When Sunday's team sheet showed Imran Louza was on the bench, there was surprise followed by the usual cranking into gear of the rumour mill.

To Watford’s credit, they had released comments from head coach Valerien Ismael within a few minutes of the announcement of the team to say that Louza knew why he was on the bench and that all players must respect the club rules at all times.

That sort of proactive communication and transparency is something that probably wouldn’t have happened a couple of seasons ago – and the firm adherence of the rules, which the senior player group selected by Ismael and which includes Louza, was also a massive shift away from the perceived ‘player power’ of seasons gone by.

“When I came we set rules with the players. The players have to apply them at any time,” said Ismael.

“Everyone has to respect rules, it is as simple as that.

“Imran knows exactly why he was on the bench today.

“You have to understand that I am not happy to have to take some decisions but I have to take decisions, I have to take action when we don’t respect the rules.

“I want to play with my best team in the league.”

The Watford boss was asked if he would explain what rule or rules Louza had not stuck by.

“It was an internal situation, it’s clear, and now we move on,” he said.

“I don’t need to go into the details. I think it’s enough to see that he was on the bench and he knows why.”

One reporter asked if, when Ismael referred to five players being late for the first day of pre-season, Louza was among them.

“Everything stays internally,” was Ismael’s firm reply.

One particularly disappointing aspect of the whole situation is that Louza is one of the players hand-picked by the head coach to form part of the ‘senior group’, along with Dan Bachmann, Ben Hamer, Jake Livermore, Wes Hoedt and Ken Sema.

“Yes, it’s not a funny moment, and you can see that,” said Ismael.

“But at some point I have to take a decision. Nobody is bigger than the club or the team.

“It is a reshaping of the mentality. There were a lot of issues last season and I don’t want to see this anymore.”