INSIDE FOOTBALL WITH: Danny Webber - Why Watford have a chance of staying in the Premier League

Ex-Watford striker Danny Webber tells us why the Vicarage Road club are better positioned for Premier League survival this time around.

I played for Salford City in the FA Cup on Saturday and managed two goals in a 2-1 win against Curzon Ashton. We’ve drawn Bradford Park Avenue in the next round and I’d love us to carry on and draw one of my former teams. We can all dream, eh? But I’m just thankful that I’m enjoying my football and playing well.

After leaving Manchester United in 2002, I played for some big clubs who’ve all been in the Premier League in the last decade. Sheffield United, Leeds United, Portsmouth had their moments, while Watford had just come out of the Premier League when I went there after Old Trafford. Now they’re back in the top-flight and despite losing at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday, they’ve had a solid start to the season.

Watford are 13th, have only lost two of their seven league games and they’ve only conceded six, the same as Manchester City. For a team who have been relegated immediately in their two previous Premier League seasons, it’s not bad. It’s not like teams are cutting them open every week; even Palace’s goal on Sunday was a penalty.

Scoring is a problem, but once the captain Troy Deeney gets off the mark he’ll do well in the Premier League. He’s one of the few English players at Watford - a club owned by an Italian family - but he scored 20 plus goals for the Hornets in each of the last three seasons in the Championship. He’s strong, direct and has a great work ethic. Watford often scouted young players well, both from bigger clubs and through their own youth system.

I came there initially on loan from United, and it was a great move for me. I was playing regularly, I felt free to express myself under Gianluca Vialla and then the current England assistant manager Ray Lewington. Tom Cleverley enjoyed his time on loan at Watford, Chris Eagles too.

Ashley Young was a youth player while I was there and was full of talent and self-belief. The coaches were concerned that he wasn’t physically strong enough to play Championship football and hoped that he’d grow, but having played with him in the young vs. old games every Friday, I knew he was ready. The ‘youngsters’ always used to win. Young was later sold to Aston Villa for £9.7 million in 2007, still Watford’s record transfer sale.

Watford were struggling financially when I played there. They weren’t long out of the Premier League and the collapse of ITV Digital hit the club hard – as it did with others. It was my first taste of a club having financial issues. I’d grown up in a bubble at Manchester United and just assumed that every football club had money. They don’t.

My £250,000 transfer fee wasn’t even paid by the club, but by a group of wealthy Watford fans who wanted a return. They got that when I was sold to Sheffield United for twice that amount a couple of years later.

Another group of Watford fans owned the Championship Manager football game, which became – and still is – a huge seller. They invited me to their offices one day and asked if my stats were accurate. I should have told them that they weren’t and given myself better scores to wind my mates up…put myself up with Becks, Scholes and Giggs - or hammered my mates by lowering their scores.

Because of the money issues at the club, some of the Watford players took big pay cuts. The situation was only relieved when we reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. I saw similar money problems later in my career at Portsmouth and it caused serious unrest in the dressing room. I still don’t think that every Portsmouth player got what was owed to them.

Watford got back on track and it was a good family club to be at. The fans, especially the vocal ones in the Rookery End behind the goal, wanted an honest shift from you and if you gave them that they were right behind you. They were local people supporting their local team. Vicarage Road had three modern stands, but one along the side was old and they were planning to replace it. They finally did that last season, naming it after their most famous fan and former owner Elton John.

Vicarage Road now holds just over 21,000. It’s small by Premier League standards, but perfect for Watford. It’s also in the centre of the town, which I like. Watford don’t need a bigger ground and they’re also unlikely to have money problems if they’re wise with the riches from the Premier League television deal.

It’s an attractive club for players - well-located near London and on the main rail and motorways between London, Birmingham and Manchester. Because of the location, scouts used to be at all of our games. And the location suited a young player as it wasn’t in the centre of London where there are a lot of temptations. I wish them well and hope they stay up. It will be tough, but I think they have a better chance this time than when they came up twice in the past.