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Chairman stands by Aidy
9:27am Saturday 31st May 2008
Comments (27)Graham Simpson has embraced Aidy Boothroyd's plan to refine Watford's style of play and believes the manager deserves the chance to put right the wrongs of last season.
"I am a believer in continuity and I think we have got some great players here and a great management team," said the chairman.
"I'll support my manager. He's making mistakes but he's still learning. Hopefully we can move forward from here."
Simpson was hugely encouraged by the meeting he, along with chief executive Mark Ashton, held with Boothroyd in the immediate aftermath of the defeat to Hull City at the KC Stadium.
Top of the agenda was the £6m Boothroyd is understood to have been told he needs to raise in transfer fees closely followed by a discussion concerning the much-maligned style of play.
"Aidy has said we are going to play a different style of football and I admire him for that," said Simpson.
"I'm pleased about that, if I'm honest. I've never gone to Aidy and said, You have to do this and you have to do that'. I'm not like that. But when he talked about playing a different style I was certainly very happy, not just for me but everybody at Watford."
The rigidity of Watford's approach was one of the fundamental reasons behind a remarkable slump in form that saw them win just one of the last 16 games.
"Personally, I think it was a combination of things," said Simpson with refreshing honestly.
"There was obviously a loss of confidence, one would question the style of football played, one would look at how much affect Marlon King leaving had, should Gavin have left? etc etc. Towards the end there was huge expectation and it didn't happen. As the expectation grew a loss of confidence and fear began to manifest itself.
"It became a nightmare playing at Vicarage Road. As soon as we went a goal down you could see the nervousness in the crowd. The crucial one for me was the Barnsley game where we just didn't turn up."
That result prompted a cacophony of boos among the fans who had seen their team's hopes of automatic promotion unravel before their eyes.
"There has been a lot of criticism levelled at the club, some of it fair and valid," the chairman said.
"We have to take that on the chin and hold our hands up and say, For whatever reason, we lost it in the second half of the season'. We really sorry we didn't achieve we didn't achieve what we wanted to and we are going to try and make it better."
According to the 17th Deloitte annual review of football finance published this week, Watford paid £17.7m in wages during the Premiership season of 2006/07.
That figure has been trimmed to around £11m and, with only one season of parachute payments to come, will need to be reduced even further if Watford are to avoid another flirtation with financial ruin, as was the case in 2002/03 when they lost £5m of contractual TV revenue and the collapse of the transfer market meant they were unable to sell any of their big-earning players.
"We have been very, very sensible here," claimed Simpson.
"We have been very prudent. As a a comparson, six or seven years ago under Vialli we had played on massive contracts. We had Ramon Vega on a £1m a year for three years, we had Allan Neilsen whose final year was worth £950k and we had other big earners like Stephen Hughes and Stephen Glass. We don't have that at Watford anymore."
Your Say YourTimes Series
Peter Cartwright, Ilford, Essex says...
10:38am Sat 31 May 08
chris, the vic says...
2:07pm Sat 31 May 08
I guess as with most things actions will speak louder than words so we must allow Mr Simpson his right of decision making, but to be fair most of the expectations of glory came from Aidy and the Watford spin. We were always due a glut of goals or it was a must win game for automatic promotion. Most of the contributors here wanted a change in style, wanted success but doubted whether last season was right.
In hindsight lucky we were not WFC employees or Aidy would have fired us!!
With regard to high earners has Mr Jackson left? I cant believe he is on a low wage but maybe GS is talking in a broader concept manner (aka spin)
Winston, watford says...
2:14pm Sat 31 May 08
SIMMO, BUCKS says...
2:18pm Sat 31 May 08
errollg, st albans says...
3:05pm Sat 31 May 08
He compounds it by saying that to get promotion actually LOSES you money because of the increased salaries. He is insulting the fans' intelligence with this complete garbage.
Had he been at all sensible, we would be in a healthy financial position. Added to promotion, the sale of King, Ashley, Hamuer, Forrester etc should have put the club in the healthiest financial position ever. In fact, we are very hard up. There are no adequate answers. Something is very very wrong indeed.
mohican, sutton says...
5:45pm Sat 31 May 08
I believe that Aidy should have moved on, he must have thickest skin on earth.Mistakes are accepted in any walk of life, but apart from the blunders in transfers it was his total pig headed ways that was upsetting to most.
Why did the good paying public have to watch what was served up to them, and after all we do pay good money to see games.
The day that WBA humbled us , was the day all could see our limitations, that was when we should have changed our way of play. .... Sorry that meant play football Aidy.
There must be someone to help our one dimensional manager or are most afraid to tell him honest comments, looks that way to me.
The likes of Avram Grant must be in tears at what happens to other managers.. Fail and you keep your job, win and get sacked.
Is this for real or a bad dream ???
ptquinn, Watford says...
6:01pm Sat 31 May 08
Yes some of the decisions the Chairman has made and Aidy are questionable and awful.
However, you can't have it both ways where some clubs chairman interfere with the Managers selection and decisions etc.
Asking for the Chairman to resign is utter rubish, where is the person with milllions to take over?
At least Mr Simpson has had the decentcy to hold his hand up and state the club has made mistakes. Who hasn't in this world?
Get real, there will be more mistakes made, for the better or for the worse.
I bet Simpson would be glad to hand over the reigns to another person, but there isn't any one out there at the moment who would buy the club.
For Godsake him and the Russo brothers as well as a few of the thousand fans saved this club from going to the wall.
I would urge Mr Simpson, as the club is curbing its wage bill whether the board of directors and management team have taken the lead by cutting their pay?.
Simpson should practice what he preaches. However, if we look at ourselves would we like a pay cut if the revenue of our company falls? I think not.
We should wait and see what happens next season before calling for peoples heads.
I love my football club and I know all of you out there do as well.
I agree there is too much spinning by the club, however that is much do with the club being a PLC. Which I believe the club falls behind too often.
You have the right to criticise the club, all of us do, but for next season whether you agree with Aidy or Simpson or not we need to get behind the team.
We will not succeed if we are seen to be arguing and carping about situations where we do not know all the facts.
The club needs to be more open and honest.
Come on you horns!
HiHo SilverLining, Norfolk says...
10:24pm Sat 31 May 08
The answer my friend is "blowin in the wind"
HiHo SilverLining, Yorkshire says...
10:26pm Sat 31 May 08
The answer my friend is
"Blowin in the Wind"
Winston, watford says...
8:39am Sun 1 Jun 08
Surrey Horn, Surbiton says...
9:06am Sun 1 Jun 08
The enlightened one, Garston says...
9:52am Sun 1 Jun 08
chris, the vic says...
12:02pm Sun 1 Jun 08
In the final analysis WFC are surrounded by spin on everything they do, but if you cut through it I think we are left with a few basic facts and on those facts are what people need to decide on.
Fact one is that the club under GS's chairmanship is in a much healthier position as is his own finances. Out of the sky bonanza that Aidy landed for us he has cleared much debt and remunerated himself.
Fact two setting aside the sky money we have sold some good players HH/MK/AY/HB and we bought them for £2m but they were good and along with Ben and Adam were our best players. In turn we have purchased one or two players who are good but not match winners. We laso in desperation in the premiership signed 8 less than good players in that January plus several others who pushed the wages sky high in the last two years.
Based on this it is fair to say we mismanaged the new signings, the wage structure and the overall quality.
So in GS's time we have got a more secure future and in Aidy's time had some exciting times along with some disappointing times and finished up with a poorer quality team at the end.
With the cut backs and £6m required, so far Aloi has gone for nothing, ditto with Jordan and who knows with Nathan. We know that wages have been saved but do we still need to raise £6m? Dont expect those points to be answered by the spin machine at WFC.
However have i enjoyed the last three years and I would answer yes, and
Despite the obvious mistakes of Aidy under the leadership of GS would I change them for less than a very rich chairman and a proven top manager, probably not.
Roger, St Albans says...
12:52pm Sun 1 Jun 08
Holly68, watford says...
1:18pm Sun 1 Jun 08
What if Ashcroft sided with the Russo's and gave Simpson a vote of no confidence then called an EGM to oust him ???
If he went Ashton and Aidy would quickly follow out the door, the Russo's would be back on the board (who to this day only had the clubs best interests at heart and have remained very quiet), then maybe just maybe we can set the ship that is Watford FC sailing back in the right direction, not is a sea of spin ....
food for thought brothers and sisters :-)
GaryQE2, London says...
8:35am Mon 2 Jun 08
Dave, Holborn says...
2:09pm Mon 2 Jun 08
Speedy Dog, Aquadrome says...
7:28pm Mon 2 Jun 08
Billie, Kings Langley says...
9:06am Tue 3 Jun 08
chris, the vic says...
2:02pm Tue 3 Jun 08
Since then Mr Skinner has written another article in defence of referees in general but what he doesnt understand is that all fans want is justice and fairness.
When WFC lost to Hull it was not unexpected or maybe undeserved but the ref got major decisions wrong on the day that changed the whole tie. If for instance instead of talking to Dean Windass he had booked him or more deservedly so sent him off he wouldnt have scored against Bristol in the final. maybe Mr Friend cost us a £1m for a final appearance and Bristol £60m no small mistake.
But even when the sending off of Eustace was overturned did the ref apologise, or Phil Brown for his reference to a headbutt, nor Ashbee for telling the ref an elbow was used.
But hey a known poor ref like Styles only has to apologise to Liverpool and has his mate 'the voice of football' to defend him.
I wonder when refs will improve and be open about what they saw, because on incidents where they saw what happened, their decisions are often awry...should we despatch them to specsavers rather than in some cases drama school.
gilesy97, SURBITON says...
2:42pm Tue 3 Jun 08
Anyway , hopefully a few decisions will go "our way " this year. Maybe if the Vic becomes more of a "fortress" we will pressure refs into giving us decisions , at home ..like most home teams seem to get. I have never seen a home club get SO MANY decisions given against them in matches as we did last season.Lets be the 12th man next season !!!!
VoR, watford says...
7:52pm Tue 3 Jun 08
Adam Johnson swap with Demerit...DJ Campbell....Heidur Helgusson.....Wes Hoolahan or Peter Halmosi, thus far.
Out...Priskin...Kabb
a...
Doyley,Poom thus far.
Danny staying put at the moment!
If we can't keep Macanuf then J-Campbell Ryce, unfortunately!!
All other deals will be loans....1 Arsenal loanee a cert ATM.
ab11uk, watford says...
3:30pm Wed 4 Jun 08
Boothroyd wanted by Blackburn
VoR, watford says...
5:05pm Wed 4 Jun 08
I'm in the minority in wanting AB to stay and put right what went wrong, I feel he's capable, lets see!!
straightnochaser, Leighton Buzzard says...
2:29pm Thu 5 Jun 08
dazza hardwick, notts says...
4:06pm Thu 26 Jun 08
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Upper-Rous, Watford says...
9:06am Sat 31 May 08
Now, I know there are those who will argue that the guy's put a lot of money into the club, and he's just recouping some of this. Fair enough. But those fans who stumped up several hundred quid a few years back, for shares that are now almost worthless, aren't being compensated.
And, in an interview with the WO a few months back, he partly justified his whopping wedge by saying he's had to neglect his travel business. Well, he could have sold it, for goodness sake - we're not a flipping charity or an insurance policy for entrepreneurs who want to be football chairmen.
So, let's save another £250k a year by halving his salary - I'm sure he can scrape by on a quarter of a mill' a year.
P.S. If I sound a bit grumpy this morning, it's because the mention of Ramon Vega has put me right off my cornflakes!