Silence is golden

I’ve just realised that it’s over two months since I last posted on this blog. That’s just life; sometimes, work and other stuff gets in the way of my offhand musings about the past, present and future of my favourite football club.

But I wonder if, subconsciously, my recent silence has also been a reaction to the sheer amount of noise around Watford this season. I can’t be the only one to have noticed that, as the number of matches the team actually plays has diminished since promotion, so the amount of discussion of the club has increased.

Part of that is a natural consequence of being a Premier League team: match previews and reports as a matter of course in the national press, more attention from the BBC and Sky. Locally, too, coverage has increased exponentially, largely as a result of the launch of WD Sport, which has created a competition with the Watford Observer to see who can publish more flimsy stories a day, even when there’s nothing to say. (Seriously, I really don’t want to read another word about Emmanuel Adebayor, unless it’s to say that he’s signed or he’s turned us down.) The team at From The Rookery End have increased the number of podcasts they produce as well. They’re unfailingly interesting, but I do sometimes look at my iTunes page and wonder how I’m supposed to keep up.

Don’t get me wrong: this is a great time to be a Watford fan, in terms of what’s happening on the pitch and the coverage the club gets. But until I have something original to say, I don’t feel a burning need to add to the online chatter.

10 reasons why it’s great to be a Hornet

I’m sure I’m not the only Watford fan who is still utterly incapable of calm, dispassionate analysis of our season or the implications of yesterday’s results for the club’s future. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I keep spontaneously breaking into a rendition of ‘Tommie Hoban’s having a party...’ and finding myself grinning stupidly at inappropriate moments.

Still, I had to mark the moment somehow, so here’s my list of 10 reasons why it’s great to be a Hornet right now:

1) The Pozzo family...

2) ... thanks to whom we finally have a proper four-sided ground again, complete with stands rightly named after the two people who did more than anything to establish the Watford FC we know and love today

3) We’ve got Lloydinho...

4) ... and, possibly more importantly for the outcome of this season, Troydeeneyo

5) The 1881, who’ve achieved the improbable feat of making Vicarage Road a cauldron of noise

6) The many and varied media channels that comment on and support the Hornets, all of them unfailingly classy and intelligent: the Watford Observer’s simultaneously passionate and objective reports, the brilliant From The Rookery End podcast, the always shrewd and witty BHappy blogs, the ever-growing archive of Watford lore that is the Tales From The Vicarage series of books, plus other bloggers and tweeters too numerous to mention

7) Goals galore. While Chelsea fans watch their team bore their way to the Premier League title, we’ve seen lots and lots and lots of fabulous goals this season. And I write as someone who missed the home win against Blackpool

8) Slav. A different kind of manager, and exactly what we needed this season. Focused, intelligent and fearless. Deserves a shot at the big time

9) We will hopefully never again have to play our supposed rivals from a horrible town in Bedfordshire that I can’t bring myself to name, who are currently, and deservedly, marooned in League Two

10 Last, but most certainly not least... We are going up, I said we are going up!