EVERY now and then Watford Football Club puts someone's nose out of joint. It goes with the territory. Every football club does it.

The basic reason is that a football club is an evolving entity, not as constant as most of the fans who follow it.

"I went off them when they sold Cliff Holton and I have never been back there since. They stabbed us in the back," was one comment heard in the 1960's and many people stuck to that vow for ever more.

And I would be the first to agree that the club were wrong on Holton and even those who made the final decision later admitted they were wrong. Even the manager who advised them to sell Holton was axed two years later.

The club changed its approach under new management as Ken Furphy launched Meet the Manager sessions. Groups of 30 fans at a time would meet the manager and director Doug Broad would act as chairman.

But although it was 1965 and Holton had been sold four years previously, the subject was still raised. All Ken Furphy would say was that he was not even at the club when the deed was done and Doug Broad said that he was outvoted on the issue.

Furphy finally decided to get fans to bury the hatchet by signing Cliff back to the club.

"They shouldn't have sold him in the first place. I'm not going back," was the reaction of some fans and so it remained.

In some cases, it remains to this day as that disillusionment of a generation or two of Watford fans still rancours and even though the club is entirely different, with not one person on the staff or board who had anything to do with Holton coming or going, "they did it".

For instance, when Ken Furphy took over, the people who were "in" with his predecessor Ron Burgess, were not necessarily "in" with the new man.

He was from a different school and so suddenly those who had access to the guest bar because they "did a bit of scouting for Ron" suddenly found their services no longer needed.

"I've been out, rain or shine on touchlines scouting for that club, And that's all the thanks I get."

Many years ago, in fact so many years ago, I was just a boy, the Watford board had a run-in with their Supporters Club. The Supporters' Club used to raise money from fans through various activities and then kept it in an account.

The board argued the club should have that money; the Supporters' Club said that they could have it only if they agreed to spend on this or that, perhaps citing the Rookery End stand or floodlights or a new player.

The board countered that they ran the club. The Supporters' Club countered that the fans "owned" the club: it was the town's club.

You could see the argument from both sides but the two main protagonists were not people who thought of compromising. They disliked each other intently.

So Watford launched their own development fund, recruiting a few sympathetic committee members and the club's scheme started to raise money. The key people who worked on the project, were provided access to a certain club bar, close to the board room.

That happy state of affairs lasted until years later, in an effort to win more financial support from fans who were comfortably-off, they launched the new Vice-Presidents Suite with higher contributions, often made years in advance. From memory, I believe these paid for the new dressing rooms and showers around 1969.

The development fund had long been overtaken by the club's own bingo and pools tickets so, when the new suite was opened, those few relics from the 1950's were asked to pay their subscription along with the rest.

This did not go down well and it was argued that the previous chairman had promised them membership for life.

So, people who had worked hard for the club and, in many respects, had been afforded over a decade's worth of privileges, suddenly found themselves swearing that they would have nothing to do with the organisation again.

It was another example of the 'they kicked me in the teeth' syndrome.

Of those who paid in advance for a decade or so of vice-presidents' subscriptions, had helped the club. But, as is always the case, some felt that they were part of a "second or shadow board" and one or two used the status, for which they had paid, as an entree into other clubs. "I am vice president of Watford FC" was a truthful statement, but it did not indicate that in fact so were 50 other people.

So they whole idea was scrapped and then the 1981 Club was launched.

This eventually fell apart with even larger subscriptions being demanded by a new board, a new era and a new management - not, it should be pointed out, the current board. So there was further disaffection.

There have been many such instances down the years, of voluntary workers, doing so much out of love for the club and given perks in return, who suddenly feel like jilted lovers.

In real commercial terms, their time has run its course and like a jilted lover, there is bitterness and the rejoinder "You used to fancy me once. Couldn't get enough of what I could do."

A new boss, secretary, chief executive, marketing manager or whatever, is looking to make his section efficient and effective. He is not interested in paying dues to yesteryear and continueing to reward someone who did so much for the club 20 years ago.

I do not defend either attitude. but it is life.

I remember a few years back, travelling to Hoo in Kent, with my elderly parents and discovering that my mother's grandparents graves no longer existed.

Her family had lived next door to the church and had been generous to the parrish, by all accounts. They had a family plot in the churchyard but the gavestones from the turn of the century had been removed and stacked by a church wall while the rest had been grassed over.

I could not even work my way through it like a pile of large pop posters you find in stores. They were too heavy to see anything other than the inscription on the first stone.

I was miffed about that, so was my mother. But it happens to be life.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.