Watford fall out

[Bucks Dave]

Interesting to see the Watford owner, Bassini, has said he will resign as a Board director in the next 24 hours because Graham Taylor, the chairman, insulted him at a Fan's forum. Bassini, an exbankrupt, bought the club for £440,000 and noone knows where the money is coming from that has been promised. Looks interesting.

[Svlad Cjelli]

And I saw some exchanges on Twitter yesterday about Watford believing they'll be able to afford to set up as a Category 1 EPPP academy.

[Red]

Does indeed.

What's your view Dave? Storm in a teacup? Is Bassini throwing his toys out of the pram?

Or was Taylor bang out of order and effectively getting his just deserts?

[Bucks Dave]

You have to be a bit careful about libel these days but there are three views on Bassini.1 He's genuine, 2 he's a conman 3 he's a fantasist. I lean towards 3.

The problem is that it does seem to appear that Graham Taylor is genuinely suspicious of him. Watford have financial problems. They owe the previous owners £10M which they are supposed to pay off at £2M per year. They need to finish off a corner of the ground, rebuild an entire stand, relay the pitch and redevelop an old pub they own which is abandoned and rotting opposite the ground. At the same time, crowds are dropping off because of poor league position, they seem to have abandoned developing their academy, bringing in 13 players from outside (a few of those on short term loans) - anyone remember Tommy Burns doing something similar! - so I would imagine tensions are rising at Board level.

At present it just looks to me like handbags but who knows!

[Wax Jacket]

can't help losing Saracens' income in the future either?

[Bucks Dave]

And that was another source of disagreement. Taylor stated that if saracens pulled out they would not be allowed back if there were delays in their moving and Bassini immediately allowed them back when the delays occurred. It is clear the Board is not united on this either and saracens are moving out as soon as they have the ground in barnet ready.

I remember Coppell making some disparaging remark about London Irish when we were in the Prem, followed immediately by SJM telling us what a good deal it was and Stevie "clarifying" his remarks so football men and business men do fall out about their need for rugby sharing.

[Super_horns]

Here are the comments GT made at the Fans forum regarding Mr Bassini:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15657527.stm

Fairly harmess but maybe a cycnical viewpoint as Bassini didn't make his absence public till close to the start of the forum which disappointed many.

It seems Bassini has now spat his dummy out but its clear GT and the other directors haven't really trusted the owner or his ideas for the club.

Like Dave says there are a number of opinons about the bloke as is people's right but this was a chance to finally hear in public from Mr Bassini as he hasn't been very forthcoming in recent weeks with his plans.

Another off the field saga we could really do without but make take the pressure off Dyche and the players for a bit!