Numerous players came and went in the 10 years after the Pozzos took over ownership of Watford FC.
First featured in last season’s matchday programme, James Garrett picks out some of those individuals who made their mark at The Vic…
At the age of just 20, Matěj Vydra became one of the many Udinese loanees to join the Hornets in the summer of 2012. It didn’t take him too long to become a fan favourite, scoring the winner in the final moments of the first game of the season away to Crystal Palace.
It took a couple of months for the team to really find their form, as Head Coach Gianfranco Zola found the best players to fit his preferred 3-5-2 formation, but things soon became special when Troy Deeney returned to the team in late September. The Hornets thrashed Leeds at Elland Road 6-1, and before we knew it Deeney and Vydra had become the best forward pairing outside of the Premier League.
If you take a moment to watch any highlights from this time, you will see some amazing forward play, quick movements and passes, and in Vydra, one of the best finishers surely to ever grace The Vic. By late March, he had scored 20 goals and was voted Championship Player of the Season, but then hit a dry spell where he didn’t score in 13 matches.
However, he ended this spell during a crazy spring afternoon in May. With Watford trailing Leicester City in the play-off semi-finals, Vydra made a run in the inside-left channel; Marco Cassetti chipped a lovely pass to him, but the Czech striker was on the corner of the penalty area as the ball met his weaker left foot on the volley.
It flew past Kasper Schmeichel into the corner of the goal, with perhaps the best first-time effort ever scored by a Watford player. He then scored with a cool finish, after a typical one-two with Deeney in the second half, to equalise. Somehow, with the chaos of that final minute, his first goal is often forgotten. Vydra, though, had heartbreak in the play-off final at Wembley, as an ankle injury meant he had to be substituted at half-time.
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No-one could really deny him the chance to play at a higher level, and he joined West Brom on loan during the 2013/14 season. And then a year later, to much surprise, he returned to Watford for another loan season. His quality still shone, but he played more of a supporting role during the 2014/15 promotion campaign. This was mainly due to the fact that new signing Odion Ighalo was in the form of his life.
Vydra still had his moments, though - the ridiculous half-volley at home to Brentford is still etched in my memory, as I had rarely seen a ball fly into a goal at such speed. Another special moment has to be his 95th-minute goal away to Brighton, that effectively sealed promotion, and it was fitting he finished perfectly from a Troy Deeney pass.
He still scored 16 goals during this season, and then signed permanently in the summer of 2015. Sadly, we didn’t get to watch him playing for us in the Premier League, as he couldn’t be guaranteed first-team football so was quickly loaned out to Reading before joining Derby County in 2016.
Undoubtedly, he is one of the best strikers Watford have ever had, and for us who were there to watch, he produced some magical moments we will never forget.
