Season's eve existential crisis

And yet again a new season comes around. I sometimes can't help wishing that I didn't care. Why am I bothered by what a group of people whom I have never met do on an increasingly metaphorical Saturday afternoon? Why do I wake up on Sunday morning wondering if I should look at the results before I watch the replay-on-demand of a game that took place whilst I was asleep?

I find it very difficult to understand why it matters to me. I watch important political events, such as Brexit, unfold with much interest but they can never create the same intensity of emotion as WFC. I don't watch anything as much as I do Watford goals, some of which I must have seen many tens of times. I remember events such as Scullion's goal against Stockport or Micky Walker's save against Oxford Utd more clearly than many things I did myself.

So here we go again. I feel the anticipation and the fear that a new season brings. I so hope that we will finish in the top 10. I so dread finishing in the bottom 3. I don't want the tension of a relegation battle. If I could only stop caring life would be so much easier; so much simpler. It would be nice to be able to go weeks without looking at a league table. It would be good not to worry about where the goals are going to come from this season.

I go though all this even though it is perfectly feasible that I will never visit Watford again, let alone get to a game. I have lived out of the UK for over 25 years and still I follow what is happening at the club. It looks as if I will have to wait until I am senile before I start behaving rationally.

 

Good one!

Or Franks against Banks in the cup 69/70... the winner at Swindon... etc etc so many memories

Sometimes I worry about the intensity... my wife does! and my daughter is a WFC supporter through and through having lived all her life in Yorks!

TBH even if we got relegated it would probs make little difference to my level of support.. .. would make getting into matches so much easier!!

Having said that it is great to see some very skilful players in Watford shirts..

We are very fortunate to have the Pozzos..

Let the season with all the angst commence,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

COYH!

 

I can say that I will never live in Watford again, but I still visit the Vic. around 3-4 times per year, and still feel like it's a trip to a holy shrine. Although I confess that we live in Chiswick when visiting England. Like NZ I haven't lived in the UK. for 29 years, and haven't lived in Watford for 48 years. But the tension is still there on match days and probably always will be. As a fan I know I have to live with the possibility of relegation, and most of us have been there before - yet how would the Pozzo's react to that ? In a way my identification with the club has diminished a little since the Pozzo takeover - but old habits are harder to kill than that. The club will always be there, with or without the Pozzo's. I really respect some clubs fans who have coped with a massive drop in fortunes, without it affecting attendances, like Portsmouth and Sheff Utd and hope that we would be the same if it happened, though I doubt it. I do not necessarily dream of being a top 4 club, because in becoming that now we would have changed completely from the family club I started supporting in the 60s - I just want to see our players playing to the best of their ability.

 

Good post NZ.
However I feel rather differently. I have rarely looked forward to a season less than this one. Maybe it was the surfeit of good football at the world cup - but I am not ready for another season. Also each year I seem to enjoy it less. Do I have any expectations from Gracia - to be honest - no. My bet is more that he will be gone by Christmas than will produce football worth watching. I know we have mega stars now but how many of them care about the club they play for? How close are most footballers to their fans?
If we were relegated I suspect the football would be more enjoyable - but who wants that?
I think I have just become old and cynical but would swap the sixties or eighties for now. The Premiership and its money ruined football for me.

 

I have to agree with Leo that money has spoilt the game to an extent, it makes for a very uneven playing field.

Most of us can only hope to be top of the bottom half of the Premier League.

Having said that, I can't wait for the new season, I moved out of Norfolk 66 years ago and rarely get to see the boys play but I always follow their trials and tribulations with avid excitement, hoping that this will be the year we dominate the league.

I hope I get the chance to see my boys back in the Premiership.

 

I am looking forward to the new season with relish, I enjoy the match day experience which in my view is far superior to bygone days. To see world class players regularly performing on the Vic pitch coupled with excellent seats, toilet and bar facilities makes the trip to the ground more worthwhile than ever. Watching De Bruyne tear my team apart last season was acceptable because of his sheer class.

There is merit in saying the games in the Championship were more enjoyable but who wants to be second rate?

 

I would prefer second rate competition to a first rate walk over. We either get easily outclassed by clubs whose individual players cost more than our whole team or watch negative attempts to bore the life out of fans in the hope of a breakaway goal. I enjoyed football in the old fourth division because it does not matter the level - if there is genuine entertainment and competition. We don't get to see the best of the superstars anyway as they can be rested for easy games like us or can stroll around and beat us without trying too much. How many Premiership games have been evenly balanced with genuine excitement and skill on both sides? Far too few for me. I may be alone here but find it difficult to get excited at the moment.

 

I can well remember the match day experience of the 60s - terraces smelling of piss, and trying to hold onto the Rookery end against take over by away fans, mobs of skinheads, a ball which was screaming by half time, a ploughed playing pitch. On the other hand I could smoke a fag when I wanted. Nobody really wants to be second rate - but if being first rate means selling your soul ? Of course we could be top of the league if the Pozzo's give us enough money to buy the entire French national squad, but what would it all have to do with Watford ?

 

I cannot deny the ground is superb. But you can go to many superb venues these days for a variety of sports and cultural activities. It is the football which draws the fans in. I liked the days when you knew your team year in and year out, where your manager was your manager and where players knew what it was like to stand on the terraces. These days they are just mercenary prima donnas.

 

I think this 'facilities' thing is just part of the equation... the vast majority of attenders will come whatever the bar is like etc..... we got 34k v man utd in the 60s....

The ground is good now.... but probs in the 60s it was good enough for supporters then.... the excitement when the main stand was built or shrodells was built for example

But yes in those days you could change ends, stand on the terraces if you wanted and that was good too.

I guess it is better for the older supporter, which i am now, and for those with disablitities these days..

But for me the match day experience has not really changed.... .I still get the same buzz etc etc as i did when we played Swindon or Halifax etc

 

I remembered many dreadful games in the old third and fourth divisions with Watford employing many players devoid of any talent. I also remember getting soaking wet on quite a few occasions. We tend to remember the odd good games, especially cup games, but much of the football was awful.

I saw most of the so called superstars last season at the Vic, the other sides somehow failed to rest many of them, basta*ds

 

Swindon were a big club in those days Yorkie (late 60s early 70s) a bit bigger than Brighton, Huddersfield or Bournemouth were then. What happened to those clubs was largely a matter of luck off the pitch. Why did Swindon sink in the way they did ? And Coventry as well - in 1970 their average crowd was 32,043, and last year it was 9,255.

 

I just wish that I didn't care so much or at least didn't repeatedly invest so much emotion. It's sapping and sometimes embarrassing. Thing is, I'm getting worse as I get older! I can't stand not being at a match, home or away... sometimes I can't stand to be there.... NURSE.... MY PILLS!!!

 

Once WFC gets in your body then your blood will run Yellow until the day we die .. We will see owners managers and players come and go, But the club will carry on and be there for my grand kids (now fans) and there grand kids i hope . The longer we stay in the EPL the better it is for the club and the fan base will grow

 

Because falling out of the EPL is perceived to be a disaster (with good reason) it has changed my feelings watching us play - every game is more tense,( unless we are 3 goals up with 10 minutes to play). I certainly enjoy the higher standard of play, and the environment is generally more pleasant than heretofore.
However, the way the game is changing is reducing the excitement (not to be confused with tension). All teams seek to keep the ball for as long as possible. If you re playing Man city then it really is tedious, however clever they are in incisive attacking. The game at the etihad last January was an excellent example. This makes watching fairly dull for long periods. Perhaps it is not what we expect in England.
Even so, I look forward to the new season as we seem to be on an upward curve, even though the number of twists and turns increases relentlessly.
COYH

 

I was at many of those games

 

There was plenty of excitement at Watford's home game with Man City last season. A few thousand in the away end were happy, we got thrashed, not sure I could describe their superb football as tedious, just the result.

 

That was my 5 year old grandsons 1ST game and walking away he said to his dad "when can we go again dad"

 

Yes but if Endean didn't trip over his feet, Scully could put a cross over etc etc..... we loved it....

I must say Mlle Yorkie has not had a lot of pleasure over the last couple of seasons in the away games ... some of it has also felt 'dire'. But IMO half of football is at whatever level

 

I was lucky to see Southampton and WBA away and that was great