So Beppe Whoever has gone from Watford. Club without a manager as well as an identity.
— Michael Calvin
But, what does that even mean? A football club’s identity is a pretty nebulous concept, and when challenged to explain what he meant:
he came he went what changed? Nothing because he didn't understand or connect to a community culture.
— Michael Calvin
I like Calvin, but this is complete bollocks. The Watford Observer’s report on Sannino’s sacking highlighted the owners’ concerns with Sannino’s training methods, and his relationship with the players. I don’t think he failed because he couldn’t grasp that the club was important to the local community. Watford fans liked Sannino, and he liked them. The connection was as much as you expect from any manager in modern football – he wasn’t in the pub pulling pints, but he spoke about the fans in every interview, he always acknowledged and thanked them.
In terms of being a community club, there’s no evidence that Watford’s reputation here has suffered under the Pozzo’s ownership. The club continues to send first team pros to events at schools around the town and surrounding area, and the pre-season open day is extremely popular with younger fans and families, who get to mingle with the players. Nothing remarkable, granted, but the club does seem to have a presence beyond the stadium.
In building a new East Stand, the Pozzo’s have done what done what all owners for the past two decades have promised but failed to deliver. In addition, they have honoured Watford’s most popular and legendary figure by renaming the Rous Stand the Graham Taylor stand - an official ceremony will take place in November with Taylor present.
The Pozzo family have made the fans proud of Watford again and they’ve done it without gambling the club’s finances. They have rejected multiple bids for star striker Troy Deeney, remarkable given the sums reportedly on offer in the past month. For their part, several of the foreign players brought in by the new owners appear to be genuinely enjoying their time at the club, and have developed a great rapport with the fans, none more so than Argentine forward, Fernando Forestieri. When the team dramatically secured a playoff final spot last season several of the imported recruits, including Forestieri, went into the town centre to celebrate with fans after the game.
Considering all this, it’s unclear what aspects of the previous identity were so special to prompt Calvin to mourn its demise. The previous owner was Laurence Bassini, a man with a string of failed businesses who had changed his name (formerly Bazini). Bassini was recently declared bankrupt for the second time in his life after losing a court case with the Russo brothers, from whom he purchased the club in 2012.
Bassini had also been found guilty of breaking Football League financial regulations. If he had he still been the owner when the Football League reached its decision, Watford would have faced severe penalties. In short it is unlikely the club would still be competing in the Championship. These were not good times.
Other previous owners may not have been as dangerous as Bassini, but Watford have enjoyed unexpected promotion to the Premier League twice and both times they were nearly bankrupted by naive chief executives blinded by the bright lights. All that money and they couldn’t get the stand built, but we had to get the collection buckets out to pay off the debts caused by players brought in on inflated contracts. Now we have owners who understand how to run a football club, and we are benefitting from that. Ultimately, they will want to use Watford to get access to Premier League TV money, and a bigger market to buy and sell players, which is what they’re good at. Clubs like Watford have always struggled to get by without selling a few players, and always will do to some extent. This is hardly the root of all evil.
I hate blind loyalty from fans. It’s embarassing when they ignore obvious problems to satisy a short-term lust for glory, but given where we were, I can’t see any substance to Calvin’s ridiculous attack on the club’s identity. Our identity was that of a club going to the wall. Our identity, to be frank, was starting to feel a bit shit. Why should we have to settle for that?
If being owned by Pozzo means Watford fans have to endure watching some good football from skillful players, in the comfort of a four sided ground, without the risk of administration, then that’s a hardship I’m willing to endure. I’ll happily identify with that.
Spot on with these comments, one can only presume he is a fan of that shite that are up at junction 10 M1!
Option 1.Nice ground, no debt, great team to watch, safe for families and winning.
or
Option 2. Three sides to the ground, poor admin, riddled with debt, directors milking it for all its worth and a poor team!
I think this is called a no brainer! Sod my identity!
Spot on Michael, has Mr Calvin bothered to ask Watford fans whether we feel we are losing our identity ? The fans are the club. Owners, managers, players, sponsors come and go,but loyal fans (not blindly loyal) do not.
I have no feeling that my club has been usurped. The principles that the Pozzo family embody are ones that I would endorse. For example, financial stability, being a part of the community, developing young players to their full potential and not allowing the club to be bullied by the larger fish in the pool (e.g. Troy’s transfer).
The Pozzos committment to Udinese (nearly 30 years) shows they are football people who understand the game and what it takes to be successful. There was a brilliant 2 part interview with Gino Pozzo in the Watford Obeserver in Nov 2012 (availaible on-line). Gino does not give many, but this interview outlined the vision. Unlike many owners (e.g the guy at Leeds) he does not try to hog the limelight, and lets the football do the talking.
I believe our club is in the safest hands since Elton and the clubs values and place in the community is safer than it has been since Graham taylor left the first time in 1987.
The only thing I’d disagree with the above article is that our identity was becoming a bit shit before the Pozzo’s. Our reality was becoming deeply sh~t before the Pozzo’s but the identity of the club remained the same because the identity is the fans, the club, the community, the badge, the shirt and the history – I was still proud of all of those even under Bazonkers!
Thats just an opinion though – the rest of the article is 100% spot on. Rather than detract from our clubs history we are seeing it enhanced with new stories being written all the time and players really connecting with the club like Pudil and Fessi far more than journeyman English players of the past – did Stuart Rimmer or Steve Butler bond with the fans in the same way?
Calvin became very critical about the club at around the same time his son was released from the youth team. Coincidence? You decide, but I feel that much of what he writes about Watford comes across very bitter.
These are players who celebrate wins in the town with fans. The players families sit in the crowd with us, the children come on the pitch after, more still the Pozzo family have given us players who feel like they are Watford players again. Even the loans! Before every player was for sale so it was hard to connect.
Beppe had an excellent relationship with the fans, Mr Calvin would know if he hadn’t swapped football teams. Seriously, what kind of a man does that?
Spot on article.
Calvin is laughable; typical journo who changes his allegiance as quickly as a Guardianista changes his favourite drink in a Hampstead coffee bar. And to Millwall!!! Who with any sense of Watford’s history and identity would ever do that……..
One can only suspect Alan McDowell’s post sums up the reason for his inarticulate and bitter vendetta.