The words of support are fine, but actions will speak far louder
We’ve had the words and, regardless of how they are interpreted or how much faith you have in them, now we really do need the actions.
Yesterday’s defeat at Coventry was almost secondary to the events of the previous 48 hours and had Watford managed to win it could have gone some way to papering over the very obvious cracks that have appeared at London Colney.
However, another defeat – albeit a narrow one with spirit shown – means the Hornets have lost five of their last eight league games.
A squad that, before the transfer window opened, already badly needed additions has been left bereft of the likes of Baah, Ebosele and Louza, even though the latter should be fit for the weekend.
The bench contained two very inexperienced teenagers, three mid-30 somethings and the club’s only addition of the window so far, whose two performances before yesterday were poles apart.
So yes, the pre-match comments from owner Gino Pozzo were soothing if not totally satisfying, but saying of Tom Cleverley “we are committed to support him” is one thing.
Now let’s see that – because if new players that solve problems, fill gaps and add quality don’t arrive this week, then the rest to this season is going to be like watching the dregs of a cold bath swirl slowly down the plughole.
The afternoon at Coventry summed it up: there was effort, some flashes of inspiration, there were chances.
But the home side found it all too easy to establish a winning position and then hold onto it.
It was better than Tuesday’s showing against Preston, but not as good as last weekend at Derby because, as we know, Watford are inconsistent.
They aren’t brilliant, good, bad or dreadful. They’re each of them, but only some of the time.
The most frustrating thing of all is that apart from four teams, the rest of the Championship is blighted with the same pendulum of performances as Watford.
Middlesbrough have lost three of their last four, including against Preston and Portsmouth. It’s three straight defeats for Blackburn.
While two automatic promotion places and a couple of play-off slots already seem decided, there are clearly two more top-six positions very much up for grabs.
Currently, the teams who have bobbed around between fifth and eighth are seemingly holding the door open for others to join the party, and the likes of Bristol City and Sheffield Wednesday are now in the mix.
Since January 1, Watford have taken four points from a possible 18 – and five of the six teams they have faced are below them in the table.
Three of the next four games are against teams above the Hornets. Not a pleasant prospect.
In just over a week, the chance to bring in new players comes to an end and so the club’s owner and his sporting director have that amount of time to show the rest of us what “support” for the head coach looks like.
Cheerleading is not going to be enough.
Accepting all the known and understood caveats that come with trying to do business in the January window, it still feels very much that the first 25 days have been wasted.
There are already a couple of players that fit Cleverley’s wider remit of being Championship-wise, ready-to-go and able to improve the quality of the squad who have moved club already.
One was for a six-figure fee, the other on a season-long loan: both are players that the Watford Observer is aware were names identified and put forward by the head coach before the start of the current window.
There are more names on his list, as well as further suggestions for the two positions the Hornets have already missed out on.
Will they, or anyone else, arrive between now and 11pm on February 3? Only two or three people really know the answer to that.
Could we have a situation like the January 2022 window where the likes of Samir, Kalu and N’Koulou all suddenly rocked up?
Or will it be like two years ago, when Slavic Bilic placed his online shop order and found that while he got the right number of items, they had all been substituted for products chosen by the store?
Maybe it will be a repeat of last year, when Emmanuel Dennis arrived for a second roll of the dice having not played for months on end?
There is nothing so far in rumours suggesting Dennis is on his way back for round three, but Nottingham Forest have said he is available – the fact he hasn’t played a minute of senior football since being replaced at half-time in Watford’s 1-0 win over Sunderland in April (that’s 275 days ago) should be ample reason to stop that particular thought.
While Watford need bodies, given the added issue of long-term injuries, and the squad was weak when the season started, throwing just anything at the problem and hoping it works is barely any better than taking no action at all.
And yes, as the accounts showed us, there isn’t a big pool of money swilling around in which to dip.
If the idea of replacing Cleverley was even merely toyed with then that would have come at a cost – if the owner was prepared to finance that, then whatever the price was can surely be used to strengthen the squad. Or is that too simplistic?
The club has had to dish out some £20m in settlement payments over the last five years.
While Ismaila Sarr remains the club's record signing, 'former manager settlements' is not far behind.
Even after a poor run of results and another defeat yesterday, the Hornets are still only a win outside the top six.
It has to be worth a small amount of investment that doesn’t put the future at risk to see if Watford can just find a level of consistency that keeps them in the hunt.
If nothing else, it would go a long way to arresting the sort of slide that has turned the second half of the last two campaigns into footballing purgatory.
Let’s not forget, before too long the club will have to start offering season ticket renewals.
They have rightly been praised for the way they have kept prices low, firstly reducing them in 2023 and then freezing them in 2024.
Given the financials, a cut is highly unlikely, a freeze is possible – but they could be forgiven for putting them up, given the accounts and the general state of the nation.
But asking current season ticket holders for a little more to renew is much harder if they are being served up the sort of spectacle witnessed from January to May over the last two seasons.
The fans are very much supporting the head coach right now, and so when the owner says he is doing the same, fans would have every right to want to see the colour of his money before parting with theirs.
And those supporters were magnificent again yesterday.
The numbers, the noise, the atmosphere. When so many players take to social media to say the same thing, you know the efforts of the fans have been noticed.
Of course, some of the songs, banners and t-shirts on display were less than complimentary to the owner – given he wasn’t high on the popularity scale before last week, he can’t surely have expected much else.
Cleverley’s attempts before the weekend to encourage some difference songs were not, as some guessed, an effort to deflect criticism from the owner.
The head coach is just a modest, benevolent and magnanimous individual who is happier when the support and praise is focussed on his team.
That doesn’t make him immune from criticism though, and he still hasn’t cracked getting his team to play at a higher tempo, particularly at the start of games.
Tom Dele-Bashiru in action at Coventry. (Image: PA)
The same could be said of the last 10 minutes yesterday: the boost of a goal back and a decent amount of stoppage time was not met with the sort of cavalry charge you might expect.
The Hornets kept hold of the ball, but stringing passes across the back either side of the halfway line is not going to scramble a point.
Although they weren’t bad from kick-off, Watford ceded advantage to the home side and didn’t offer much themselves.
It appeared they had gained a foothold and were working back into it after half an hour, but then conceded a poor goal from a defensive perspective.
Jack Rudoni had yellow shirts around him when he broke down the right flank but none of them got near enough to him, and he was able to cross under minimal pressure.
Mattie Pollock was marking the big and dangerous Ellis Simms, and the pair attacked the ball but both were underneath it – as was Ryan Porteous, who decided to also go and contest the cross.
When the ball flew over the trio it left Victor Torp and Jeremy Ngakia one-on-one at the back of the six-yard box – and the Coventry man got across the defender to sidefoot past Jonathan Bond.
Rudoni should have been shut down, Porteous could have left Simms to Pollock, and Ngakia cannot allow an opponent to get goal-side – three chances to prevent a goal.
Watford responded well and when Tom Dele-Bashiru had a shot on the turn parried, the ball looped up in the air whereupon Vakoun Bayo leapt – and headed it straight at keeper Oliver Dovin.
The second half followed a similar sort of pattern with Watford well in the game, but never quite in it enough to make an impact.
Three times in a few minutes they played the ball in behind the Coventry defence, and each time Bayo was offside.
That is every bit as frustrating and infuriating as hitting the shins of the first defender from a set piece - another Watford trait.
Referee Mr Coy wasn’t shy about making some odd decisions, and when he decided that in blocking a Torp free-kick Moussa Sissoko had used his arm, he promptly awarded another one nearer the goal.
This time Torp stepped up and sent a curling, dipping effort over the wall and inside the right-hand upright from the edge of the D.
With 15 minutes to go, that appeared to be game over – but six minutes later Sissoko seized on the ball in the box and his angled shot took at least one deflection as it found its way into the net.
The home side, and their fans, suddenly looked and sounded a bit less bullish, but frankly Watford’s attempts to find an equaliser were disappointing.
Giorgi Chakvetadze went closest, seeing a low skidding shot from the edge of the box scooped round the post by Dovin.
The closing stages were perhaps best summed up when the Hornets were awarded a free kick 10 yards inside their own half, Edo Kayembe signalled for everyone to get into the box . . . and then passed the ball back to Bond.
As much as it feels like finishing inside the top six is whimsical, and performances on the pitch of late have only served to support that theory, the fact remains that a good run between now and the start of May could easily see that apparent pipedream become reality.
What is clear is that the squad, as it stands now, will not achieve it.
The owner has publicly expressed support for the head coach – the ‘vote of confidence’ as it is so often described.
Now, though, we must – must – see those words followed by actions in what is left of the transfer window.
Because as rare and welcome as it is to hear from Mr Pozzo, you cannot play a few paragraphs on social media in goal, at left back, at the heart of midfield or in the No.9 position.
