The comedic genius of Monty Python’s Flying Circus is something I was only introduced to relatively late in life.

However, it’s right up my street in terms of the style of humour and so I rejoice in skits like The Cheese Shop, Election Night Special and the Argument Clinic (look them up if you’ve never seen them, you’ll either love it or hate it!).

In their feature film Life of Brian, there is one scene that I find particularly amusing where the character Reg is trying to argue that the Romans haven’t achieved much at all, but during his debate ends up saying “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

Classic irony, beautifully constructed.

That line came into my head the other day when, after a bout of replying to some of the comments on Twitter (thanks to all by the way, I love engaging and debating even if we don’t always agree), I started to think back over the decade of Pozzo ownership. Some fans were expressing the opinion that the club had stagnated, even gone backwards.

I found myself saying so apart from six seasons of Premier League football, an FA Cup Final, a stadium we can be proud of, a training ground that is cutting edge, ongoing and outstanding work in the community plus a pitch that isn’t more suited to bovine use...what have the Pozzos ever done for us?

Now let me say here and now that this article is not wanting to be, or going to be, a Pozzo lovefest. Nor is it a piece of ‘client journalism’ as one Twitter user suggested my interview with chairman Scott Duxbury was!

I'm as perplexed as the next fan as to why it took until we were sinking to new depths last season for the owner to have a lightbulb moment that replacing managers as quickly as most people replace loo rolls was no longer working.

His lack of speaking to the fans is puzzling and bordering on insulting (I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard his voice?), and for every Ismaila Sarr and Richarlison that his clearly very good scouting network has unearthed, there has been an Andre Gray or an Obbi Oulare.

Notwithstanding all that though, when I visited the training ground recently it was my first time there in almost two decades. I was expecting it to look a bit different, but what I saw blew me away.

It started at the security gate. The fact there is even a security gate is a novelty. When I worked at the club you could just drive in. No gate, no barrier. Often people did, generally those trying to get into Arsenal’s complex next door.

Just having a security barrier and staff makes the whole place feel professional, and that set the tone.

In my time at Watford, the training ground was really a red-brick building that contained changing rooms and a couple of offices, some treatment rooms and showers. Outside were pitches, which were green in August, brown by October, brown with puddles through winter, and then brown and dusty from April onwards.

There was another building which housed a canteen and dining room, with a pool table and table tennis table. Off to one side of that was a bar which had the look, feel (and carpet) of a 1980’s social club.

And that was it. When we reached the FA Cup semi-final in 2003, we conducted mass media interviews in that very bar – a bit like a mash-up of the Queen Vic from Eastenders and Football Focus.

When I’d got my temporary pass (we didn’t have passes at the training ground when I left), I parked up, got out of the car and just soaked it all in. This IS a training headquarters of a top-class football club was my first thought.

There’s the big dome which means the weather doesn’t stop training, and a feature that has been a tremendous fillip for the club’s community scheme, who have groups using it every day.

There’s a huge gym, a media centre, a sort of ice chamber for treating players, even electric car charging points.

I know it’s been 20 years, but this was far more than I had expected.

Off to the left there is a whole new building for the Academy – a proper base for that single aspect of the club, which certainly fitted with the assertion that developing our own players is a priority.

In the main building there is a still a canteen and dining area, but it’s far more comfortable than the old ‘school canteen’ I remembered. Plus there are small meeting rooms and break-out areas, and that ‘social club and bar’ has been totally transformed into an entrance and meeting area.

They’ve even added a second floor which has created more space for people to work, so the training ground has now become a hub for all those at the club – not an outpost for the players and football staff. When I worked at Watford, there was always – despite best endeavours – a feeling of ‘them and us’. Those who go to the training ground, and those who can’t. It’s the opposite now.

Even the pitches look so different. There’s a proper arena for matches that I assume is used by the club’s Academy teams, and the training pitches are pristine. Okay, it’s June, but these were of a Wimbledon green lushness. Work was being done on a couple of pitches to update drainage and undersoil heating.

I remember many journalists who came to the training ground during my time, not to mention players, would joke about people at Watford looking longingly over the fence at Arsenal’s facilities and feeling very second class. Not anymore. The Watford training ground is a quite stunning and forward-thinking place that gives our lads the best chance of success.

I have no actual idea of what has been invested in the training ground in the last decade, but from talking to a few friends in football and media my best guess is around £15million.

That’s the side of getting Watford FC to the top level, and keeping it there, both on and off the pitch which the vast majority of us never get to see. I had the chance to, and I thought it would be remiss of me not to share it.

It certainly made me feel a bit guilty when I remember the times I personally uttered ‘but what have the Pozzos actually done for us’....