It’s been proven that the way the Pozzo’s operate a club that it can bring success (figuratively and literally) by Udinese’ two top four finishes in Serie A, qualifying for Europe thirteen times and winning an Intertoto cup in 2000. Watford’s promotion to the Premier League in 2015 and being a never looking in danger of getting relegated three seasons in a row, and Granada’s back to back promotions to La Liga and staying in the top flight for five years before selling the club to Jiang Lizhang, who under his ownership got relegated in his first season.

The problem Gino Pozzo and Scott Duxbury face now at Watford is trying to find the balance between mediocrity in the Premier League and progressive planning. Off the pitch there’s absolutely no question that Watford have improved, but on it you could argue that nothing has improved and in fact things have become worse since Quique Sánchez Flores left the club after the 2015/16 season and was replaced by the terrible yet fantastic Walter Mazzarri.

The reason I say that the model needs tweaking is because the Premier League is a different animal in terms of financial power compared to Serie A and La Liga. Teams in the Prem at the bottom all have around 60/70m to spend on transfers, whereas the clubs who you would compare to Watford in La Liga and Serie A have around £5m-£10m to spend and in my opinion, you can’t run Watford the same way you do Udinese. The recruitment has to be so much better (I’m looking at you Giradi). Clubs in Italy rarely go outside Italy to buy players and the coaches usually swap around clubs so are use to the way Italian clubs work. Two of the ‘Bigger reputation’ coaches in QSF and Marco Silva have taken issue in the media with the way Watford operate in the transfer window and how they don’t have much say in the in goings and out goings, which causes unnecessary drama in the fan base and more importantly the hierarchy. What ‘good coach’ will want to work for a club that highlights the head coach as replaceable? It will be impossible for the club to attract a coach that would be able to take Watford to that next step if they’re not given more freedom.

The worst thing owners can do is promise things to fans and then not deliver, as seen at West Ham. The Pozzo’s and Duxbury have been great to Watford, however, they’re not immune from criticism. The start of the season when Silva was appointed and the signings made, it seemed like everything was about to click but unfortunately that went all tits up and we now have Javi Gracia, who started brilliantly (recent results have been shite) but is he the man to take Watford to the next level? probably not. Saying that, I want the owners to stick with a head coach and back him. Whether it be Javi or someone else, we’ve seen that constant change works to an extent, but it’s not progressive.

Hope you Dads enjoyed this on enjoooooythegame and I look forward to you moaning about it on Facebook.

Kind regards,

Zonalmista x