The Watford manager is on holiday so step this way all potential burglars (From Watford Observer)

The Watford manager is on holiday so step this way all potential burglars

1:30pm Thursday 22nd July 2010

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By Oliver Phillips »

BACK in the days when I was reporting on Watford on a weekly basis, the summer months were somewhat difficult. Football fans expected regular updates on what the manager was doing with regard to obtaining new recruits along with his thoughts on various items, such as the fixture list, bids for one of his own players, etc.

The difficulty was that the manager invariably took a family holiday during the summer, and so did I. We could not announce either fact because it would only advertise that our respective houses were unoccupied for the duration.

I remember back in the early 1960’s, I quite innocently observed late in May there would be little or no transfer activity for another week until the time when Ken Furphy, the Watford manager, returned from holiday.

Ken mentioned the comment in passing upon his return claiming I had effectively flagged up his house was empty and burglars might choose to take the news into consideration. That was part of my learning curve and from then on, I would take steps to cover the manager’s absence in the newspaper, by printing interviews that took place before he and his family left on holiday.

It would never attribute the interview to a certain date but it had the effect of covering the manager’s absence.

Subsequent managers would phone me from their holiday location, having received updates from the then club secretary Ron Rollitt, and so, in our columns, the summer would appear seamless. However, while I might write a couple of items for inclusion while I was away, the fact my name was not on the football news stories would flag up the fact I was absent and probably on holiday.

A development of a more professional attitude at Watford coincided with the arrival of Graham Taylor and the introduction later of mobile phones, enabled us to keep in regular, if basic, touch during the summer months.

There were a couple of times when we had to fall back on “manager-speak” to paper over the cracks of our absences. On many occasions the manager would be on holiday and perhaps un-contactable when the fixtures for the forthcoming season were released. This happened, often as not, on a Thursday morning, which would fall neatly for our publication on a Friday.

Graham Taylor would share his thoughts on the possible opening to the fixture list before having seen them. If Watford were scheduled to start the season with a home match it would be something along the lines of: “The important thing is that we open with a home game. But it is only a good start if we win it.”

And if the first match was away: “We know we will have to travel to play them some time in the season so it is good to get that one ticked off. Most of our pre-season matches are away from home so we will be used to travelling by then.”

The opening game always throws up some connection. Either the manager used to play for them or they were the last opponents the previous season, etc. With Graham’s permission in advance, I would add some observation in his words. “You know how I think and what I would say in certain situations. I leave it to you,” he would say.

It happened perhaps half a dozen times in 40 years of covering Watford. The quotes were always innocuous and they were what the manager would have said, so the public were not duped but the key factor was: local burglars were.

I never took any of my holiday allowance during the season. My view was that I was there to cover Watford so I had to take my holidays in the summer, which was not always easy. It was not until after I retired that I was surprised to find my successor had taken a week off in October. It took a little while to get my head round it but after a while, I realised: why not?

I reviewed all those practices in retrospect and saw them in a different light. Why, for instance, did I write four articles for my features column Just a word, to cover for my holidays? I realised I used to edit four weeks in advance on the Nostalgia page to cover the holidays and so I just fell into the same routine for my column without thinking.

I even continued the habit last year with this blog: writing about the saga of the borehole in The Folly in order for us to have running water, and ran it over some three weeks to cover while we were away in the USA on holiday.

It’s a habit I have to stop.

I am on holiday for three weeks. If you are a potential burglar, come out here to France and join the queue. You are bound to cause a stir because burglaries are very rare.

The sad thing is that you had better move quickly as I am on my way back now. Actually I have been on holiday for the last three weeks but I covered the fact by writing blogs in advance.

Old habits die hard it seems,.