Marked for Timothy Mitchell
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings5 Mar 2035
Successful dribbles: 45. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Mar 2035
Watford refuse to drop out of the race
Position 1, 57 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad5 Mar 2035
455 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad5 Mar 2035
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Watford may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market5 Mar 2035
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Nathan Baxter was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2035
Kwadwo Baah falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match3 Mar 2035
It finished 1‑0, and it was Pierre Dwomoh’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Watford.
Player ratings5 Mar 2035
Ninety minutes of Pierre Dwomoh at his very best
Marked 8.06. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Watford.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match25 Oct 2034
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and John Kelly obliged against Luton Town. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Watford.
Squad30 Oct 2034
A fracture rules Fraser Harper out for 86 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Watford will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match28 Oct 2034
Still nobody has beaten Watford
The unbeaten run reaches 13. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings30 Oct 2034
No sign of nerves from Timothy Mitchell at 21 — 7.77
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Timothy Mitchell did not need any: 7.77, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad30 Oct 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Watford may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market30 Oct 2034
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Watford is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad30 Oct 2034
Words at Watford training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Baah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The terraces30 Oct 2034
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Aug 2033
A fracture rules Daniel Bachmann out for 124 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Watford will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings15 Aug 2033
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market15 Aug 2033
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Watford is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Aug 2033
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Timothy Mitchell is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad15 Aug 2033
Words at Watford training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kwadwo Baah is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match13 Aug 2033
Watford make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Boardroom15 Aug 2033
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Jamie Jellis has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Watford have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad15 Aug 2033
Tay'veon Smithen was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match13 Aug 2033
Cardiff City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Jun 2033
Rocco Vata runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market27 Jun 2033
Robert Hill hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Watford can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Jun 2033
Defences have started doubling up on Vivaldo Semedo
19 goals and a season average of 7.28 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market27 Jun 2033
James Turner has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Watford they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Jun 2033
David Sestak is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad27 Jun 2033
Words at Watford training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nestory Irankunda is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match25 Jun 2033
Watford make home a hard place to visit
9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Match25 Jun 2033
It finished 1‑0, and it was Vivaldo Semedo’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Watford.
Player ratings27 Jun 2033
Ninety minutes of Vivaldo Semedo at his very best
Marked 8.15. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Watford.