Watford's former chairman Elton John remains a fan of the Hornets, despite no longer having any tangible connection with the club. He is hoping his sons Zachary and Elijah will become Watford fans, as he and partner David Furnish still follow the club.

The star contacted me at my home in France and we had our first conversation in over a decade as he wanted to set the record straight about his chairmanship, second time round.

“Elton came home” as Graham Taylor announced from the centre circle before the Bury game in 1996, but although he was chairman, he seldom attended games.

“That is very true but Graham was right when he said I had never worked so hard. I had a major split from my manager and that cost me a lot of money,” Elton said, referring to the court case involving his former fellow Watford director, John Reid.

“I put in five years to make up from that catastrophic financial position. I worked incredibly hard and I did not get much time to go and watch football.

“I did get up at 5am in Seattle to attend the television channel there and watch the Play-off Final with Bolton and talk on Sky afterwards.

“But I was just concentrating on my career and trying to get my finances straight.”

Elton went on to tell me that one of the myths is that partner David Furnish, does not like football. That claim has been repeated on television and in newspapers for some years.

“He gets blamed for everything and he is rather hurt that people think he is responsible for me not going to football,” Elton said. “He supports Watford: both our boys are into football and watch it on television and they have the Watford kit.

“In fact David is very encouraging about my love for Watford and both of us are rather proud of what Graham and I achieved at the club and with the club.”

The former chairman told me he had talked to his old manager, Graham Taylor, the previous day. “I got quite emotional talking to him, and about what we achieved at Watford and all those memories; the afternoons and night matches and all of it. That was lovely talking to him,” he told me.

They still keep in touch for Graham is irrevocably associated with what his erstwhile chairman described as “one of the happiest memories of my life”.

“That was a big part of my life and a very important part. I received so much love, support and enjoyment in those days.

“I am very proud of the fact that Watford are now a Championship club, an established club in the upper echelons and that is what we did when we took over Watford when it was a Division Four mid-table club.

“Now, they are being run by people who are doing the right thing for the first time since my days as chairman. Ok, they have had a few managerial changes but one of them was forced upon us,” he said, clearly associating with the club on a personal level.

“It is looking a proper club, run on a sound financial footing and I have not been able to say that before, for many years. So that is good because the club is established in the upper echelons and can look to improve still further.

“People say it cost me millions and I ‘lost’ millions but I did not put that money in to get it back. I put it in to take Watford forward and it was one of the biggest pleasures of my life. I do not hold a post at the club but I still follow them and I was at the Play-off Final with David, two years ago.

“Unfortunately that was the second time that the real Watford team did not turn up at Wembley and that was a terrible disappointment.”

The star informed me he was “down the road” from me in Montpellier when he phoned. “I was in Paris last night. Things are good: my career is going well. David and I have been together for 21 years and the boys are wonderful and it is very fulfilling. The health is good. Bits are beginning to fall off but that goes with the age: I am 67, only six years behind you. It is good to talk after all these years.”

I recalled when I had introduced him to the club with his then international representative, Vic Lewis, back in the days when I was 6ft 4in and about 13 stone, soaking wet (1973).

“I was 6ft 4in tall, but in reality I am 5ft 8in. What they must have made of me on those platform shoes, I cannot imagine. We have changed since those days,” he remarked.

For years Elton John would phone successive managers at Watford every week and revealed he still is in contact with Sean Dyche and Malky Mackay.

“The last manager I talked to on a regular basis was Gianfranco (Zola), whose English is very good, but subsequently the manager did not speak English.

“I read everything they say about Malky and I think everyone should be given a second chance. I have travelled with tabloid newsmen and for them to start having a go about someone’s private texts, is a bit rich.

“I am referring to tabloid newspapermen and I exclude you. We go back a long way.

“But I keep in touch and I am very pleased the club is on a solid footing at long last.”

I told him I had tried to get in touch with him several times before.

“If they had passed on those emails, I would have phoned you. You know that,” he said adding: “One thing about me not attending matches more recently: I don’t like crowds. It is not so comfortable going to matches as it was back in our day, back in the 1970s.

“People are different and they have these mobile phones and their cameras. They didn’t have them years back, so it is different. You are having your photo taken all the time. It is not so easy to relax and just concentrate on a game.”

This article was first published in Friday's Watford Observer.