Watford's refreshingly honest statement after relegation - The Warm-Up
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Updated 28/07/2020 at 08:18 GMT
Watford were relegated from the Premier League on Sunday and their owners released a refreshingly honest statement late on Monday.
Watford's Senegalese midfielder Ismaila Sarr (C) and Watford's Brazilian goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes react after losing the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Watford and being relegated at the Emirates Stadium in London on July 26, 2
Image credit: Getty Images
TUESDAY’S BIG STORIES
Watford will be back
By whatever measure, Watford had a dreadful season. It ended in relegation but only after the club had sacked three managers. Yup, Javi Gracia, Quique Sanchez Flores and Nigel Pearson all got their P45s in a quite remarkable season of mismanagement at Vicarage Road. However, credit to owner Gino Pozzo and chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury, who fronted up with an honest statement to fans.
“The world hasn't stopped turning - even though at times yesterday we all had a feeling of despair,” began the statement.
What followed was a touch of self-congratulation regarding the progress at the club over the last eight years which The Warm-Up has left out to get straight down to the important bits.
“We have always said we are here for the long-term and we will not allow this one moment of great disappointment to stop the continued development of this club over the next eight years and beyond.
That is not to detract from mistakes that were made surrounding the team this season. We have to be scrupulously honest with ourselves and admit our efforts surrounding the team were not good enough.
“There will be lessons learned and changes made but, from today, we move forward. We have to accept a different challenge. We will make changes where the team is concerned and those changes will make us stronger, ready to face the challenges that lie ahead and rekindle the passion that has always been a hallmark of this great club.
“In sport, you will always face moments of great disappointment but it's how you react that defines you. Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to take Watford Football Club back to the Premier League, something we all believe we can achieve.”
TL:DR
We made some serious mistakes; we take responsibility for those serious mistakes and we are here for the long term to address said serious mistakes. Credit where it is due: they had a shambles of a season, they accepted they had a shambles of a season and they decided to take responsibility for the shambles of a season. No attempts to shift blame, which in today’s day and age is as refreshing as it is unusual. Nice. And with an actual attitude like that Watford will be back sooner rather than later.
The insight of an elite-level striker right here from Jamie Vardy
Jamie Vardy won the Premier League Golden Boot on Sunday and he is happy about it.
"Never in a million years did I ever think I would win a Premier League winners medal let alone the Golden Boot," wrote Vardy on the social medias yesterday. "Just wow!"
Perhaps there is a touch of regency bias knocking about in the above statement, but it reads that the former England forward has put more weight on winning a fairly garish individual award over winning well, actually, a fairly garish team award. Horrendous trophy the Premier League trophy. Horrendous.
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Jamie Vardy of Leicester City poses with The Golden Boot award after the Premier League match between Leicester City and Manchester United at The King Power Stadium on July 26, 2020 in Leicester, United Kingdom
Image credit: Getty Images
Anyway, the above speaks to a player who may have let the media training mask slip momentarily from the usual "all about the team...blah, blah, blah." But just as night follows day, those hard yards learning how to say nothing while saying something kicked right back in with an inspirational - yet also predictable - quote.
"If this proves anything, it shows you should never ever give up on your dreams, no matter how crazy they may seem," he finished.
Remember kids, individual awards are much more important than that of the team.
Home advantage definitely a thing
The Economist have settled a debate that did not need settling, and this is that home advantage is, well, an advantage.
The magazine have conducted a study across a bunch of leagues during lockdown - including Liga, Bundesliga, the Premier League and Serie A - and have concluded that empty stadiums have shrunk football teams’ home advantage mainly because referees no longer give decisions to home sides due to baying crowds shouting a lot or, as the Economist rather diplomatically puts it, "without crowds, referees penalise home teams as much as away teams."
However, home teams still hold the advantage as they create more chances at home and thus score more - the theory here, put forward by the Warm-Up and not the Economist - is that at home a player plays within their subconscious, and it is the small advantages - subconsciously knowing the dimensions of a home pitch - that contribute, at the highest echelons of the game, to the marginal gains teams often talk about.
HAT-TIP
A hat-tip to both this article from the Athletic, which gives great insight into what makes Daniel Levy tick, and also Daniel Levy, who has, by any measure, done an absolutely superb job at Tottenham.
Detail is hugely important to Levy. He always needs to be fully across everything happening at the club. He is a self-confessed perfectionist and will read documents and send emails late into the night if he finds something he is not happy with. He’s absolutely forensic, says a source. If you’re having a conversation with him and you don’t have all the facts at your fingertips, he will find you out.
COMING UP
For the first time in, well, some time there is no football. No scrap that, there's some Serie A. The ever entertaining – and moral Serie A winners – Atalanta take on Parma while Napoli face off against Inter.
Ben Snowball will be here to pick through those Italian blockbusters tomorrow...
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