Watford FC

Watford FC
Basic data
Surname	Watford Football Club
Seat	Watford , England
founding	1881
owner	Gino Pozzo
Board	Raffaele Riva
Website	watfordfc.com
First soccer team
Head coach	Vladimir Ivic
Venue	Vicarage Road
Places	21,438
league	EFL Championship
2019/20	▼ 19th place ( Premier League )
home Away Alternatively

The Watford FC (officially: Watford Football Club ) - also known as The Hornets (The Falcons) - is an English football club based in Watford , the season for 2015/16 in the Premier League rose.

history

Foundation and club colors

The club was founded in 1881 as Watford Rovers and joined the West Hertfordshire Sports Club in 1890 . In 1898 they merged with Watford St. Mary’s to form Watford FC .

The club colors are black and yellow. The home stadium is Vicarage Road , which was shared with the Saracens rugby club from 1997 to 2013 .

The Graham Taylor era

In 1976 Elton John took over the club and had big plans. He wanted Watford, then in the 4th division, to lead into the First Division and from there to Europe. In 1977 he hired Graham Taylor as a coach, who should take on this difficult task. He had prompt success and rose with the team in the third division. Finally, in 1982, they actually rose to the First Division , finishing second behind Watford's arch-rivals Luton Town .

In the 1982/83 season Watford was promoted immediately to second place behind Liverpool FC , so the team qualified for the UEFA Cup.

1984 Watford FC reached also the final of the FA Cup , which however in Wembley Stadium against Everton was lost.

After a ninth place in the 1986/87 season Graham Taylor left Watford FC in the direction of Birmingham to coach Aston Villa there.

Taylor's time was tactically characterized by extreme pressing and long balls known as kick and rush . Taylor later became the English national coach . Today a grandstand on Vicarage Road is named after him. To this day, the Taylor era is considered the most successful period in the club's history.

Taylor's downfall and return

The next few years were negative for Watford FC. The signed coach could never build on the success of Graham Taylor, and finally the club ended up again in Division Two, the third division.

In 1997 Taylor returned to Watford and led the team to the second division. There the march through succeeded, with a 2-0 win over Bolton Wanderers in the play-off final Watford returned to the first division, the Premier League . The season was disappointing and ended with the direct relegation, whereupon Graham Taylor resigned for the second time.

Renewed ascents: Until today

The following years were unsteady. Watford was struggling financially, and players even had to cut their salaries. In 2005, Aidy Boothroyd became the new manager, a very good choice as it turned out later. He was able to secure the relegation of the Hornets for the time being and in the following season 2005/06 managed to move into the promotion play-offs. Watford made it to the final and faced Leeds United in the playoff at Cardiff . The Hornets retained the upper hand with a 3-0 victory and made it into the first division again . As before, the club had big problems keeping up with the top division clubs and mostly found themselves at the bottom of the table. With only five league victories, they descended without a trace, which even reaching the FA Cup semi-finals could not make up for.

Despite the disappointing season, the club continued to rely on continuity and went into the 2007/08 second division with coach Boothroyd . There they reached the play-offs again, but were eliminated from Hull City .

In 2008 they separated from Boothroyd, he was replaced by Brendan Rodgers . However, this only stayed one season and then moved to Reading . The new coach for the 2009/10 season was Malky Mackay from Scotland . This achieved placements in the middle of the league table in the following seasons. In June 2011 Mackay then moved to Cardiff City , as he saw greater financial leeway there. He was replaced by Sean Dyche , who was dismissed in July 2012 despite a successful season under pressure from the new Italian owners and replaced by Gianfranco Zola .

Zola reached third place in his first season, which entitles him to participate in the promotion play-offs. There they met Leicester City in the semi-finals . After losing the first leg at Leicester 1-0, Watford needed a win at home on Vicarage Road to advance to the final. The second leg turned out to be curious. With a score of 2-1 for Watford, Leicester were awarded a penalty. But goalkeeper Manuel Almunia was able to parry Anthony Knockaert's shot and margin , and Troy Deeney scored the 3-1 for Watford FC from the ensuing counterattack , causing fans to hit the pitch. The final stages of the game became a hit on YouTube . The play-off final was then lost at Wembley against the South London club Crystal Palace 1-0 after extra time, and Watford had to spend another season in the English 2nd division.

The next seasons were mixed again, and they also parted with coach Zola. After Watford was later managed by Beppe Sannino , Oscar García and Billy McKinlay , Slavisa Jokanovic was promoted to the Premier League in the 2014/15 season . Watford finished the season as runner-up behind Bournemouth AFC . However, it was not possible to agree on a new contract with Jokanovic, Watford will be trained by Spaniard Quique Sánchez Flores from the 2015/16 season .

In 2016, the former coach of SSC Napoli and Inter Milan , Walter Mazzarri , was appointed Flores' successor. The Italian signed a three-year contract.

Vladimir Ilic has been the head coach since mid-August 2020 .

owner

From 1976, Elton John, who grew up in Watford , was president of the club. In 1990 he sold the club, but initially remained president. In 1997 he bought the club back and still holds shares in Watford FC to this day. In December 2014, the club finally erected a memorial to the singer when a grandstand on Vicarage Road was named after him. Elton John then said it was one of the best days of his life.

In the summer of 2012, the Italian entrepreneur family Pozzo took over the association. The family has owned Udinese Calcio since 1986 and the Spanish club Granada CF since 2009 . There is an intensive exchange of players on loan between the three clubs.

Squad for the 2019/20 season

As of February 7, 2020

No.	Nat.	Surname	birthday	in the team since	Contract until
goal
01		Heurelho Gomes	02/15/1981	2014	2020
26th		Ben Foster	04/03/1983	2018	2020
35		Daniel Bachmann	07/09/1994	2019	2020
Defense
02		Daryl Janmaat	07/22/1989	2016	2020
04th		Craig Dawson	05/06/1990	2019	2023
06th		Adrian Mariappa	10/03/1986	2016	2020
11		Adam Masina	01/02/1994	2018	2023
15th		Craig Cathcart	02/06/1989	2014	2023
21st		Kiko Femenía	02/02/1991	2017	2021
25th		José Holebas	06/27/1984	2015	2020
27		Christian Kabasele	02/24/1991	2016	2021
midfield
08th		Tom Cleverley	08/12/1989	2017	2022
14th		Nathaniel Chalobah	12/12/1994	2017	2022
16		Abdoulaye Doucouré	01/01/1993	2016	2023
19th		Will Hughes	04/17/1995	2017	2022
20th		Domingos Quina	11/18/1999	2018	2022
24		Tom Dele-Bashiru	09/17/1999	2019	2025
29		Etienne Capoue	07/11/1988	2015	2022
33		Ignacio Pussetto	December 21, 1995	2020
37		Roberto Pereyra	01/07/1991	2016	2021
Storm
07th		Gerard Deulofeu	03/13/1994	2018	2023
09		Troy Deeney	06/29/1988	2012	2021
10		Danny Welbeck	11/26/1990	2019	2022
13		Adalberto Peñaranda	05/31/1997	2016	2023
17th		João Pedro	09/26/2001	2020	2025
18th		Andre Gray	06/26/1991	2017	2022
22nd		Isaac Success	01/07/1996	2016	2023
23		Ismaïla Sarr	02/25/1998	2019	2024

League affiliation

• 1898-1900: Southern League Division Two
• 1900-1904: Southern League Division One
• 1904–1905: Southern League Division Two
• 1905-1920: Southern League Division One
• 1920–1958: Football League Third Division South
• 1958–1960: Football League Fourth Division
• 1960–1969: Football League Third Division
• 1969–1972: Football League Second Division
• 1972–1975: Football League Third Division
• 1975–1978: Football League Fourth Division
• 1978/79: Football League Third Division
• 1979–1982: Football League Second Division
• 1982–1988: Football League First Division
• 1988–1992: Football League Second Division
• 1992–1996: Football League First Division
• 1996–1998: Football League Second Division
• 1998/99: Football League First Division
• 1999/00: FA Premier League
• 2000-2004: Football League First Division
• 2004–2006: Football League Championship
• 2006-2007: FA Premier League
• 2007-2015: Football League Championship
• 2015–2020: FA Premier League
• since 2020: EFL Championship

European Cup balance sheet

season	competition	round	opponent	total	To	Back
1983/84	Uefa cup	1 round	1. FC Kaiserslautern	4: 3	1: 3 (A)	3: 0 (H)
		2nd round	DFS Levski-Spartak Sofia	4: 2	1: 1 (H)	3: 1 a.d. (A)
		3rd round	Sparta ČKD Prague	2: 7	2: 3 (H)	0: 4 (A)

Legend: (H) - home game, (A) - away game, (N) - neutral place, (a) - away goal rule , (i. E.) - on penalties , (n. V.) - after extra time

Overall record: 6 games, 2 wins, 1 draw, 3 defeats, 10:12 goals (goal difference −2)

Former players

→ Main article : List of Watford FC players

The following players have been inducted into the club's Hall of Fame :

Surname	Year of admission	position	League missions	League goals
Luther Blissett	2003	Storm	503	186
Tony Coton	2004	goal	291	0
John McClelland	2005	Defense	234	3
Tommy Mooney	2006	Storm	287	64
Les Taylor	2007	midfield	211	20th
David James	2008	goal	98	0
Ian Bolton	2009	Defense	287	36
Nigel Gibbs	2010	Defense	491	7th
Duncan Welbourne	2011	Defense	457	25th
Heiðar Helguson	2014	Storm	203	66
Gary Porter	2015	midfield	400	47
Stewart Scullion	2016	Storm	312	49
Tommy Smith	2017	Storm	273	60
Tom Walley	2018	midfield	217	17th
Paul Robinson	2019	Defense	219	8th

Women's team

The women's team plays in the FA Women's Super League 2, the second highest division in English women's football.

Rivalries

The main rivals of Watford FC are Luton Town . Other rival teams are the Queens Park Rangers , Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur .

Web links

• Website Watford FC (English)
• Comprehensive statistics page for Watford FC (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jonathan Wilson: Revolutions on the lawn, 2011, Verlag "Die Werkstatt", Göttingen. Chapter 15
2. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/watford/2281913.stm
3. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/fa_cup/6534697.stm
4. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/13680791
5. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/may/12/watford-leicester-city-championship-play-off
6. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3112338/Watford-confirm-Quique-Sanchez-Flores-new-boss-Premier-League-return.html
7. ↑ Squad 2014/15 (watfordfc.com)
8. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/may/20/walter-mazzarri-watford-new-manager
9. ↑ WATFORD SET TO ANNOUNCE VLADIMIR IVIĆ AS THEIR NEW MANAGER. August 13, 2020, accessed on August 16, 2020 . 
10. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/watford/8710452.stm
11. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-30457777
12. ↑ First Team , watfordfc.com
13. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.