Marked for Nampalys Mendy
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
No sign of nerves from Jack Hinshelwood at 21 — 7.90
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jack Hinshelwood did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Market28 Sep 2026
Watford may not be able to give Imrân Louza what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Imrân Louza wants continental football; whether Watford can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Match26 Sep 2026
Still nobody has beaten Watford
The unbeaten run reaches 7. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Egil Selvik 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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Kwadwo Baah. 1‑0 against Portsmouth, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.32 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Hector Kyprianou 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.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Othmane Maamma at 20 — 8.07
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Othmane Maamma did not need any: 8.07, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Egil Selvik 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Kévin Keben again, and this time the name on the line is Walsall. Watford are listening politely and promising nothing.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad24 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Daniel Bachmann 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.
Match22 Aug 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Wrexham leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Nampalys Mendy dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Market24 Aug 2026
Nobody sells a season ticket on a signing like this. Every manager who has been through a bad October wants one anyway, and Watford have gone and got theirs early.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
Watford say no — this time
The offer from Newport County for John Kelly was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Edoardo Bove 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Nampalys Mendy and Watford agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Egil Selvik 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Edoardo Bove knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Edoardo Bove trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.