VOCAL HEROES
Watford’s players are listening to the same boss as last season and Doucoure says: We only lost one player.. we know each other better
FOR THE first time since 2014/15 Watford have started a season with the same manager who finished the previous one.
Also for the first time since 2010 the number of Watford summer signings was a single digit.
And Abdoulaye Doucoure reckons the arrival of some stability at Vicarage Road could make a big difference.
Summers have tended to mean big changes at Watford in recent years, both in the dugout and their squad.
But they bucked the trend this year and Javier Gracia has been afforded something not given to a Hornets boss since Giuseppe Sannino four years ago – the chance to build on his work from the last year.
Four years might not seem like that long a time but Watford have been led by seven different managers since Sannino’s departure in August 2014 when he lasted just five games into the new season, underling their high turnover in recent years.
No new boss sweeping in with his own grand plans has meant there has been no need for another big Hornets overhaul.
Eight new faces may have come in during the close season but only one of them, returning goalkeeper Ben Foster, started against Brighton and only two more were on the bench.
And Watford finished the summer window as the fifth-lowest spenders in the league, having been seventhhighest a year ago, and one of only two sides to return a profit thanks to Richarlison’s £40million exit for Everton.
Doucoure (above with Jose Holebas), who added to the sense of continuity by signing a new five-year deal this summer, said: “Before the game the manager said a lot of teams spend a lot of money but we are a very good team.
“We don’t spend a lot of money but we keep the players here. We lost only one player and this year we can be a very good team because we know each other more. Of course we can be better.
“The fans identify with the players, they know every player now and of course, it helps us a lot.”
Another thing to continue from last season is Roberto Pereyra’s form.
The winger’s two brilliantly-taken goals sent Brighton tumbling to defeat and he has now scored or created all of Watford’s last six league goals.
But if there is one club who won’t get carried away by a good start to the season it is Watford.
They were flying high in fourth in mid-October last year before Everton’s interest in boss Marco Silva derailed their season.
Will Hughes, who reckons the top-10 should be Watford’s aim, said: “When you start the season so well you want to carry that on to the end of the season.
“Unfortunately it dwindled off towards the end and we know that as a squad. It is something we are not going to let happen this year.
“We all know as players that it wasn’t good enough towards the end of last season, so we will do our utmost to make sure that doesn’t happen this time.”