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BLIND, STUPID AND DESPERATE
 
Gone but not forgotten:
Lars Melvang
 
Position: Right back
From: Out-of-contract - free transfer - August 1997
Record: Played: 5 Scored: 1
To: ??? - contract expired - March 1998
Career stats: Soccerbase
He was: The greener grass on the other side of the fence

When you've been with someone for over ten years, it's slightly inevitable that you're going to get just a little bored and fidgety sometimes. You're bound to get a tad irritated with all those personal foibles that once seemed so charming, you're always likely to cast the occasional glance in the direction of someone more exciting, more daring.

For Watford fans, that someone was Lars Melvang - a Danish right back with attacking instincts. It was a change of scenery - for the first time since The Beginning Of All Things, Nigel Gibbs was available and Nigel Gibbs wasn't picked - and it was briefly delightful, in the way that doomed flings often are.

The fact that Melvang was injured for about three quarters of his three month trial contract (then given various extensions during which he was also injured) clearly played a major part in his failure to make an impact at Watford. But, in truth, there was more than that.

I got bored early on, I must confess. Melvang was indeed a more naturally attacking player than Gibbs...but he wasn't that much better at the offensive stuff and he was considerably, noticeably inferior when it came to defence. Swindon's Mark Walters murdered him and we started to have to worry about things that we hadn't had to worry about before.

Gradually, it seemed that most Watford fans came to the same conclusion. It was fun while it lasted...but it just didn't feel right. Nigel Gibbs returned when Melvang was injured, the personal foibles suddenly seemed charming again and the rest, goalscoring antics included, is history.