I was fascinated to read the item concerning a Watford scout who found it ironic that Millwall boss Ian Holloway had taken a Watford player on loan. It was pointed out it was ironic because Holloway had been critical of the loan system.

Some fans will not forget that Holloway had the temerity to draw attention to the loophole in loaning players from abroad, which Watford had exploited during the first season under the Pozzos.

His view was that Watford had done well exploiting the loophole but why should a club be allowed to borrow eight players from one foreign club when you can only borrow two from one English club? I thought his point was justified and well made but obviously it passed over the head of the Watford scout who seemed to be under the impression Holloway was bemoaning the loan system in general.

I’ve always enjoyed Holloway’s “folksy” observations but he received a lot of stick from certain sections of the Watford fan-base but his point was valid as proven by the fact the regulations were changed three months later and the loophole closed. Clearly football agreed with him.

I suppose Holloway’s comments were harder to swallow because he masterminded Palace to a Play-off victory over Watford to gain promotion.

While Holloway is still unpopular with some Watford fans, his track record for promotion challenges suggests that if the Hornets stay one step ahead of his new club, Millwall, then they will be in for an extremely good season.

And while talking of Millwall, I noted on Watford Mailing List that former Watford Observer junior reporter Michael Calvin, who I last saw at my retirement bash, has been winding up Watford fans.

The former Watford fan, and multi-award-winning journalist, apparently fell in love with Millwall after covering them for a season for his book. As a result he has defected and become a Lions fan after years following the Hornets.

These things can happen but it is not an every-day occurrence. I know of one Watford regular home and away, who turned his back on it all and became a big supporting player in the non-league game and I recall one Watford Supporter of the Season had been a Manchester City fan in a previous life.

I think you make your choices early in life. At school, you had to be a Watford supporter, but as the idea of them reaching the Cup Final or playing in the top flight was totally beyond sane contemplation, there was a trend in those days to pick a second club. I chose Manchester United because I had been a Jackie Milburn fan and discovered his nephew played for Man U reserves. I followed him and his club: Manchester United and Bobby Charlton never looked back. But when the Hornets went to Old Trafford, there was no doubt in my mind: Watford came first.

People get divorced and move on in life. We might think their new partner is not as good as the one that has been jettisoned but there’s no legislation for taste. The important thing is that they move on but apparently Mike, now of Millwall, has been having a pop at Watford as being a club without identity.

Now I would be the first to agree with him during the Simpson-Ashton-Wilson-Boothroyd era, and the Bassini days as well. But Watford are now known for trying to play football in the purist vein and, when the managerial vacancy popped up the other week, many pundits were contending it was a good job to have as Watford have a good, footballing squad.

True Watford do not have the identity they enjoyed back in the 1970s and 1980s as a family, community, go-ahead club that was mentioned in Parliament – an image that rose above the image portrayed by Jeff Powell and his fellow Venables-For-Pope campaigners who dismissed them as a long-ball outfit.

Then of course there is the question of Millwall’s identity, which they have struggled to assert since moving from the original Den and leaving the days of Harry Cripps behind them.

Each to his own, but to keep knocking your former favourite club with pointless, shallow observations, suggests Mike is trying to reassure himself that he did the right thing by defecting.

  • They came to bury Caesar in Switzerland but they returned with egg all over their faces.

Roy Hodgson’s supposed “must win” game finished in victory for what is a relatively young side in international terms, trying to find its way without much in the way of experience. We are told Hodgson has “bought himself some time” with this victory, although the FA would point out he stays until the end of the Euros in two years.

Still, Danny Welbeck scored two, which will be good news for Arsene Wenger and if he scored for Arsenal this weekend, it opens up the possibility of berating Louis Van Gaal for letting him go for £16m. There’s always another whipping boy on the horizon for the national press.

Personally, I was surprised to see Welbeck go, but his return was worse than one goal in four appearances.

They’ll be another whipping boy before long but, getting back to England, I thought elements were encouraging.

We do not have world-class players as yet but being able to nurture them with, what is on paper, a series of relatively easy European qualification games, could be just the tonic Roy, Ray and Gary need: the players too. Of course, if they only score two against San Marino, there will be those in the press trying to stir things up, but the plain fact is we do not have the players.

When Roy and Ray Lewington sat down that first week after their appointments and reviewed the list of English players from which they could select a squad, they were shocked at the limitations. Frankly I think the Archangel Gabriel and a few higher-placed associates would have struggled with that lot.

This article was first published in Friday's Watford Observer