Who knows how successful he will be, which players he will be able/allowed to sign and how much autonomy he’ll be given – for now I’m personally just delighted that Tom Cleverley has been made Watford’s head coach on a permanent basis.

And while I know there are some who don’t agree – possibly with valid reasons or concerns – judging by the reaction on social media, messages and texts I’ve received and looking at forums and message boards, the large majority of Watford fans feel the same.

This is, after all, a first in the 12 years of Pozzo ownership – a permanent, internal appointment.

Not since Sean Dyche took over from Malky Mackay in June 2011 has the club chosen from within to lead the team.

There is a lot to be said for continuity, and it’s the one thing the owner hasn’t tried since the club’s on-pitch fortunes started to slide.

The Hornets have had a former England manager, a Premier League winner, experienced foreign coaches, a seasoned English campaigner and a young English boss – all in the space of the last two and a half years.

But what Pozzo hasn’t tried is giving the job to someone already at the club, although admittedly because most staff have been swept out along with the coach they were appointed by, there haven’t been too many options.

So credit to the owner for clearly breaking the mould and diverting from his usual approach.

And while we’re dishing out a bit of praise, he also seemingly gave Valerien Ismael as long as he felt he could before axing him – not something that could be said about many of the previous incumbents.

There are small hints of change, but definitely not enough to suggest this particular aircraft carrier is doing an about-turn at sea.

Clearly, the next indicator of change – if indeed there is any – will be what transfer business the club does in the summer: which positions, where they come from, what money is spent and, as ever, which agents are used.

Similarly, it will be telling to see who doesn’t leave in the summer. The accounts suggest the club needs to raise a similar sort of amount of money as the sale of Joao Pedro realised in order to keep ticking over, particularly with no parachute payments to come.

There are some saleable assets in the first-team squad, but they will leave behind gaps in an already thin group.

Squad size will also be interesting. While former boss Valerien Ismael repeatedly said he was happy with a smaller, thinner squad, will Cleverley want a bit more choice?

After all, there is lean and then there’s trimmed so much you’re exposing the bone.

Of course, his knowledge of the club’s younger players is very high given he coached the Under-18’s until last month, and was a regular watcher of the Under-21s.

It would be good to see the club not only promoting Cleverley but also giving opportunities to some of the Academy products.

Firstly, as Ryan Andrews has shown, the is talent there.

Secondly, there seems this feeling - not just at Watford but across British football – that unless you’ve paid a fee for a player they can’t be any good.

Many of the greatest Watford players of all time didn’t cost a penny, and while times have changed and the game moves on, it would be a step back towards the direction of how the club used to operate if homegrown talent were at least considered.

For now, though, all the ifs and buts will remain just that as Cleverley has two games left of this season before the real work starts for the 24/25 campaign.

He’d be the first to admit he, and Watford, badly need a home win.

Saturday is the last chance and, while Cleverley has certainly improved performances, he knows that draws at home don’t cut the mustard – especially goalless draws.

While the visitors, Sunderland, will as always bring a large and noisy fan contingent, it’ll be Cleverley’s first home game against an opponent that doesn’t still have promotion hopes.

The atmosphere at the last two home games has been pretty tepid, with little on the pitch to inspire much from the stands.

However, the timing of the announcement means those attending on Saturday will know who the new manager is and, hopefully, get behind him and the team.

Having not won at Vicarage Road since November 28, it’s an ideal opportunity to do something the new head coach has talked about since he took over – wanting to send people off for the summer with a feeling of confidence and optimism about next season.

Obviously Cleverley is a novice manager with only seven games experience, and many people are put off by that.

Xisco Munoz had been in charge of Dinamo Tbilisi for only 11 games before he became Watford head coach in 2020, and Dyche stepped straight up from assistant to manager in 2011.

Another negative levelled at the appointment is that Cleverley will be easily pushed around by the owner, and take whatever he’s given in return for a first crack at management.

Having known Tom for a couple of years now, I don’t see that – he’s relatively reserved and maybe not the most animated in the dug-out.

But he’s also far from soft and he’s nobody’s fool. And, let’s be honest, what’s to say the appointment of another head coach would have led to them being treated any differently?

Although Ismael had far more say than most in recent times, he still was far from autonomous.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about the owner, he wants success. He needs Watford to do well.

He can be accused of a lot, but I don’t buy into him making an appointment in the hope that it fails, or wanting Cleverley to be the fall guy for decisions he makes behind the scenes.

Watford are no longer in the top-flight, Sky aren’t pouring money into the Vicarage Road coffers and the days when the club could knock back offers for their best players are long gone.

For two seasons Watford have failed to get anywhere near the play-offs, with squads that have become incrementally weaker.

They have to be at least in and around the top 10, not just from a footballing perspective but a business aspect too.

In fact, if the owner wanted a malleable puppet it would have been easier for him to find some Carlos Coachaball from somewhere in the European lower leagues, via an agent, and then stick him in charge while pulling all the strings himself.

Cleverley has played top-flight football, for Watford and others, very recently. His coaching, by all accounts, is refreshing, exciting and highly purposeful.

Unlike a number of previous of coaches, when you ask him about an opponent, he knows them intricately – their players, their style, their approach. It sounds obvious, but it’s not always been the case with predecessors.

Very often, in pre-match press conferences, answers around the team Watford were about to face have been more of the ‘It’s always a tough place to go, no easy games in this division’ platitudes than any granular detail that suggests some study time has been applied.

He’s worked for some very, very good managers and although not a superstar, is well known enough that should he have got a whiff of just being a front man, he could have turned the opportunity down and probably would have landed a coaching/management job at a similar level.

He’s made it clear he loves Watford. He said from the start he wants to lead the club. If he thought the terms of engagement would not allow him to do the latter driven by using the former, I’m not sure he’d have taken the job.

Again, some supporters will point to players he has or hasn’t selected, players he has or hasn’t praised, and question his opinions.

Surely that’s football though? Has any manager of Watford ever achieved unilateral support for their team selections, quotes or tactics?

Even the great Graham Taylor wasn’t immune to the odd tut or mumbling.

Cleverley is, I believe, what Watford as a club, a team, and perhaps even a town, needed right now.

It’s been a grim, tedious slog for the past few seasons watching a succession of head coaches arrive, generally fail to get a tune out of the squad, and then go again.

Each heralded on the way in, and nearly all hissed at on the way out.

They didn’t know much about Watford, and Watford didn’t know much about them. It felt like football speed dating at times.

Cleverley knows the club, he knows the players, he knows the fans. He has seen Watford playing in the Premier League and in a cup final, and he’s seen them relegated and bobbing around mid-table in the Championship.

The fans know him too. He was an exemplary professional and a captain that was respected.

As one player said to me this afternoon: “Clevs is someone that, as a captain, you wanted to do your best for because he set such a great example and had such high standards. That hasn’t changed since he became a coach.”

It could all end in tears of course, but it’s highly unlikely Cleverley has taken the job with his eyes shut. Since he signed back in 2017 he’s played for 12 different permanent coaches. He knows this job comes with a health warning and no long-term guarantees.

He’s someone fans can relate to, the players know him well and is a keen, hungry, ambitious young English coach – which, after all, is what many fans wanted back in the spring of 2022. That appointment didn’t work out, but if ever there were a lesson in what a lack of patience can do, then that was surely it.

Watford has been a right old mess for too long, there have been just 18 home league wins in the last 64 games, and yet more than 90% of supporters have renewed their season tickets in the hope that next season, things will be different. It’ll be our season.

There will be 23 other teams thinking the same come August, and many of them will have stronger squads, bigger budgets and a better recent past.

But there will be few, if any, who have a head coach that is as invested in the club as Watford’s.

Good luck Tom.