Thursday, July 12, 2001

Gianluca Vialli moved to strengthen the Hornets' defensive options with the recruitment of both AC Milan's Filippo Galli and Marseille's Patrick Blondeau.

One of the finest defenders ever to pull on a Watford shirt despite his 38 years. three-time European Cup-winner Galli was to become one of the few successes of Vialli's tenure.

Blondeau's Watford career is regarded less favourably; his comments in a TV interview on the day of his arrival, highlighting the financial incentive as a key reason to sign, were a worrying portent of the problems that the club was creating for itself.

Reproduced by kind permission of Matt Rowson from his book, Watford FC On This Day