Taking on former club West Brom means far more to the media than it does to Watford head coach Valerien Ismael.

The 47-year-old was in charge at The Hawthorns for seven months between July 2021 and February 2022, overseeing 31 games.

He was asked after Saturday’s game about the significance of coming up against a former employer by media from the midlands, and greeted the question with a very nonplussed shrug of the shoulders.

A few days nearer the game, his reaction is still very much the same.

“I’m not emotional about it. I don’t want to be emotional about it,” said Ismael.

“It’s the next game, and then we have another one quickly after that.

“It’s all about the focus on Watford and what we have to do to win this game.

“We prepare to win the game. It’s a home game and again we want to put the performance in regardless of who the opponents are.

“That is my mindset about the game. I manage Watford now.

“I think there are still a lot of players at West Brom from my time. It was a good time with the players, and it was very good working with them.

“When I left I had a lot of messages from the players, so I know we worked well with the players.

“But now it is another chapter and it is just the next Championship game.”

Many of the journalists who had travelled down from Birmingham on Saturday expressed surprise at the style and approach Ismael has adopted at Watford.

It’s been the same with members of the national press, who have come to Watford expecting to see more route one football rather than what Hornets fans refer to as ‘Valball’.

Clearly his time managing two Championship clubs has left him with a reputation that hasn’t been shaken off yet.

“It’s not only West Brom or Barnsley, I think it’s generally in football that people like to put someone into a box straight away,” he said.

“They think this is it, it’s over, that’s how he plays.

“They don’t try to understand why we played like that, they don’t ask questions about it which allows me to answer.

“It all depends on the profile of the players you’ve got, the different shapes you can play – or not – with the squad you have, the quality of the players, the belief within the squad, how they played the previous year.

“It’s clear that when you come to a club like Besiktas or Watford, you see that within your team you have people who are comfortable on the ball, quality players.

“So it’s clear then that, as a manager, you automatically go away and work in that direction.

“It’s too easy to say ‘he played like that there, he can only play like that’. It is never as simple as that.”