Why Cleverley appointment can help re-unite Watford fans and football club
Wherever you sit on the Watford optimism-o-meter, there can be little disagreement that the last three seasons have been pretty uninspiring. Relegation, a failed play-off campaign and now the crashing reality that we are, once more, a mid-table Championship team as 2023/24 draws to a close.
It’s a pretty cruel twist of irony, therefore, that the last time there was any real enjoyment to be had we were in the midst of lockdown for the majority of the campaign. When you throw in the ongoing financial concerns, the continued involvement of Mogi Bayat, a rotating cast of directors of football, numerous head coaches and players who have spectacularly underdelivered, it’s been a pretty rotten period in the club’s recent history. Set against that backdrop, confirmation of Tom Cleverley’s appointment as ‘permanent’ head coach was a very welcome balm.
Personally, I’m not a football fan for the glory. The promotions and cup successes have been brilliant and I’m not for one second pretending I didn’t enjoy them. Or that I would turn down further days in the sun. But sport is about the feelings and emotions it stirs up in you. It’s why there are 92 league clubs in this country, built on the foundations of many hundreds more in the thriving non-league pyramid. I’ve never expected Watford to win anything in my nearly 32 years and I can’t imagine I ever will, either. Maybe that is a small-time mentality. Perhaps it makes me a so-called ‘happy clapper’. But as I explored in this recent piece, the club is pretty much exactly where they have been throughout the bulk of their history: middle of the road in the second tier.
So, yes, I derive joy from things other than trophies, winners’ medals, and the acclaim of the wider football world. And the appointment of Cleverley is most definitely one of those things.
Just 20 when he first arrived at Vicarage Road on loan from Manchester United, Cleverley was a prodigious attacking midfielder with England youth caps and a bright future at Old Trafford ahead of him. I was 17 — definitely not a prodigy and with no kind of future in football ahead of me! But go with me here; we weren’t dissimilar in age and I have seen his entire career through a Watford lens. He was someone I took a sort of second-hand pride in seeing break through at Old Trafford, win Premier League titles, England caps and feature for Team GB at the 2012 Olympic Games. Our Tom, who learned his craft at little old Watford when we didn’t have the proverbial pot to pee in.
Those were truly bleak times for the Hornets. Just eight years had passed since the ITV Digital crash that almost sent the club to the wall. The disaster that forced us to sell the Vic and ask players to take a 12 per cent pay deferral to keep the wolf from the door. Rookie boss Malky Mackay later spoke of having to make decisions on hospitality catering in a bid to keep costs down.
Watford’s permanent signings that summer underlined the reality of the situation. Experienced midfielder Scott Severin arrived on a free transfer from Aberdeen, Danny Graham for £200k in compensation from Carlisle United — a size of fee that hadn’t been anticipated — and international man of mystery Jure Travner joined from NK Celje. Bolstering a threadbare squad were the loan arrivals of Cleverley and Henri Lansbury from United and Arsenal respectively. Tellingly, heading in the opposite direction were Tamás Priskin, Tommy Smith, Jobi McAnuff and Mike Williamson.
The point here is we were very much ‘little old Watford’. Down on our luck, playing in a three-sided stadium, 16th for average attendance at just over 14,000 and forced to sell to survive. Nothing was expected, certainly not taken for granted, so every win felt like a minor miracle. Particularly that season as players were lured away. Not least Mike Williamson who refused to travel to Swansea City in order to force through an ill-fated move to penniless Portsmouth.
Cleverley scored on debut in a 4–2 win at Nottingham Forest the night he signed — a game I followed from the US while on holiday — and was described by Watford blogging doyen Matt Rowson in terms that gave little indication of the long and storied association that would follow:
“…nimble, clever, confident. Did drift out of the game, particularly in the first half, and seemed to struggle with his defensive positioning, particularly after switching wings to accommodate McAnuff’s injury, but this looks like a good’un to enjoy, however long his spell with us lasts.”
As high as sixth on a couple of occasions, Mackay’s young side also dropped as low as 21st as the season headed toward its conclusion before pulling clear with three wins from their last five. Yet despite all that, it’s an era I remember fondly. Again, I was in my teens and utterly obsessed with the club around which my life revolved. Expectations were lower but I felt everything more. Twitter had yet to take off, so we were spared the game-by-game referendum on the manager’s future. It also meant having to really scour the internet and other media sources for coverage of the club — something that seems impossible to imagine now when someone like me can tap out my thoughts.
It also seems unlikely Mackay would have finished that season had it been played out in the present day. Even more so had Pozzo been in charge. They were simpler times and Cleverley is a player I associate strongly with that period. He finished the 2009/10 campaign with 11 goals from 33 appearances and was named Player of the Season.
Fast forward eight years and it was a similar feeling when he rejoined — initially on loan — in January 2017. Walter Mazzarri’s Watford were no fun. The grumpy Italian was a charmless pragmatist but Cleverley’s return instilled some much-needed grit and determination, while giving fans someone to identify with. His last-gasp winner at home to Arsenal the following season was one of the highlights of our Premier League stay, while he also grabbed that acrobatic effort at Crystal Palace and chipped in with some important goals in the behind-closed-doors promotion campaign.
Vibes only get you so far, though, and Cleverley will be as cognisant of the realities of being Watford head coach as anyone — he has played for enough of them, after all. But that is arguably the biggest upside to appointing someone with such a long association with the club. He will go into the job eyes wide open. It’s an overstated trope but the idea a manager ‘knows the club’ counts for something when the club is Watford. It means knowing you’re never more than five or six games from the sack and that you can’t rely on the club delivering the players you need or ask for — even if you go public. Just ask Rob Edwards, Slaven Bilić or Marco Silva.
In everyday job interviews, they say it’s as much about you interviewing your prospective employer as it is the other way around. If he’s wise, Cleverley will have used this nine-game audition to not only demonstrate his strengths but seek assurances and guarantees from Gino Pozzo, Scott Duxbury and Gian Luca Nani. Because as much as the appointment gives me a warm, fuzzy, nostalgic feeling, it’s impossible to overlook the fact the factors that will make or break this appointment haven’t changed: time and backing.
Clearly, we are set for another period of austerity and it will be a major surprise if Yáser Asprilla remains at the club beyond the summer, with Ismaël Koné, Giorgi Chakvetadze and Ryan Andrews also vulnerable to interest from bigger clubs. Cleverley’s appointment in itself re-aligns expectations. There is no way Pozzo and co. would be putting a complete novice in charge of a team expected to challenge for the top six. In that respect, it is a smart move; someone who will be popular with fans, buy a little patience and insulate Pozzo from further criticism for a little while.
Yet I can’t shake my optimism for the season ahead. I’m not alone in wanting to feel a closer connection to the club after 12 years of Pozzo ownership and Cleverley provides that link. Both parties know how the other works and issues in the working relationship have previously been cited as the justification for sacking a manager. There shouldn’t be any surprises in Cleverley’s methods, or how the structure around him operates either.
But above all else, at a time when the head coach role at Watford is so transient, so temporary, so meaningless, having someone in situ who is respected and associated with happier times can only be cause for celebration.