The match against Manchester City last weekend is sure to live long in the memory of Watford fans, but not for the right reasons. The 8-0 loss at The Etihad was remarkable to watch, and it must have been a nightmare for those who made the trip from London.
With the quality in this Manchester City team, Watford have actually avoided the level of criticism we would normally see in such circumstances. Still, their players have a lot to answer for, especially to their supporters.
This is not the first beating of this scale in the Premier League. Manchester United hammered Ipswich Town 9-0 back in 1995, while Spurs beat Wigan 9-1 in 2009.
Mario Melchiot was captain of Wigan at the time and he made a big gesture to their fans in the aftermath of the game. Speaking on talkSPORT, he revealed that he arranged for the players to reimburse the travelling support after the performance.
“I called in the boys & I said to them ‘I’m going to pay back the fans.’”
“I was going to pay it personally.”
“@ChrisKirkland43 said it shouldn’t be like that and all the players paid.”@MarioMelchiot reveals how he got Wigan fans a refund after they lost 9-1 away to Spurs 👏 pic.twitter.com/xdNBEh1cT2— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) September 23, 2019
I went to the coach and said to Martinez 'can I have a meeting with the team? Can we turn up 15 minutes later for training?'
He said it was fine. I called in all the boys and we sat in the dressing room. I was captain of the team and I said to the guys 'I'm going to pay back all the money to the fans that travelled with us to come and see the game'.
I felt bad, because that was not a football game they came to watch. It was like a tennis match. If they wanted to watch tennis they wouldn't turn up there.
We all sat down and (Chris) Kirkland put his hand up and said 'I know you're our captain', because I was going to pay it personally, 'but it shouldn't be like that, I want to chip in'.
All the other players put their hands up and joined in, and every one of us ended up paying the bill back to the fans.
It actually helped the morale of the team, it was crucial for us and we ended up being safe.
A nice gesture. Perhaps the Watford players should follow suit?
