Yet another new regime at Watford with Uruguayan “promotion specialist” Paulo Pessolano in football’s hottest seat and several summer previews rating the team highly with an intimidating attack – we asked Cam from @VoicesoftheVic and Richard Segal whether they share that optimism.

How was last season?

Cam: A season of two halves. The first half was fantastic; we were patchy, but on our day played great football and picked up the results to go with it. We looked every bit a play-off contender, and Vicarage Road was a fortress - we were unbeaten there from Cleverley’s appointment in March to December. And then Kwadwo Baah got injured and it all turned around. Baah is fantastic, and any winger replacing him has a hard act to follow, but our only other ‘winger’ was Moussa Sissoko. From there, the squad fell apart, we didn’t strengthen in the right areas in January, and we fell off a cliff as we do every year.

Rich: The proverbial season of two halves as you can tell from the results. An unexpected good start built around being undefeated at home until December 28, and then a disappointing second half with only five wins.

Thoughts on Tom Cleverley's dismissal?

Cam: I’ll try and keep the language PG. It was a massive kick in the teeth. A huge show of contempt to all Watford fans, and a statement from Gino Pozzo that it’s his club and what he says goes. To do it on the day season ticket renewals close as well is a massive show of how little he thinks of us.

Rich: That end to the season – five wins from the last 25 games - made it inevitable Cleverley would go. He was very close to leaving in January before the owner listened to the chief executive Scott Duxbury who said how bad that would be. Was obviously not going to be trusted going forward with future plans.

What do we think of the new manager?

Cam: I won’t bother learning the correct pronunciation of his name. If you’re gonna sack a fan favourite, the replacement has to be spot on. Paulo Pezzolano comes in as a so-called ‘promotion specialist’. He’s had success at a handful of South American clubs and most recently for Real Valladolid promoted and then relegated again. Not many can really claim to have watched his teams, but the word ‘intensity’ has been shoved in our faces more times than you can count, and the football seems to be more direct. He could boss it and get us promoted or he’ll last five games - no in between.

Rich: As ever, no idea about the new man coming in. He has said the right things (in his very limited English) about being part of the Watford family and his plans going forward, let’s see what happens.

Watford so far this season…
Charlton 1-0 Watford Knibbs 90
Watford 1-2 Norwich* Baah 68 – Sargent 10, Nunez 24

A late defeat on day one at Charlton – how was it?

Cam: Probably as frustrating as it sounds. No one likes a late defeat. You can tell our style of play is a work in progress, and you can tell we are missing a number of first team players. There were elements of our play that were commendable, and when we play through the lines and find space we carry a threat. But that only led to one shot on target from a free kick. It doesn’t help that our designated creative midfielder is Sissoko, and it also doesn’t help that we seemed to be outnumbered every time Charlton got forward.

Rich: A very poor game at Charlton where both teams would have been happy with a point. A big disappointment to switch off and concede at a set piece in the last minute. Positives from the game were the performance of Hector Kyprianou who was excellent and looked comfortable stepping up to this level. Norwich was poor again bar the last 30 minutes once he had made changes to the team. That was mostly the second team and we looked better when Baah came on. With Chakvetadze out on Saturday he will be our main attacking threat.

What's been done in the transfer window, what's still to be done?

Cam: We’ve been busy. Without wanting to judge things too early, it’s actually been our best window for a number of years in the sense that our signings make sense for once. We’ve brought in a few EFL hardened players, and we’ve brought in some flair from abroad. It’s looking like a much more balanced squad. I want to highlight Nestory Irankunda, a young right-winger who had a great EFL cup debut and arrived from Bayern Munich, Luca Kjerrumgaard, a striker from Denmark with a lot of fanfare, and Hector Kyprianou, a physical midfielder who has made a good early impression. With our injuries at the moment, the squad looks light, but there isn’t too much left to do overall; our right back department leaves a lot to be desired, and we could do with another midfielder. It would also be nice if we could finally clear the deadwood like Tom Ince, Edo Kayembe and Tom Dele-Bashiru.

Rich: Credit where credit due to the owners as for the first time in quite a while the manager is getting backed and players have been bought in. So far through the door are the returning Caleb Wiley on loan from Chelsea for the season, the striker Luca Kjerrumgaard, another striker Vivaldo Semedo, the winger Nestory Irankunda, the midfielder Hector Kyprianou, reserve keeper Nathan Baxter and defender Marc Bola. The highly rated Max Alleyne has arrived on a year’s loan from Manchester City and I expect him to start on Saturday, I don’t think they will be many more through the door but if they do find a Heidar Helguson/ Paul Furlong/ Dennis Bailey type of striker then that would help.

The club say they are still looking for another centre half and right back. Just as importantly the three best players remain at the club.

Ins >>> Nestory Irankunda, 19, RW, Bayern, £2.5m >>> Othmane Maamma, 19, RW, Montpellier, £1m >>> Marc Bola, 27, LB, Samsunspor, Free >>> Nathan Baxter, 26, GK, Bolton, Free >>> Hector Kyprianou, 24, DM, Peterborough, Free >>> Vivaldo Semedo, 20, CF, Udinese, Undisclosed >>> Luca Kyerrumgaard, 22, CF, Udinese, Loan >>> Max Alleyne, 20, CB, Man City, Loan >>> Caleb Wiley, 20, LB, Chelsea, Loan

Outs Joao Ferreira, 24, RB, Saint-Etienne, £2.5m >>> Mileta Rajovic, 25, CF, Legia Warsaw, £2.5m >>> Francisco Sierralta, 28, CB, Auxerre, £1.5m >>> Antonio Tikvic, 21, CB, PR Munster, £500k >>> Ryan Porteous, 26, CB, LAFC, Undisclosed >>> Jorge Hurtado, 21, CF, Millonarios, Loan >>> Myles Roberts, 23, GK, Walsall, Loan >>> Daniel Bachmann, 31, GK, Deportivo, Loan >>> Angelo Ogbonna, 37, CB, Released

Where is this team strong, where is it weak?

Cam: Our big weakness in terms of quality is in that midfield group. Giorgi Chakvetadze and Pierre Dwomoh are both out, leaving us short on quality. Imran Louza and Kyprianou are great, but you get the feeling there’s a lack of balance and creativity in there, and behind those two we’re left with some pretty rough options (as we saw on Tuesday). Right back, as mentioned previously, isn’t quite up to scratch - Jeremy Ngakia is fine when he’s not on the treatment table but then we’re relying on Ryan Andrews behind him who, to put it nicely, isn’t quite there.

In terms of strengths we’ve got three strikers who could all offer something. It won’t take long before Kjerrumgaard gets his first goal - he’s looking sharp. Our wingers are the real threat though. Baah is back like he never left, and got our first goal of the season on Tuesday. It looks like he’ll be more left-sided this season, because on the right is Irankunda who looks like he’s gonna fly at this level. We’ve got a good pair of central defenders at the moment too in Kevin Keben and James Abankwah.

Expectations for this season?

Cam: I’ve never been less sure about Watford going into a season. Because we’ve made sensible signings for the first time in a long time, my heart is telling me to aim high. But my head says we’ve still got a lot of work to do. The way we’ve started the season has knocked me down a peg, and I do have in the back of my mind that a relegation scrap is very possible. But I think we’ll be fine, there’s a lot of quality there, and we’ll be somewhere from 11th-14th. At the end of the day it all hinges on Pezzolano, because you can’t say he’s not been given the tools to succeed.

Rich: If Imran Louza, Kwadwo Baah and Giorgi Chakevtadze all remain past August and one of the new strikers is able to adapt to the league and hit the ground running then we have lots of options as an attacking force. With that in mind I am going to stick my neck out and go for a top ten finish.”

Links >>> Watford Official Website >>> Vicarage Road - Ground Guide >>> WFC Forums — Message Board >>> Watford Observer — Local Press >>> Voices of the Vic — Podcast

Pictures - Reuters Connect

TacticalR added 21:48 - Aug 15 Thanks to Cam and Richard. A lot of pundits seem sceptical about Watford (maybe because of the constant changes), but it's interesting that both fans seem reasonably optimistic given the business done over the summer.
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