Gianfranco Zola’s contract as manager at West Ham United was terminated after a little under two years in charge at Upton Park, there remained more questions than answers regarding the now Watford boss’ potential in his newly chosen profession.
A simply wonderful player during a career with, among others; Napoli, Parma, and Chelsea, Zola’s first club managerial engagement with the Hammers’ – he had previously worked alongside Pierluigi Casiraghi at the helm of Italy’s under-21 side – saw him lead the Londoners to 9th and 17th place Premier League finishes.
That achievement was given new perspective when Zola’s successor Avram Grant’s sole season in charge yielded only bottom spot and a consequent relegation. Throughout that time and for a year beyond, the 46 year-old rookie boss remained unemployed.
Zola’s idle spell was ended by a call from the new regime at Vicarage Road asking him to lead an attempt at ending the Hornets’ top-tier exile – a period which was set to stretch into its sixth campaign. Nevertheless, this was no ordinary assignment. The incoming Pozzo family, who had acquired the club from Laurence Bassini after the Stanmore businessman’s year-long ownership, already held the same overlord status at Italian Serie A outfit, Udinese, and Spain’s La Liga strugglers Granada.
The Pozzo’s front-man – Giampaolo – assumed control at Udinese in 1986, and built the remarkable subsequent progress made by that club on assiduous scouting. A plethora of gifted young talent was steadily developed into men who would form to win Champions League qualification, and eventually earn the North-East Italians considerable sums by virtue of their sales.
In recent years; Fabio Quaglierella, Alexis Sanchez and Gokhan Inler are just three of a number of stars to have moved on from Udine in multi-million pound deals.
A similar approach was to be implemented at the sleepy Hertfordshire club which had been freshly added to the Pozzo empire. The Watford blueprint would be centred on providing playing opportunities to individuals who would otherwise be missing out at the Italian family’s other two interests.
Watford’s highly controversial exploitation of the loan market has resulted in the football league seeking a change to its rules regarding temporary player purchases – there is currently no limit placed on the number of foreign recruits of this type appearing in any team’s starting eleven. It is testament to the manner in which Zola has formed such a cohesive unit from his collection of cosmopolitan arrivals – most of whom with their career in flux – that an alteration to regulations is considered necessary.
Initial discontented murmurings about the Hornets’ policy were largely grounded in concern that a disaffected bunch, which was merely passing through this corner of Hertfordshire on the latest stop of their journeyman careers, would be responsible for the club’s dropping further down the league ladder.