Best Hornet gone…

Vicarage Road

Watford are pathetic this season and everyone knows that. There is no sign of the magic Marlon King, Ashley Young, Dan Shittu and Darius Henderson spread. All of them have long ago continued their career in other, better clubs, and Watford is left only with the players that they couldn’t sell. Desperate transfer window took its toll; the club had to sell the best players like on the stock market in order to hold on in the first Championship season after losing the bonuses and good sponsorship contracts due to relegation from Premiership.

The fact is that no other club in the Championship could survive departure of the players like Jordan Stewart and Nathan Ellington (Derby County), Danny Shittu (Bolton Wanderers), the best scorer Darius Henderson (Sheffield United, £2 million), Gavin Mahon (QPR) and the golden attacking substitute Steve Kabba (Blackpool). Team’s form is pathetic during the whole season, as they don’t have enough players to cover all of the positions in the team. It even happened that the Hornets had only one striker against Reading, it was Will Hoskins among six players on the team sheet.

And guess who paid for this situation. It was not the president but the players. The coach was, of course, sacked, the man who created the recognizable Hornets’ style and who lead them to the Premier league in season 2006/07, young expert Aidy Boothroyd. Hornets came all the way to the 21st place in the league (relegation zone), but Boothroyd can hardly be considered responsible as he was practically left without his squad in the club with no perspective, although many clubs are interested in his services. It was hardly Aidy’s fault that he was left with only one striker after Tomas Parkin and Gregory Rasiak got injured, and also he is not to blame for the fact that no one knows where did the money from summer transfer window go.

The last straw was the home loss to Blackpool (3:4) at Vicarage Road, in the match where it seemed that Hornets’ defense is on strike against Boothroyd. Three times in this match Watford players had the lead and each time they were easily neutralized, only to lose eventually thanks to a stoppage-time goal. With a total of 30 goals conceded, only Sheffield Wednesday have worse defense.

Pop-star legend and the honorary Watford president, Sir Elton John has also retired from his position, stating that he doesn’t agree with the club’s policy for some time now. John has been in that post since the middle of the 70s, when he started financing the club that were at that time in Fourth Division. It all slowly fell apart at Vicarage Road, while Championship relegation is a serious threat this season, and even the urgent loans of Darren Ward from Wolves and Gregory Rasiak from Saints didn’t help much. To add insult to injury, two first-choice keepers, Mat Poom and Scott Loacha got injured and it seems that midfielders, John-Joe O’Toole and Tommy Smith won’t be in the team for much longer.

There are some speculations about former Watford and Liverpool legend, John Barnes, current Jamaica national squad boss taking over, but he denies it.

Hornets squad fell apart and it is a serious question when they will gather up again…

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