It has been an acrimonious summer at Watford with Brendan Rodgers leaving the hot seat after just 192 days in charge to become manager of Reading.
Malky Mackay has replaced him as Hornets boss and faces a stern challenge ahead to reinvigorate Watford as promotion contenders.
The Hornets were looking over their shoulders more than at the business end of the table last season and Macaky has already added Scott Severin to his squad for this term.
However, relationships at boardroom level between Watford and Reading appear to be cool to say the least after Chairman John Russo’s response to the news that Reading were interested in 17-goal striker Tommy Smith.
“As far as I am concerned there is no deal whatsoever with Reading. I can 100 per cent guarantee that,” he told the Watford Observer.
“They have made a derisory offer which I am not interested in,” said the chairman, who also branded Reading’s valuation of the 17-goal striker “insulting” and added that he had ‘no desire’ to sell Watford’s leading asset.
“As long as we have the right manager and he can get that little bit extra out of ordinary players then who knows what could happen, we could surprise some people. So it is not all doom and gloom, quite from it.
“We are Watford and we are trading through a difficult financial period. We have got some good players and we also have some players who don’t fit and we are still paying the price for some of the atrocious decisions made by the previous regime on certain players’ wages that were paid. The level of expectancy on him is not high, just do your best.”
It will be a tough season for Watford and anything above 16th in the table will be an achievement for Mackay.
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