Inside the Hornets’ nest

That first year Watford borrowed players en masse from Udinese and the soulless thing came from a suspicion that they were the outpost of an empire. Inside the training ground, though, that is not the sense.

Players, as unassuming as their cars, mingle over lunch: there are 19 nationalities and 12 new faces but a healthy hubbub of chatter. Quique Sanchez Flores, their coach, is twinkle-eyed. A smiling Duxbury moves between tables.

At one, Gino Pozzo is having coffee. He is here most days. This feels not a satellite, but one face of a family business.

Gino, Watford’s joint-owner with his father, Giampaolo, is Duxbury’s sounding board but lets him run the club.

This season is about raising Watford to Premier League standard, with £10m spent on revamping Vicarage Road and twice as much invested in the squad.

Alessandro Diamanti, loaned from Guangzhou Evergrande, is the latest arrival and Etienne Capoue, Allan Nyom and Jose Manuel Jurado are among an experienced group of signings who have started well. “It’s important to come into the Premier League with a sense of realism and the desire to compete, which is why [we’ve had] the recruitment drive,” Duxbury says. “We don’t see ourselves just making up the numbers.

“If we survive, next year there’ll be £110m of income and all our costs and liabilities will be gone. Given the Pozzos’ experience and network I’d be confident we could then go on and have a prolonged stay in the Premier League.”

Granada, acquired when in the third tier, are beginning their fifth straight season in Spain’s top division.

Udinese have spent 20 years in Serie A and made huge profits from transfers. Alexis Sanchez, Mehdi Benatia and Juan Cuadrado were among those discovered by the Pozzos’ 25 key scouts worldwide.

“Recruitment is everything,” says Duxbury. “It’s a discipline. You get into a frame of mind that every player can be sold for a top price and your scouting will let you bring in a player equal, or even better, to replace him.

“Last year we broke our rules. A bid came in for a player that was top dollar. Me and Gino sat down and said ‘He’s indispensible’. A word we never use. We didn’t sell and, sod’s law, three weeks later he was out for the season. If we’d stuck to the rule we’d have had top dollar, a replacement and carried on. There’s no such thing as ‘indispensible’.”

Last year Duxbury appointed Luke Dowling, previously chief scout at Crystal Palace, Portsmouth and Blackburn, as sporting director. Among his tasks is improving UK recruitment. The goal is to once more nurture world-class homegrown players, as they once did with John Barnes.

“Scouting: ours is hardly a new idea but it’s about where a club is willing to spend its money,” Dowling says. “I’ve been at two clubs relegated from the Premier League and the first thing they did was scrap the scouts. Then they wonder why they have a wage bill of £30m and still struggle.”

The summer buys? “We spoke to Quique about his system and how personnel in it play. In his front three he wanted a technical player. Jurado (with Sanchez Flores at Atletico Madrid) was easy — both on his list and ours,” Dowling says.

“Nyom is a full-back who gets forward but likes defending. You see defenders helping attackers to their feet: he’ll leave you on the floor. Capoue’s been massive, on the pitch and in the dressing room.” Speculation about Mario Balotelli? “Rubbish.”

Sanchez-Flores could be the best signing of all. He took Valencia to the Champions League quarter-finals and won the Europa League with Atletico Madrid. The list of players he developed – including David Silva, David de Gea and Diego Costa — made Nathan Ake reject four other Premier League loan offers to join from Chelsea.

Why is Sanchez Flores here? “It’s a family,” the Spaniard says, “and if I want to be focused on coaching, I need organisation around me. This club is organised plus organised… We’re new to the Premier League but already working like at a top level.”

He forged his coaching reputation at Getafe and “Watford has more possibilities, a different mentality. The Pozzos have their minds really open, and I think they feel this is a big opportunity.”

He appreciates the informal dialogue he has at the training ground with Duxbury and Gino. “It’s very important because at Real Madrid [he was a youth coach), Atletico Madrid, you do not have contact with the top people at the club. I checked the team who got promoted from the Championship and agreed with Mr Pozzo that it was not enough for the Premier League. I am really pleased with the signings.”

Whistle in one hand, training notes in the other, Sanchez Flores cajoles his players through intense practice games on a shortened and narrowed pitch. His enthusiasm is infectious.

“It is very easy to connect with English football,” he beams. “The energy of the players, the velocity, the physicality. The way they are pushing every day in training. They’re professional in Spain but here I think the spirit is something different. I spent a long time wanting but now I’m in England, wow. The biggest sense I get is football was born here.

“In Europe there’s an idea English players aren’t interested in the technical side of the game. Well, I’ve found that’s not true. They listen and understand absolutely everything, tactically and on the technical side. No different to Italy or Spain. That’s been the nice surprise.”

Watford went up despite having four permanent head coaches last season. “The first resigned,” says Duxbury, “the second left through illness, Billy McKinlay was our mistake, the wrong fit, and Slavisa Jokanovic was just a contract negotiation that couldn’t be resolved. When you go through it, it’s not quite as sensational as it appears.

“Where we’re victims of media perception is our infrastructure is set up to provide a club environment, where key staff are all in place, so losing a coach doesn’t knock us off our stride.”

Four head coaches though? Duxbury laughs again. “You could say we stress-tested our model to the nth degree.”