The way teams prepare for football matches has changed unrecognisably in the last 20 years and Watford’s owner Gino Pozzo is doing everything he can to give the Hornets the best chance of securing promotion to the Premier League, including chartering private planes for the squad and even staying at hotels ahead of most home matches.

Automatic promotion is the target for Watford this season and the club has attempted to provide the best facilities and preparation ahead of fixtures.

The changing rooms at Vicarage Road are significantly better than what were in the old East Stand and their London Colney base has also been improved, with two new pitches installed last year after training sessions were badly affected by the weather.

The Hornets have long been fortunate to have managers who helped provide their players with superb preparation and rehabilitation, in the likes of Malky Mackay and Sean Dyche, but those men had their hands tied somewhat by the club’s poor financial position.

But the Pozzos’ takeover in 2012 saw the books improve and now head coach Slavisa Jokanovic is able to reap the benefits.

One thing which has been introduced in recent years is that the players regularly fly to away matches.

For Jokanovic, who spent most of his playing career in the top tiers of Spanish, English and Serbian football, this is not unusual. A lot of teams on the continent fly to games and so do some in England. But it wasn’t long ago that Watford couldn’t provide hot water in the Rookery Stand let alone fly to games which could be reached by a few hours on the team coach.

“This is one of the details that can help us towards the end of the season,” Jokanovic acknowledged. “This club has ideas about how we want to prepare and how to work and for us it is important. For other clubs it will be less important. [But] it is a good option for us.”

Jokanovic seemed almost confused as to why he was being asked about the club’s travel plans. “It is not a revolutionary idea,” he added.

But prior to the Pozzo takeover there were genuine concerns over whether wages would be paid and some businesses had cheques from the club bounce. There certainly wasn’t the money available to regularly fly the squad to away matches.

Tommie Hoban came through the ranks at Watford so he remembers life before the Pozzos and after it.

He said: “It (flying to away games) is amazing. The first time we did it I couldn’t believe it; I was taking pictures and everything. We landed and the plane was driven straight to the coach.

“We took like five or ten steps off the plane and then went straight onto the coach. I felt like a bit of a celebrity to be honest.”

However, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, or should that be flying.

He added: “We did have one dodgy experience though. On the way to Huddersfield it was very windy and the pilot had to abort the landing.

“It meant we were flying only about 100 feet above the ground and in the end we had to fly to Manchester.

“I think a few of the lads were unsure about it after that,” Hoban continued with a smile, “but it shows the great treatment we get here.”

There are a number of reasons why Watford fly to games, both psychologically and physiologically.

Like Hoban, the club’s recently reappointed head of medical Richard Collinge also worked for the Hornets prior to the Italian family’s takeover, having spent nine years at Vicarage Road before following Mackay to Cardiff City in 2011.

Collinge explained: “It greatly helps the players’ recovery. If we can get back from Wigan on the plane in 40 minutes instead of sitting on the coach and getting back at four o’clock in the morning then that is perfect for the players. It benefits their sleep pattern and means it is easier to get them ready for the next game.

“Likewise, if we are travelling up the M1 or the M6 on a Friday afternoon – and we know how problematic that can be sometimes with the traffic – then players could be sitting on the coach for four hours and they may be stiff because they have trained that morning as well.

“So flying is the best way to travel and it is a bonus that Mr Pozzo is allowing us to travel in that way as well.

“What we also do in the hotels once we have travelled is run a Friday night or Tuesday afternoon clinic in the hotel. We will get the players mobilised at the hotel and we use the pool in the hotel to prepare them for the game as best we can.”

Watford have long stayed at hotels ahead of away games to minimise disruption in the build-up to matches but this season the players have started stopping overnight prior to fixtures at Vicarage Road as well.

Jokanovic said: “Yes [it helps togetherness] and I also think it helps the players rest very well. We all have families and it is easier to rest [at the hotel] than if you were at home with two small kids.

“It is not strange. It is a little bit different for English players but we have a lot of foreign players and it doesn’t change their mentality or preparation for games.”

When asked if staying at the hotel before home matches and having things like an excellent training ground were provided to help create a “no-excuses mentality” when it comes to promotion, Jokanovic replied: “It is not about excuses. This is football and it is about giving the squad the best facilities and worrying about the small details so they can go out and perform better.

“We are working well, I am speaking nicely with you and you will write something about it in your newspaper but what is important is what happens between quarter to eight tomorrow [when the match kicks off] and the end of the game. Everything we do before is so we can give the maximum in our bodies and minds for this moment.”

“Fortunately we have this possibility and I can use these facilities,” he continued. “If they offer them then I do what is best for my team. If I asked for three days with my team at the hotel [before matches] then I might find problems but I don’t believe that makes sense. If you guaranteed me that working for ten hours on the training field would guarantee we would be promoted then I would work for ten hours.

“If you make a mistake then it can cost £80million,” concluded Jokanovic as he chuckled.

In many ways Watford are already run like a Premier League club but like Jokanovic rightly points out, it will count for little unless the Golden Boys secure promotion in their final five games.

Midfielder Ben Watson, who played in English football’s top flight with Wigan Athletic and Crystal Palace, said: “Watford have the ingredients to be a Premier League club and they are a club with ambition. Everyone involved with the club wants to be in the Premier League. Here at the training ground the canteen, the food, the pitches and the gym is all geared to being a Premier League club.

“So in these last games we must give it a big push and get us over the line.”