Late Swarm of Arrivals At Hornets’ Nest

With Football League hostilities set to resume this weekend, we test the readiness of each of the Capital’s representatives ahead of the new campaign.

Today’s talk is of the comings and goings at Vicarage Road, where Gianfranco Zola plots another assault on the Promised Land in the wake of a rollercoaster season which took the Hornets to within a whisker of the Premier League.

2013-14 Preview: Watford

A flurry of transfer activity over the last week has seen 12 players put pen to paper at Watford, with 14 arriving overall, and has finally eased any lingering anxiety over last season’s controversies regarding the recent running of the club that resulted in a transfer embargo, which still requires the League’s prior permission before signings are formalised, brought about by financial irregularities of the previous regime.

The international football web of new owners, the Pozzo family, and its extensive contacts list has truly paid dividends, despite a Football League rule change limiting the number of overseas loans in a match-day squad to five, including four from any one club, with the Hornets now able to field an entire line-up solely out of players bought from Pozzo-run outfits Udinese, of Italy, and Spanish side Granada.

All this would normally signal upheaval at any organisation but, as so many of the new acquisitions were already at Vicarage Road on loan, prior to the adjustment in regulations, manager Gianfranco Zola, who was installed in his job immediately following the Pozzos’ 2012 takeover, feels that the club is actually in a more stable position than at this time last season.

"I feel we are much further ahead than before", the diminutive ex-Chelsea maestro announced.

"I am more confident, of course. I see the team progressing very well. Things are going in the right direction.

"Certainly we are at a better stage than we were last year.

"The advantage is we start from last season's platform so everybody knows what is happening.

"So even the new ones fit into the system easier."

Last term will evoke mixed memories for Hornets fans, as a run of consistently free-flowing football took the team to the verge of automatic promotion, only for striker Troy Deeney’s sending off to stifle their progress on the final day, before Kevin Phillips’ penalty put paid to their Premier League dreams once more at Wembley.

Rather than reminiscing, management and directors will be looking to put the ‘ifs and buts’ firmly behind them as soon as possible and have acted swiftly to secure permanent residence for those core contributors on temporary stays last term.

Four of last season’s Serie A loanees have now signed concrete terms, as have both those borrowed from La Liga, with four additional players picked up from Udinese and another from Granada. The most keenly felt absence, though, will be that of last year’s top scorer Matej Vydra, who earned a recall to Udine through his Player of the Year performances on loan in Hertfordshire.

Zola and Sporting Director Gianluca Nani have also brought in Wes Brown’s younger brother Reece, following his release by Manchester United in May, having himself featured on loan at Ipswich Town earlier this year, as well as free agent Lewis McGugan, after the midfielder’s Nottingham Forest contract was not renewed, and teenage hot-shot Uche Ikpeazu, who has scored 28 times in as many games for Reading Under-18s.

Of the new recruits, greatest excitement has been reserved for new number 20 Diego Fabbrini, who ran out at Wembley against England last summer and who, along with fellow ex-Udinese attacker Fernando Forestieri, will fight to play in the hole behind lone gunner Deeney, for the fiery frontman, who notched 20 league goals last term, including four in his last five starts, will be expected to fill the boots of the departed Vydra. It was Fabbrini who was selected to fill the coveted role at the weekend for a 2-0 victory over Granada, in which the forward opened the scoring.

One feels business is not yet concluded for this window and Zola confirmed after the Granada match that he remained in the market for inclusions in a "couple of positions". But the Italian says he is content with his current colective.

"I'm delighted for me and delighted for the supporters. Now they know that we've got this squad they can relax a bit," Zola opined.

"I was confident. I knew how things were going. It's looking good for this club and I hope the results will come."

The latest recruit is Brazilian Iriney, who performed well in holding midfield against Peterborough last week and, while Udinese winger Jaime Romero has been training with the squad ahead of a potential deal, it seems an ankle injury to the Spaniard may now have thwarted any approach.

The upshot is that a host of players have been released to grateful League One sides, together with John Eustace and Craig Forsyth being snapped up by Championship rivals Derby County and Jonathan Hogg travelling to Huddersfield Town.

The undoubted downsides, however, to the recruitment policy employed at present are that, first, deals can often take time to go through, as was the case at the start of the last campaign when the Hornets endured an indifferent run of results, in which they won just two of their first five fixtures, and second, emphasis is placed away from home-grown youth products, as was highlighted by the comments of highly-rated 19-year-old midfielder Sean Murray last week, who spoke of his desire to move away from the club, if necessary, in his quest for more game time.

Zola was recently at pains to express his admiration for several of the scholars, singling out wing-backs Harry Kyprianou and Bernard Mensah, as well as new signing Ikpeazu for praise after a 6-1 win at non-league Boreham Wood on Tuesday.

Zola rearked: “At the end of the day it’s about football – if you deserve to play and you perform, your passport doesn’t matter.

“I was delighted and it means obviously the academy is working very well; I said many times last year the work they are doing below me in the academy is excellent and I take a lot of benefits from that so I’m very pleased.”

Zola’s group have vanquished all before them in pre-season, including two wins at their training camp in Northern Italy, with the exception of a determined Peterborough, who claimed a draw and to whom Zola yesterday sold unwanted striker Britt Assombalonga at considerable profit, the Congolese forward having risen through the Watford youth ranks over the past three years.

Long-term absentees Tommie Hoban and Nyron Nosworthy will not be available on Saturday, while Joel Ekstrand is the only other injury concern ahead of a tough opener away to Birmingham City, who are likely to be without ex-Watford striker Marlon King, who added to his incredible rap sheet with a hit-and-run arrest in the early hours of Saturday and has been linked with numerous Championship teams.

Watford’s chances this time out will revolve around the form and fitness of those playing through the heart of the eleven:

Manuel Almunia will need to replicate his form between the sticks in 2012-13, having recently signed a new short-term agreement, while former Italy Under-21 defender Gabrile Angella must hit the ground running to offer Almunia the necessary protection alongside the experience of Jamaican enforcer Lloyd Doyley and provide a platform for Almen Abdi - the man they call the Professor in WD18 – to allow the Yugoslav-born Swiss international playmaker to pull the strings from the middle of the park and supply a potent attack featuring the multi-talented Deeney, Forestieri and Fabbrini.

If the pace and style of play this term can match that of its action-packed predecessor, Watford fans will surely need to start budgeting for top-priced tickets and train fares and, even if not, there should still be a great deal of entertainment coming their way between now and next May.