The Wolf.
“Il lupo perde il pelo ma non il vizio“ The wolf loses his fur but not his habits.
No matter which club, it is always necessary and important that you need an idea. You need to know how you want to play, what kind of profiles do we need because if you do not do that, you're always looking for the needle in the haystack. Do you think Porsche, Mercedes or DHL would ask their stakeholders what they should do next ahead of every decision they make? The same holds true in football - it's about the right people on the board making the right decisions for the club. It takes right decisions and where you want to go to - what kind of players, what kind of manager - and then in every transfer window try to get the best possible. This is possible. This is not rocket science. club needs a proper sporting structure, a clear philosophy, and consistency in planning. Without that, you'll keep changing. — Ralf Ragnick
Watford are back in familiar territory. Underachieving with multiple factors at play. There’s no plan, there’s no optimism, there’s no idea. An idea and a plan are completely separate entities. A plan, as we all know, is something you follow. An idea is something you come up with. There’s not really a need to go into details regarding each head coach change, or each transfer, or other facets that have been done 10x over and then some. Any plan and idea can work, it’s what you create around it that will determine if you fall short, be on par, or overachieve. I’ve mentioned before I think win percentage for managers is meaningless. It doesn’t, for the most part, show a true reflection of ability. Managers are also like players. They have a skillset, they’re not, again, outside of a few, adaptable. Only one idea can exist, two ideas cannot co-exist in the world of football. Take Gary Rowett at Leicester for example. Is Gary Rowett a bad manager? Absolutely not. But he’s a manager that has a skillset of direct, compact shape, gritty football. Something that aligns very well with what Millwall have built towards. So far at Leicester he’s only won 1 in his first 10 games. That should not come as a surprise because Leicester is a squad suited to dominating the ball, playing off the cuff with tactical instruction within that. The likes of Brendan Rodgers, Enzo Maresca did well with that squad because it was morphed into that. You could go back further with Leicester with Nigel Pearson — Claudio Ranieri was an upgraded version of that style. Millwall again. Gary Rowett > Neil Harris > Alex Neil. They have an identity, and they have a recruitment process to go alongside a style that improves each season, but it’s upgraded on something the players aren’t alien to. Middlesbrough the same with going from Michael Carrick to Kim Hellberg. Derby going from Paul Warne to John Eustace. There’s an idea, then there’s a plan and everyone is on the same wavelength. At Watford it’s Gino with a blindfold and hitting whatever he feels like that day. If Brentford being 7th in the Premier League with Kieth fucking Andrews as their manager doesn’t tell you strategy and patience brings long term success then god knows what other evidence you need.
It’s way beyond the need to say it but there has to come a point where Gino looks at what he’s doing and thinks I’m a total fucking idiot here. Because I’m looking at Udinese who in the last three years have done what Watford need. They’ve kept the same style and upgraded to Kostas Runjaic who just beat Milan 3-0 at the San Siro in his 76th game in charge. The last Watford head coach to have 76 games in charge under the Pozzo’s? Never. Zola got to 75. Do you know how mad that is? We in theory should have an advantage. The club is thought of in London, has a multi club ownership so can attract players not always accessible to this league for other clubs and an academy that has been doing well in terms of productivity. The academy won’t be max’d out to It’s highest potential because the head coaches that come in are immediately in survival mode. Why would they pick an unknown kid when the safe bet is a more experienced player who you know what will give you, good or bad? Chris Wilder had nothing to lose when he chucked in Ryan Andrews because the arrangement was always for the former to leave at the end of the season. Watford should have built a long term plan with Wilder in my opinion but that’s a conversation for a different day. Club culture drives performance, winning, results. What I want Watford to do now is commit to a plan. Look at what the current crop of players we currently have at the club are and build around that with recruitment in mind too. If you’re going to keep Ed Still, give him a long term contract. If you’re not, find someone you truly want that fits with the squad you want to go with next season. Work on the basis that Louza, Maamma, Chakvetadze and Irankunda might not be here. The first two are certainly off, the next two likely staying per my information. Don’t renew Kayembe or Mendy’s deals, let them go. The squad is much better suited to attacking quickly in a variation of 4-3-3. What does it lack? Strong characteristics, experience is meaningless in football, just means you’ve played games. I want to see more characters that have something about them, they can be 19 or 30 for all I care, they’re lacking in this team. We’ve got a lot of good talent that needs steel around them. Look at the attackers you’ve got and then bring in a striker that compliments them. Irankunda and Vata are shot monsters. Chakvetadze is pass first but loves an overlapping full back. Baah is a cutback from the byline demon. So you need a striker that’s going to be a foil for your attackers but also makes quick darting runs to near post or instinctively hangs back on the penalty spot or around that area. Attacking play and partnership/combinations are best when the instincts all mirror up to one another. It’s really not difficult to do this because it’s basic. Bola and Ngakia get a lot of praise because they match well with Chakvetadze/Maamma and Baah/Irankunda. Synergy, synergy, synergy. Watford fans don’t give a shit if we’re in the Prem or not. We want to see something that we’re working towards. Winning games of football comes with stability, it comes with planning and strategy. Too many times has Oxford away happened. Commit to something and build. If it takes three years that’s fine, if it takes five years that’s fine. The opportunity to reset and actually put something in place is still viable.
I heavily believe in club dna being a thing. I know a lot of people scoff at the idea because they will tell you what club dna means is your most successful ever manager so they must have those similarities. Well yeah, that’s the point. Watford have been most successful with gritty, physical, speedy players. Graham Taylor, Aidy Boothroyd, Slavisa Jokanovic, Javi Gracia. QSF in his first season had a lot of elements in that too. One thing this club has lost is a striker with something about them, who is also a do it all kinda 9. Helguson, King, Graham, Deeney. Even Rasiak when he had a short loan was in that mould too. Alex Neil is genuinely the perfect Watford manager. Ed Still could grow into that if allowed and if the club want to actually be serious for once. For the love of god be serious for once. To conclude this rambling:
Long term contract for a manager that fits with your squad
Recruit towards that idea
Focus on characteristics as well as ability when signing players
Integrate more academy players into first team picture. Nabizada should be playing more than he is. Did not deserve to have zero minutes vs Oxford. Environment created so he wouldn’t be able to
Fuck Mogi Bayat off