After all, we still had on the coaching staff two stalwarts we could trust as guardians of the soul of the club. Alec was one and, most significantly, Gibbsy the other. Good enough for me to renew my season ticket for the umpteenth year. I simply couldn't see that situation changing.

How trusting, how naïve, how plain bloody stupid of me to credit the current board of WFC with straightforward values.

Have they any understanding of how dedicated Watford fans are feeling right now on hearing the news of Nigel's exit? Is there the merest atom of empathy? Or do they really - as it would appear - not give a damn?

In a line of controversial and questionable decisions, this one has no question about it any way whatsoever. It's simply wrong. One hundred percent wrong.

No doubt we will have a summer of spin from the club. Unctuous statements on the website, vacuous emails from the chairman. (For heaven's sake, what kind of bloke insists on a massive photograph of himself at the top of his missives?) But it's going to take a lot, lot more than that.

You see, Graham, trust has now been withdrawn. And I suspect that I'm just one of many thousands who feel exactly the same. Getting us back onside is the hardest thing you've ever faced. Compared to that, refinancing the club, building a new stand, giving the team manager enough funds to create a team that can make a fist of it in our league... all of these are just a stroll in Cassiobury Park.

Now, I wonder what Sir Elton thinks?

(06/07/05)