FANS' FORUM - PART ONE
ON Tuesday evening (February 24) the Hornets held a Fans' Forum at the Harefield Academy, which ran live on BBC Three Counties Radio.
In time we will bring you the listen again audio version of the Forum, but in the meantime, watfordfc.com can bring you the edited down version of the evening's most important issues and questions and answers.
The evening started with host Jon Marks introducing Directors Jimmy Russo, Vince Russo and Stuart Timperley, CEO Julian Winter, Manager Brendan Rodgers and Academy Manager Mark Warburton.
Apologies came from the recuperating Graham Taylor, who has an Achilles problem at present, before we got straight into the action with Julian Winter addressing the day's earlier news that interim Chairman Andy Wilson had stepped down from the Board.
Julian Winter (JW): "There is a general surprise from the board and the staff that Andy resigned. It came out of the blue two mornings ago. Formulating the board is about more than one person.
"The board you see here and Graham who is not here, brings, I think, a level of expertise and a level of comfort for the time that we have the right kind of people at board level.
"In addition we are hoping to announce after the board meeting next week that there will be two other members of the board, so it will be a board of seven. In terms of governance that is as good as it has been at Watford for a while.
"Andy will be missed but we have to move on. No one person is Watford, it is a group thing and hopefully with the group you see, we can move forward."
Brendan Rodgers then summed up a good week for the team after wins against Swansea and Blackpool, and spoke about his early thoughts on the Club.
Brendan Rodgers (BR): "It's been very pleasing in terms of the performances. A few months on we have shown we have made a little bit of progress. The players have been fantastic. It's a great Club, it's the supporters Club."
Mark Warburton then moved on to introduce the Harefield Academy surrounding and explain, in some detail, the work of the Watford Academy.
Mark Warburton (MW): "This is the heartbeat centerpiece. When we first came here it was a failing school, now it's a state-of-the-art facility.
"We have got a responsibility to produce young players who can turn out for our first team.
"We are a unique project; we want everyone to be aware of that. Hopefully we will bear the dividends going forward."
Question from the floor about the Club's commitment to the Academy.
JW: "We have a commitment to develop young talent and have a record of doing so. We haven't got huge amounts of money to go into the transfer market, so we need to produce our own. The commitment is to continue to do that."
BR: "I have a lot of experience in youth development. I was surprised by the quality of the players and the people. The role of youth development is to provide players for the first team and maximize the investment that the Club has put in. It's a great programme here. I'm about giving people a chance."
Brendan Rodgers then announced that Ross Jenkins had signed a new three-and-a-half year contract at the Club.
BR: "He is fantastic. He is going to be a top player, in the Premier League. We just hope it's here at Watford. The supporters have really taken to him and he feels at home.
MW: "The point about Ross is that he still comes here [to Harefield] and has education still."
Mark Warburton then spoke his Academy side's cup tie with Ipswich Town in the much vaunted FA Youth Cup.
MW: "We're playing Ipswich on March 7 at Portman Road in the prestigious Youth Cup."
Question from the floor around frustrations of producing, but then losing talent such as Ashley Young and Harry Forrester, who both moved to Aston Villa.
MW: "The frustration is obvious. I think in all walk of life you lose talented people to bigger, more powerful rivals. We need to get the message across to players that this is the best place for their development. The pathway is clear, they will get their chance."
Question from the floor about performance measures set for the Academy.
JW: "We have an 18-month benchmarking exercise. On we've established as what went Mark can then establish his own success measures."
Question from the floor about what the process is to contact the Club about a young talented footballer.
MW: "Get the boys involved in your local Club. Our scouts work hard to get the boys into our development centres. We would then get you in for a trial and see how you compare to what we've got."
Question from floor to Board about what the plans are for the summer for budgets and future sustainability and growth of the Club.
JW: "As a Club we have significant challenge moving forward. The Board has had four weeks to get their feet under the table and establish the size of the problems we face.
"We have to understand the detail and at a future Fans' Forum we can share the detail of the plan. We have a massive challenge - the TV revenue next year is down by 11-12m, so in a sense that gives you the size of the problem."
Question from the floor to Jimmy and Vince Russo on what they have done for the Club in promotion to the Premiership in the past, and what attracts them to Watford.
Vince Russo (VR): "We are Hertfordshire boys and we loved the family atmosphere and feel-good factor that surrounded the Club. We started in the President's Club and the Club needed a little bit of finance as well, and we said we'd help out.
"Here we are today and we've invested huge amounts of money into the Club, and we will do the best we can for it and support Brendan all the way."
Question from host Jon Marks as to how important is to look to the future.
Jimmy Russo (JR): "There are some enormous challenges ahead and we can spend all evening talking about the past and errors that have been made. We need to put all our energy in going forward, but we should learn from the past."
Question from Jon Marks on where the new Chairman will come from.
JW: "The Chairman will come from the seven [Board members], once the seven is formulated, and no doubt a natural successor will come to the fore. At this moment in time there is no decision on that."
Question by email about the make-up of the new Board and whether consideration will be given to a fan representative.
JW: "I would never say never. We need to be open as a Board, if we got to the point where we felt a fan would contribute positively to it then that is a decision they would make. Over time it's too short a notice to add to the Board as its complicated now - that's further down the line if it ever does happen."
Question on surprise of Andy Wilson's departure of Chairman, when he was only an interim Chairman, followed by question on wanting answers for past promises from former Board members and what happened at the AGM of late last year.
JW: "I'll take the second part of the question first - no promises from the people that are sat here right now in terms of communicating to you something we can't achieve. When we know we can achieve something, we will say it, rather than the things we might want to do.
"I am not going to promise any stands being built or any player being purchased - that's impossible for us to do right now.
"Going back to Andy, he was always going to be an interim Chair, so I am not surprised that he has moved from being Chairman, but my surprise was his resignation as a Director."
Stuart Timperley (ST): "This is very early after the Board has met, and this is not a complete Board.
"We want to engage with the supporters, basically because we are supporters. You don't need to be a genius to see that there are three or four major issues that the Club faces. The most important of those is the support to Brendan in making sure we retain our Championship position. If anyone thinks there is a more important issue than that then I'd really be interested to hear it.
"Graham Taylor and myself are delighted to join a Board with Jimmy and Vince and I would like to say that publically. We are committed to the values of the Club."
JR: "I wouldn't come back on the Board if we didn't feel we could genuinely contribute something. We can deliver, but you have to be patient and understand we are taking on a difficult situation."
ST: "We should pay tribute to Andy for putting together a broadly-based Board. We might be surprised by the timing but he was always interim."
Question from the floor about the manager's dug-outs and the Lower Rous stand.
JW: "That is under review in terms of the impact on the Season Ticket Holders. We are re-assessing the need of the corner and the dug-outs and the ability to decant the facilities over from the East Stand. No promises here, but everything is being looked at.
"When that happens I am not able to tell you but it is high up the list of priorities to show some progress."
Question from the floor about not having a representative of the major shareholder on the Board and whether the Board knew of Lord Ashcroft's long-term commitment to the Club.
JW: "I don't think we are unusual - the major shareholder doesn't always have a seat on the Board. Lord Ashcroft's long-term intentions I have absolutely no idea of. I have never met the guy, I deal with Andy Wilson."
Statement from the floor about the financing of the Club and the difficulties for a small Club like Watford and further question asked about Season Ticket prices for next year and used example of Norwich City model, which offers payment by installments.
JW: "It is an excellent idea and we have been looking at the whole affordability of football issue. We hope to announce our Season Tickets in the next three to four weeks and we hope to have some good news there. We should consider the ability to pay in installments.
"If we are to create a suitable business then that is about bums on seats and affordability has to be central."
There will be more from the Fans' Forum on www.watfordfc.com in the coming days.
