A week can be a long time in football.

Just last Friday, Watford chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury claimed on the club’s official podcast that not many Championship clubs could compete with the Hornets’ quality if their starting eleven was fully fit.

Duxbury has a long list of sensational claims that have come back to bite him and one week on, his confidence looks completely misguided.

What's going on at Watford?

Watford are a club with no plan, no strategy and no hope, with heavy defeats to Burnley and Cardiff City leaving the Hornets staring down the barrel of relegation to League One.

Those on the outside may think this is nothing unusual, given Watford have lurched from one crisis to another, sacked countless head coaches and never finished in the Championship’s top 10 since relegation from the Premier League in 2022.

But Watford are a club with a mutiny on their hands. In a rare move, Elton John voiced concerns over the club’s direction on social media last Saturday and since then, former players including Troy Deeney, Tom Ince and Paul Robinson have all criticised how Watford is run by Gino Pozzo.

Fans have had enough, too, after years of false promises from Pozzo and Duxbury, with supporters rallying together to call for ‘Pozzo Out’ online. Roy Moore from the leading supporters group the 1881 Movement has since been invited for a meeting with Pozzo, in a bid to quell fan pressure.

So, how did we get here? In truth, it’s been a long time coming.

Alessio Dionisi is the latest in a series of Watford head coaches who have failed to be backed in the transfer market. The Italian has sounded exasperated at the club’s squad depth since pre-season.

Who can blame him when going into the opening game of the season against Southampton, he was left with just two centre-backs on the club’s books and two fit central midfielders?

A late scramble in the transfer market saw Stephy Mavididi, Soumaila Coulibaly and Branimir Mlacic arrive on loan, while Myron Boadu and Michail Antonio also arrived on free transfers. But by that point, transfer business had already come too late and the Italian has been left with a squad unfit and low on quality.

The Hornets never replaced Imran Louza in midfield - meaning Dionisi has only one natural defensive midfielder in the squad in Hector Kyprianou - and didn’t reinvest a single penny after Nestory Irankunda was sold to Sporting Clube de Portugal.

Injuries also quickly decimated the limited options Dionisi had at his disposal, with the Italian struggling to fill the matchday squad throughout August and September.

However, he’s not the first Watford manager to have been hung out to dry. Javi Gracia quit in January and decided it wasn’t worth leaving his family behind in Spain, having grown frustrated at player’s attitudes and the ownership’s failure to land key targets.

Tom Cleverley, Slaven Bilic, Valerien Ismael and Rob Edwards – who Duxbury famously said Watford would back come hell or high water – also struggled after the squad wasn’t strengthened in key areas.

That continued reluctance to support the head coach and a failure to commit to any sort of plan or strategy has created a toxic environment around Vicarage Road.

The club have tried so many different head coaches, with so many different playing styles that players know that they can down tools after a couple of defeats and it won’t take long for Pozzo to pull the trigger.

Recruitment has been an issue for some time and can be traced back to the summer of 2019, where Watford blew most of their budget on Ismaila Sarr rather than addressing issues in defence or up front.

Duxbury promised this May that the Hornets would look to sign experienced Championship players ahead of the new season; hardly any walked through the door.

The Hornets have prioritised signing young players from abroad in recent years - given they have higher resale value - or players that have lost their way in their careers, but that has left a squad with a number of questionable attitudes and without leaders or character.

The days where Watford would have a solid core of senior pros like Deeney, Heurelho Gomes, Etienne Capoue and Ben Watson to run the dressing room are long gone, meaning they have consistently rolled over against teams when the going has got tough.

Speaking of Deeney, the club have also never found a proven goalscorer since his departure in 2021, with most strikers they’ve signed looking unsuited to Championship football.

The constant churn of head coaches and players has left the club with little in the way of identity, strategy or leadership, both on and off the pitch.

Pozzo and Duxbury rarely make public appearances, but are prone to saying one thing and doing the complete opposite. No one can really work out what Watford are trying to achieve. The owners have also tightened the purse strings, with not much explanation.

Watford didn’t spend a single penny on transfers in the summer, sold off the women’s team and shut down the club’s under-21 side, while the academy was downgraded to Category Three.

Watford’s academy was a source of real pride for fans, with the Hornets having a rich history of bringing through young players. Not anymore.

There now needs to be change at Vicarage Road. The Hornets need fresh ideas at senior management level, fresh impetus, a clear strategy and identity. But most importantly, fans need some hope again. Without serious change, things will only get far worse.