We will of course never know if relegation would have been avoided had Nigel Pearson not been sacked. What we do know is that he was a relatively successful manager and that sacking him with two games to go was, to put it mildly, counterintuitive. Personally, I would like to see more loyalty given to managers even where there may be footballing reasons for doing otherwise. I have been a Watford supporter- ball boy, programme contributor, intermittent season holder, father of Watford-supporting children- for more than fifty years.

I remember the loyalty shown to George Kirby in the early 1970s. That was my club.

What we have witnessed at Vicarage Road over the last couple of weeks is neither decency nor a serious attempt at success. Although he and Scott Duxbury talk of ‘mistakes’ in the email they sent supporters on July 27, there is not a hint that it is Signor Pozzo’s mistakes. Mr Duxbury’s own failures to stand up to him is just as much a mistake.

If Mr Duxbury cannot stand up to the ‘owner’- a questionable term to fans who might feel greater ownership of the club than he can ever attain - he has nothing to offer my club. A chairman operating with integrity would have exercised the power those roles bestow under company law. Had he done so, you would have prevented Mr Pearson’s sacking.

Richard Colbey

By email