As QPR head to Watford on Sunday, 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

Watford regular Richard Segal, who has to put up with my football-related swearing on a daily basis in the workplace, penned the following before we broke up for Christmas…

After last season, where you could easily have gone up, what has gone wrong this time around? Why haven’t Watford been able to reach that level again?

Simply put, we don't have the same players. Last season we had the best striker in the league Matej Vydra, who is now at West Brom, two solid midfielders in Nathaniel Chalobah (now on loan a Forest) and Jonathan Hogg who moved to Huddersfield in the summer to be nearer his family. On top of that we have had our best player in Almin Abdi injured for four months. Players have been replaced but we have gone for quantity instead of quality.

Did you agree with the sacking of Zola? What have been his main failings?

I totally agree with Zola being sacked, although I am very grateful for the level of football played last season which was the best anyone has ever seen at Vicarage Road. We should have gone up and Zola must take blame for mistakes at the back end of the season that prevented automatic promotion. As we all know in football a manager will be judged on current results and the last few games have been awful, losing five games at home on the trot is shocking - that three of them were to clubs in the bottom six and without us scoring is beyond alarming. His position was untenable.

What do you think of the new man, Giuseppe Sannino?

Nervous and apprehensive… We have a new manager with three assistants who speak no English and have very little knowledge of the Championship so let's hope none of the are driving to Yeovil on New Year’s Day.

I do feel that several players need a massive kick up the arse, Sannino will be a manager more willing to do this rather than the man Troy Deeney called this week 'the nicest man in football'.

His record in Italy is interesting, on the positive side four consecutive promotions with different clubs, on the flip-side 13 different clubs in 17 years. There will certainly be more emphasis on tactical work, according to sources Udinese spend eight hours a week compared to one hour at Watford.

This is now the way Watford function, fans can like it or lump it. As much as I was saying a Steve Clarke or another British appointment would be ideal it is not the way the Pozzo's operate: they know how Sannino and other Italian managers coach and their strengths while they are not familiar or willing to trust managers from Britain who even have a half decent record.

Aidy Bothroyd and Brendan Rodgers were names that many people in football were unaware of when Watford appointed them so all Hornet fans have their fingers crossed that Sannino will prove as successful.

Where is the team strong and weak? Who have been the stand out performers and who has been poor?

At the moment we are not particularly strong anywhere - we still play very nice football but if teams play two banks of four then we struggle to get round that.

Weakness, without a shadow of doubt is at the back - two sheets from 20 games indicates that. We looked a bit more solid when Zola played four at the back towards the end of his tenure but teams find it very easy to work us out. If the new coach plays the 3-5-2 Italian preferred formation we could be in even more trouble.

We miss an English player who sits in front of the back four, Iriney, Josh McEachran and George Thorne have all failed. To make matters worse there is a guy called John Eustace who seems to be doing ok at Derby.

In general, what do you make of the club’s ownership situation? Isn’t it a bit weird to be essentially a feeder club for Udinese?

I have no problem with the ownership and am grateful for the Pozzo family saving my club from ruin under previous ownership, a certain club up the M1 are a prime example of what happens there. The 'hate' we received from certain quarters about a feeder club or a b side does not bother me, any club of Watford’s size would bite the hands off owners in Europe willing to invest in them. The East stand is being built and by next summer we will have a Premier League ground, where the club will actually be in the league will probably have a lot to do with how this latest managerial appointment works out.

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TacticalR added 23:41 - Dec 27 Thanks for your oppo report and to Richard. I agree it's hard for other clubs to point the finger at Watford, as an increasing number have foreign owners, foreign managers and foreign players. I do have some questions though... Prior to the Pozzo takeover didn't Watford pride themselves on nursing home-grown talent (like Tommy Smith)? Wasn't the Harefield Academy supposed to be a model for youth development across the country? Has that all been brushed aside and forgotten about? Almost any club might sell their crown jewels if a lot of money is on offer, but has Watford actually been set up to operate as a shop window?

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ElGreco added 00:21 - Dec 28 A really balanced article. A few things: Zola was not sacked, he resigned. It seems he ran out of ideas and thought it best to walk The Harefield Academy is alive and thriving. It is a vital part of the existing setup just as it was previously. Several youth players continue to press for first team consideration. Most notably over the last 2 yearsm Sean Murray and Tommie Hoban are now established seniors The Pozzos make their living by identifying, developing and selling on talent. They already do this at Udinese and Granada and Watford is no different. Having said this, you cannot operate a shop window down a back alley. Both Udine and Granada are now established top flight teams in their respective national leaugues which they weren't before the Pozzos came along. This is clearly their goal for Watford, The establish new talent and sell it on model is really no different from what most clubs have been forced to do for years anyway and at least through the academy and the Pozzo's scouting network there should be enough talent coming through to step in when players move on

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TacticalR added 19:44 - Dec 28 El Greco, thanks for the update on Harefield. What I was really saying was that you might think that a club with a reasonably successful youth development system would be the last club to want to change that system. Ideally all the pieces of the jigsaw will fit together, but I can't help wondering if the imports will dominate.
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