How the Pozzo family network could help Watford become Premier League mainstays
If your medium-term football memory is still going strong, Watford’s promotion to the Premier League does not seem rich with promise.
Their last two seasons at the top table were both catastrophic and – in the main – desperately dull, an ill-equipped team managed by Graham Taylor finishing 12 points shy of safety in 1999/2000 and Aidy Boothroyd’s no-frills, attritional unit winding up 10 points behind the survivors seven seasons later.
Away supporters might remember a trudge through allotments to take their seats, or the antiquated old east stand that meant Vicarage Road was effectively three-sided. Although the club had enjoyed some success in the 1980s, the Hertfordshire commuter town never seemed kitted out to support a setup that might stick around at the top in the long term.
Things are different now, and while AFC Bournemouth’s ascent from the Championship has taken up more column space it is the rise of second-placed Watford that might have the more interesting long-term consequences for the top division. The stodgy image is being shed and the club’s owners, the Italian Pozzo family, appear set on sustaining them as a modern, European-influenced force that heads up an impressive portfolio of profitable clubs.
The Pozzos, headed up by father and son Giampaolo and Gino, purchased the club in 2012 – adding it to the acquisition of Serie A side Udinese, which they bought back in 1986, and the 2009 purchase of Spanish club Granada. Both clubs had yo-yoed around their respective leagues with various highs and lows but the Pozzo touch brought success: Udinese have become top-flight mainstays and regular European qualifiers since their arrival and Granada, who had been out of La Liga for 33 years when their takeover was completed, quickly rose two divisions and have avoided relegation for four seasons on the trot.
A wide global scouting network has been key to the Pozzos’ success with Udinese and, when Granada and Watford are also harnessed, it works in triplicate. Watford have benefited immeasurably from being part of this ‘family’: a readily-accessible example is the fact that nine of last season’s first-team squad had previously been on the books of either the Spanish or Italian club, even if only en route to the Hornets.
The transfer market is where the Pozzos, who wasted no time in appointing Gianfranco Zola to oversee their model when they first took over but have rattled through four more managers since, have really made a difference to Watford. They have been able to loan players between the clubs and sometimes make them available at a cut price too, which has helped Watford in the Financial Fair Play era.
A pertinent example is that of the Mexican wing-back Miguel Layun, who Granada signed from Club America for a seven-figure sum in January and was quickly shuttled to Vicarage Road. The outstanding midfielder Almen Abdi, who was loaned from Udinese in 2012 and signed permanently a year later, is another, and there is no doubt that Watford have been able to access players they would not normally be able to afford on account of their links to the Pozzos’ other clubs.
It might be reason enough for others to cry foul, but Watford have simply exploited a loophole that will be hard to close and it is tempting to wonder whether their promotion might accelerate the Pozzos’ plans. Udinese have long since punched above the weight of a provincial 100,000-population town in Italy and have benefited hugely from talents such as Alexis Sanchez, Oliver Bierhoff, Samir Handanovic and Gokhan Inler down the years – both on the pitch and in terms of transfer fees, too.
With the proximity to London, and the Premier League’s television money now comfortably eclipsing anything Serie A can offer, it does not take a wild leap of the imagination to see that Watford could become the Pozzos’ flagship club before long – a forward-thinking, cosmopolitan club that plays attractive football and can attract and develop genuine stars. The prospect is far from unthinkable.
For now, Watford must consolidate and they will do so with a new manager. Slavisa Jokanovic never felt like more than a steady pair of hands when he took over in the Autumn and, although he masterminded a superb late run to take his richly talented charges to promotion, the sense persisted that Watford’s success was more down to the machinations going on upstairs.
Jokanovic may well be replaced by Quique Sanchez Flores and, whoever takes charge, it is clear that the Pozzos are thinking big. English football has never seen an arrangement comparable to this but it may soon have to accustom itself to the idea that Watford, the future seat of the Pozzo empire, are here to stay.