Watford CEO Scott Duxbury claims the club no longer wants to sell players to balance books

7:00am Monday 12th November 2012 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Frank Smith, Deputy Group Sports Editor

Ashley Young was one of several Watford Academy players to be sold. Picture: Action Images Ashley Young was one of several Watford Academy players to be sold. Picture: Action Images

The Hornets chief executive admits it will be “many years” before the club breaks even but claims they are no longer planning to balance the books through player sales.

In recent years Watford have made no secret of the fact they needed to sell their star players on a regular basis to compensate for annual loses.

CEO Scott Duxbury refused to state how much debt the Pozzos inherited when he addressed supporters at the recent fans’ forum but he did add that Watford’s accounts will be published at the end of November and “the record will be there for everybody to see”.

Duxbury said: “We were aware of the debt, we are managing it and what we said at the start was that our aim is to implement a business plan that makes the club self sufficient as quickly as possible.

“The previous business plan was based upon significant operating losses that would be covered through player trading. We don’t want to do that, we want to keep players and remain competitive and we think the best platform to get to the Premier League is to be a viable, sustainable Championship club.

“So we are reducing the debt and getting to a position where we will move towards breaking even. That will take many years but with the new business plan and new initiatives; we are moving the club in the right direction.”

Duxbury was chief executive at West Ham United during an extremely turbulent period in the club’s history.

He joined the Hammers as their in-house lawyer in 2002 from Manchester United and was promoted to CEO in 2006.

Duxbury was criticised for his role in the Carlos Tevez affair which resulted in a heavy fine for West Ham and when the club were took over by David Gold and David Sullivan in January 2010, he resigned soon after.

Duxbury, who worked with Gian Luca Nani and Gianfranco Zola at Upton Park, said: “I don’t particularly want to talk about the past because our whole focus and passion is Watford.

“What I can say about the past is that I am a far better chief executive now because of my experiences in the past. There were successes and failures and as long as you don’t make the same mistakes twice, then you are better because of it.

“The three of us [Duxbury, Nani and Zola] are better individuals because of our past experiences and our whole focus and pride is being here.

“All we can promise is we will give everything for this football club and we are better because of our past.”

The fans’ forum had a good blend of serious answers and humour on Thursday night.

The event started with a joke about the well-being of the panel, which consisted of Duxbury, Nani, Zola and John Eustace, after Laurence Bassini’s no-show last year.

Zola’s poor memory was an on-going feature following his inability to remember Eustace’s name, after having to refer to him as “the skipper”.

Another funny moment was when a school teacher asked the panel what the club were going to do about the majority of his class supporting bigger clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea. Zola turned the tables by stating that he should give those children more homework.

It was also confirmed the successful ‘At Your Place’ events will continue this season.

- After last week’s interview with Duxbury, when he stated the Academy would be run “exactly like it has been”, we were informed that four members of Academy staff were made redundant since the summer takeover and three others had left without being replaced.

Watford had applied for Category One status as part of the new Elite Player Performance Plan – the highest level – but after the takeover decided to opt for Category Three, which is on a par with clubs such as Stevenage and Luton Town.

When asked about the departures, Duxbury said: “The club budgeted for Category One status in the budget that we inherited, which cost £1m plus, so they had to start recruiting staff to have in place for the Category One audit.

“We hadn’t fully gone through that process but certain staff had been hired to get within budget. Some of those Category One members of staff were made redundant. Some were part-time and some were full-time. It was a mix.”

When asked if Watford’s Academy could be run “exactly like it has been” considering the loss of seven members of staff, Duxbury replied: “Yes, completely because these were Category One additions ready to be in place should we run it as a Category One Academy.

“We are going to continue as we were, with Harefield and the same scouting, but we don’t need Category One. It is like the fourth-generation astro-turf pitch, we are not having that. For Category One you were meant to have something like five conditioning coaches but we are not having that, we are having what we always had – one.

“It is not misleading [the ‘exactly like it has been’ comment], it is just that these people were brought in for Category One status and we are not going for that. That is why they were moved on.”

Comments(37)

borohorn says...
9:13am Mon 12 Nov 12

I am so excited by this new regime and our future as a club. On the pitch we have young quick exciting talented players who although at the moment are not our own, soon will be. We play some great football and look capable of a promotion push if we can become more consistent, though this year is too early. The jury is probably still out on zola but he is doing fine in my books. (needs to play vydra more though). Off the pitch the pozzos know how to run football clubs and this is only good for a club consistently running at a loss for years. The futures bright the futures yellow!!

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Alexander Hilcroft says...
10:12am Mon 12 Nov 12

Why bother to bring up Duxbury and Nani's performance at West Ham yet again? Given the Wobby's toothless cow-towing to the previous owner I find what appears to be the paper's agenda to discredit the current regime at every opportunity lamentable

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LesCSP says...
10:24am Mon 12 Nov 12

The need to keep referring to West ham does seem bizarre. Many differences to that situation.

Lets just enjoy the ride and long may it last.

I watched Watford throughout the 1950's and until Big Cliff and Little Dennis (Uphill) arrived there was very little to get excited about.

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golden888 says...
10:29am Mon 12 Nov 12

Fully agree. The fact is Nani and Duxbury have been employed in top flight football for many years and know how to run a football club. Clearly Pozzo has complete faith in them and I for one am glad we have football men who are taking our club to a new level. As for Zola he is creating a team that not only plays attractive football but is now getting the results. The future is very bright indeed!

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Taxidermist says...
11:07am Mon 12 Nov 12

Those of us who are a certain age can consider ourselves very fortunate to have witnessed the successes of our club through the 80's, Elton John, Graham Taylor etc, and now we are doubly fortunate to be about to witness another pivotal period in our clubs history.
Bring it on! Enjoy the ride!

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jasonwatford says...
11:21am Mon 12 Nov 12

When would we ever been able to buy Fernando , vydra , Pudil and for me best of all Abde ??? Prem earns more money than seria a and la liga so the pozzo will want to show off the talent they find here at watford.....Yes they will sell when they get a big offer but the difference we wont be selling vydra in January or in the summer for 3 or 4 million like we might of had too before if we had found him. Vydra cost them 3 million when he was 16 so i guess they wont sell unless they get an offer of 10 million plus and i bet one day in a year or 2 they will get that because that boy will score anywhere.

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Mickey Quinn, not so thin says...
11:25am Mon 12 Nov 12

They also need to drop the constant reference to the fact that Stevenage and L***n will also be cat 3. This is irrelevant. What is relevant is what our academy strategy will be. The fact we will continue "as we are" with Harefield means we will not be operating at the same level as the likes of S & L.

The constant use of the word "sustainable" is interesting. Presumably this means loss-making but these losses will be budgeted for and will be covered by the Pozzos ? We will NEVER break even as a championship side without either selling our stars and cutting our playing staff to Bassini levels, or continued support from the Pozzos in the form of foc players and contribution to salary. Hopefully we won't have to worry about this issue for too many years !

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DuffmanWFC says...
11:56am Mon 12 Nov 12

The transformation our club is under is nothing short of a miricle!
6 months ago we were nearly going into administration, would have to sell our best assets just to servive, played poor football due to lack of quality as its been sold off and possibly staring relegation to League 1 in the face!
NOW we have the new owners and board that have turned this all around! I thank them for giving us a stable financial plan, a crop of exciting players, a real belief of Premiership football in a few years to come and enjoyable football!
To the WO stop cutting and pasting half this article from previous stories which have no relevance to what the board are trying to do!
FORGET West Ham and FORGET the Academy Status change as its just a certificate! Murray, Smith, Hoban are academy players that have played regular this season! Not many Championship sides have 3/4 academy players playing in there side week in week out!
And there are academy players playing out on loan and doing well!
Duffman out!

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londomollari says...
12:29pm Mon 12 Nov 12

I can only agree with the above, and yes, let's stop hearing about West Ham---let's judge them on what they do here. (Personally, I have doubts about Nani, but I will be happy to be proved wrong!).
Certainly, I always said that we should start to judge Zola after 15 matches. So far, so good!
I see our old friend Martin Samuels (Daily Mail) has had a dig again.

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JohnnyHornet says...
2:17pm Mon 12 Nov 12

londomollari wrote:
I can only agree with the above, and yes, let's stop hearing about West Ham---let's judge them on what they do here. (Personally, I have doubts about Nani, but I will be happy to be proved wrong!).
Certainly, I always said that we should start to judge Zola after 15 matches. So far, so good!
I see our old friend Martin Samuels (Daily Mail) has had a dig again.
Samuel's is a Tommy Tanker or should I say a right Colin

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honest-view says...
2:55pm Mon 12 Nov 12

I admire Martin Samuels columns on WF.C.because he has absolutely no idea of how we are being run,He keeps putting us in the news,suggesting we are the only club with foreign players and creating interest in Watford which we would not normaly get.
I would bet that a lot of clubs would like
to be in our position.
Keep moning Martin,we love it.
BAD PUBLICITY IS GOOD PUBLICITY

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WatfordTalk says...
3:07pm Mon 12 Nov 12

londomollari wrote:
I can only agree with the above, and yes, let's stop hearing about West Ham---let's judge them on what they do here. (Personally, I have doubts about Nani, but I will be happy to be proved wrong!). Certainly, I always said that we should start to judge Zola after 15 matches. So far, so good! I see our old friend Martin Samuels (Daily Mail) has had a dig again.
Where are his latest expert insights on our club located? Are they on the Mirror website?

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Hornet Cornet says...
4:35pm Mon 12 Nov 12

i need the loo

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Brian of Northwood says...
4:39pm Mon 12 Nov 12

WatfordTalk wrote:
londomollari wrote:
I can only agree with the above, and yes, let's stop hearing about West Ham---let's judge them on what they do here. (Personally, I have doubts about Nani, but I will be happy to be proved wrong!). Certainly, I always said that we should start to judge Zola after 15 matches. So far, so good! I see our old friend Martin Samuels (Daily Mail) has had a dig again.
Where are his latest expert insights on our club located? Are they on the Mirror website?
Eyesight fading? His to be found on the right wing rag aka, Daily Mail. Like all right wingers he talks nonsense and from the hip!

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Ronny oh Ronny Ronny says...
4:39pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Did anyone hear me on call Collymore after the game on Saturday night?
He could not get his head around the fact that we had so many loan players even after I explained to him that they are not ordinary loans, they want to play in England and will be signing anyway!!

These naive individuals like Collymore and Samuels will soon see that the Pozzos know what they are doing and that we will be a force to be reckoned with!

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DuffmanWFC says...
4:56pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Collymore and Samuels like to think that they know it all and are right about there opinions but the fact is they know nothing at all!
Collymore is nothing more then a three season decent ex pro who's off the field problems and girlfriend bashing led him to an early footballing retirement! All he is interested in talking about is the so called glammer of big clubs with open cheque books!
And Samuels has no experience of playing football at a decent level or any clue on the running of a club yet he likes to spout on like some sort of wise deci

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DuffmanWFC says...
4:59pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Collymore and Samuels like to think that they know it all and are right about there opinions but the fact is they know nothing at all!
Collymore is nothing more then a three season decent ex pro who's off the field problems and girlfriend bashing led him to an early footballing retirement! All he is interested in talking about is the so called glammer of big clubs with open cheque books!
And Samuels has no experience of playing football at a decent level or any clue on the running of a club yet he likes to spout on like some sort of wise prophet! These two are way out of touch as what's happening at Watford to them in there tiny little brains is un thinkable and as this is so all they can be is negative!
Well Collymore and Samuels we have done nothing wrong and broken no rules so jog on!
YOU ORNS!

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goldanboy says...
5:02pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Look, I'm sure if our club last season got tonked by a load of foreign loanees, we would have a right winge about it. It's something we'll have to get used to and stop complaining about. If we were losing and playing terrible football we wouldn't get mentioned, so let's take such comments as a compliment to our footballing style.

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Alexander Hilcroft says...
5:06pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Hornet Cornet wrote:
i need the loo
Am I the only one who finds this bloke's brainless attempts at surreal humour utterly tedious?

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Mickey Quinn, not so thin says...
5:44pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Alexander Hilcroft wrote:
Hornet Cornet wrote:
i need the loo
Am I the only one who finds this bloke's brainless attempts at surreal humour utterly tedious?
no

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DuffmanWFC says...
5:46pm Mon 12 Nov 12

What's the difference from a club that can have plenty of foreign loans to a club that can spend 60 million on players but has a 200 million debt?

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DuffmanWFC says...
5:47pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Answer: The first is apparently immoral

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DuffmanWFC says...
5:58pm Mon 12 Nov 12

This country has nearly 100 professional league sides but all that these apparent know it all sports reporters want to glorify and speak about is the Premier Leagues apparent top 4! Yep Man UTD - a club that has used its financial strength to steal players from other clubs for the last 15 years and who still manage to operate questionably due to there massive debt!
Yep Chelsea - Owned by a rich tycoon who tramples on everything in his way and is responsible for underwriting the signings of hundreds of millions himself which somehow gets swept under the carpet!
Yep Man City - Just how a club can cook the books so badly and get away with it is a farce! Spend crazy money shown as debt and then get the same amount back through naming rights from a company with financial links with there current tycoon!

Well when you put that into context the loan players that we have really is bad especially as most of them will become permenant signings! Come on FIFA throw the book at Watford!

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andyhooked says...
6:01pm Mon 12 Nov 12

At first concerned with the new regime. Now looking the best propects since the Elton/Taylor era. How many Prem clubs are not stuffed with non-British players. In an ideal world they would all be Brits. I am entralled so stuff anyone with negative comments that think different (press or ex-players or anyone else). If we make the play offs will they change their tune?

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lutondown says...
6:09pm Mon 12 Nov 12

DuffmanWFC wrote:
What's the difference from a club that can have plenty of foreign loans to a club that can spend 60 million on players but has a 200 million debt?
Exactly mate. What they don't like same as when GT had his golden era, is the fact that clubs like us should know our place.
Well blow them, we're on the march and Fat irons with their infactual journalism can't do nought about it.
As for Collymore, what a male appendage he is. He makes Porky Parry sound Literate.
As for the comment about Nani by Londonmallori I think you'll find he was instrumental in getting Vydra, Abdi, FF, Anya and co over. If he keeps potting gold like that I think any misgivings will evaporate quickly. Personally thought he was honest at the forum as was Duxberry.

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akureyri says...
6:27pm Mon 12 Nov 12

I feel like Rip van Winkle. Every time I look at the WOb they are repeating the same thing. Duxbury/Nani ex-West Ham, academy is category 3, now no need to sell. Professing love for the last regime.

Come on WOb get some new stories.

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KeithMercer says...
8:18pm Mon 12 Nov 12

DuffmanWFC wrote:
This country has nearly 100 professional league sides but all that these apparent know it all sports reporters want to glorify and speak about is the Premier Leagues apparent top 4! Yep Man UTD - a club that has used its financial strength to steal players from other clubs for the last 15 years and who still manage to operate questionably due to there massive debt!
Yep Chelsea - Owned by a rich tycoon who tramples on everything in his way and is responsible for underwriting the signings of hundreds of millions himself which somehow gets swept under the carpet!
Yep Man City - Just how a club can cook the books so badly and get away with it is a farce! Spend crazy money shown as debt and then get the same amount back through naming rights from a company with financial links with there current tycoon!

Well when you put that into context the loan players that we have really is bad especially as most of them will become permenant signings! Come on FIFA throw the book at Watford!
Good stuff Duffers !!
Would love to hear you and the likes of LD call TalkSport and put that buffoon Collymore back in his box ! thats if you could get a word in edge ways he loves the sound of his own voice that muppet !!.

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DuffmanWFC says...
9:11pm Mon 12 Nov 12

I'd love to call up talk sport Keith and give him a few choice words! Maybe next week!

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Moffathornet says...
10:32pm Mon 12 Nov 12

Was listening to talk sport tonight and all they could talk about was Leeds and how their takeover would see them back in big time. No credit given to Watford and apparently saturday was all down to Leeds financial problems. Unbelievable that little old Watford could be outclassing some of the so called big boys..
Can't wait to see us in the premiership, new stand, full ground, mixing it with the likes of Man U.
Oh but I remember when we finished second to Liverpool and still didn't get any credit as have Norwich, Swansea and dare I say qpr in the past..
Anyone fancy gate crashing the big boys club??

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D.unstable says...
12:18am Tue 13 Nov 12

Was anybody else at the forum who heard Zola make a reference to a fourth club linked to the Pozzo's. think he may have checked with Nani too, however I did not catch the name properly and have never seen it mentioned or spoken about anywhere else.

I am a stickler for attention to detail, so know I did not imagine it.

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D.unstable says...
1:21am Tue 13 Nov 12

An interesting point to note, we are now the highest scores in the Championship away from home, but only the 3rd lowest scorers at home.

Lets get behind the golden boys on Saturday to start to change this.

According to twitter Steve Beleck is leaving and returning to Udinese/Granada. Had high hopes for him.

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Harrydownunder says...
4:57am Tue 13 Nov 12

Read this weeks ago and it's as negative now (if not more so) as it was when originally published.

WO how about some real journalism? There is a miracle about to be performed here and all u can do is throw up old articles. We do have memories you know.

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lutondown says...
5:40am Tue 13 Nov 12

D.unstable wrote:
Was anybody else at the forum who heard Zola make a reference to a fourth club linked to the Pozzo's. think he may have checked with Nani too, however I did not catch the name properly and have never seen it mentioned or spoken about anywhere else.

I am a stickler for attention to detail, so know I did not imagine it.
Yes I heard it but didn't catch the name.

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Mickey Quinn, not so thin says...
7:50am Tue 13 Nov 12

D.unstable wrote:
An interesting point to note, we are now the highest scores in the Championship away from home, but only the 3rd lowest scorers at home.

Lets get behind the golden boys on Saturday to start to change this.

According to twitter Steve Beleck is leaving and returning to Udinese/Granada. Had high hopes for him.
Me too. Had forgotten he was even here! Completely fallen off the radar.

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DuffmanWFC says...
9:57am Tue 13 Nov 12

Shame it hasn't worked out for Belleck!
I always thought it would be him and Anya that go back to there clubs and Uwelumo and Yeates that are shipped out in January.
All looking good as we have Eustace, Mungi Bai and Bauban coming back in the next month!
The next puzzle for Zola is wether to send Franchone back too!

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tommy gunn says...
12:40pm Tue 13 Nov 12

The news we all want to hear is the extent of Abdi's injury,come on WO get digging.

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Larrythe Loafer 'Orn says...
5:26pm Tue 13 Nov 12

From my understanding the main difference between Category 1 and 3 is the final age. Cat1 means you keep them on until 21 which is ridiculous. If the lad is any good he is plying in the first team at 18 (Hoban, Young, Murray etc) and we really cannot nor need not afford meaningless friendlies with minor teams just to keep them occupied. Cat 3 does not mean we lower our standards!

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