he wants QPR players who people have heard of running around in the Premier League in Air Asia shirts, and he doesn’t want it because of some longstanding love of the club.

Were Watford better off lurching from one financial crisis to the next — as they seem to have been doing for the last decade or more — leaving them at the mercy of a variety of chancers who came along, playing in a decaying stadium? Laurence Bassin, who owned the club before the Pozzo’s, went about his work in such a manner that he was banned from football for three years for financial misconduct and had Watford placed under a transfer embargo — although admittedly it was the loosest embargo ever placed on a club as it didn’t, for some reason, preclude them from signing a load of players during the summer. Surely even working in tandem with two foreign clubs, swapping and changing players and what not, is better not only in the short term, making Watford competitive on the field, but also in the long term, where the ground is finally being redeveloped and the finances secured.

Like I say, an interesting case…

Interview

Now the dust has settled, was sacking Zola the right decision? Where did it go wrong for him?

Yes totally, as mentioned when we played each other at Christmas the team was in a mess when Zola left. Five home defeats on the trot for the first time in more than 20 years left Sannino with a lot of work to do taking over.

The Pozzo's gave Zola a lot of grace in the summer when they knew we should of been a Premier League team. The decisions then to lose certain players and for them not to be adequately replaced smacks of poor management, like his time at West Ham the second season syndrome hit Zola hard, he was unable to stop the rot and looked like the dressing room had been lost.

What have you made of the new man so far? What changes has he made? Is the style of play different? Typical negative Italian style or different to that?

Interesting question, I would say that most Watford fans are happy with the work he has done. We are definitely more solid at the back and have kept more clean sheets in Sannino's five months then in Zola's previous 15. However the football at times is a bit turgid, when holding on to one nil home wins at the turn of the year some fans were probably yearning for the ‘we score one more then you’ philosophy under Zola.

Where some Watford fans may not be too sure with him is the away form - prior to the Sheffield Wednesday win two weeks ago it was no win since October. Being a long suffering hornet that was the type of form I would associate with previous regimes where staying up was an achievement. If Sannino is in charge next season and this form continues the fans will not be so forgiving.

Who have been the stand out performers, and where are the weak links in the team?

In terms of what has been changed and to combine that with the stand out performers I will firstly mention Dániel Tőzsér, a player that by some accounts was close to signing last summer and who might have kept Zola in a job.

Tőzsér has been outstanding as our holding midfielder, an experienced player with over 200 games in four leagues he has been able to communicate with other players and make Watford look like they have some shape and idea when they play.

On top of Toszer our centre back Gabriella Angella has had a good first season in this country. Player of the season will be Troy Deeney-more about him in a moment........

What are you hoping for and expecting next season? Any names being mentioned as potential signings?

I am hoping for a promotion push next year, this does however rely on the same players staying at the club. I would imagine that Toszer will receive more lucrative offers and the club has a decision to make regarding Deeney.

Back to back seasons with 20 goals puts in him in the familiar position for Watford fans - best player sold in the summer. From Paul Furlong to Danny Graham players have been bought cheaply and sold for a large mark up, in some circumstances this was to rebuild the ground, mostly it was to sort the financial mess that some idiot/owner had got the club into.

Now that we are in a stable financial position the club does not have to sell, however the football model for the Pozzo's is to sell when the time is right and reinvest back into the team.

So an interesting summer lies ahead, stick or twist Mr Pozzo?

Links >>> Official Website >>>http://www.gloryhorns.co.uk/forum/index.php?sid=5e899764c5756fc4bc520909c938fd45 Horns forum >>> http://www.wfcforums.com/forumdisplay.php?3-Main-Forum>WFC Forums >>> Blind, Stupid and Desperate >>> http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/>Watford Observer Local Paper >>> http://fromtherookeryend.blogspot.co.uk/>From The Rookery End blog

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francisbowles added 10:35 - Apr 20 Thanks Clive. An informative and thought provoking piece but "midtable"? They are still in with a chance of the play offs.
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TacticalR added 23:30 - Apr 20 Thanks for your oppo report and to Richard. You make a good point about the lack of youth coaches in this country. Commentators like Raymond Verheijen are absolutely scathing about our ingrained amateurism. As regards Watford (and now Charlton), I think that the question remains 'which is the tail and which is the dog?' These 'synergistic' arrangements are sold to the fans on the basis that their club will get good foreign players, but are the English clubs just an afterthought to owners whose real priorities lie elsewhere? However, it sounds like most of the Watford fans are happy with the arrangement.

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