Bassett arrives... and F@&$ it up.

The Table	The Fixtures	The Squad
Programme features more colour and the price increases to £1	The Watford Home Kit 1987/88	Dave Bassett (Sorry)

News  This if any season was one that was jinxed full of mistakes and change that was not good..

Graham Taylor departs for Aston Villa. The reason given by Taylor is that the Job at Watford was done and he felt he was not challenging himself anymore.

In a triumphant news conference Elton presents 'Diamond' Dave Bassett.
Elton gives the reason he went for Bassett was that he is a good motivator.
Dave promises to return Watford to old style of play. (Long Ball, Totaly missing the point there was more to Taylor's methods than that)
We pay Wimbledon 50k for Mr Bassett's Motivational skills.

John Ward and Billy Hails are sacked as part of a backroom reshuffle.
Steve Harrison refuses a contract and goes to Villa with Taylor.

Dave Bassett's first signing is inherited from Taylor..
Midfielder Richard Hill for £250k, he played 4 games.

Notable outs.. (Please don't cry!)

Also out goes Barnes to Liverpool for 900k (would have happened anyway)

Kevin Richardson to Arsenal (Quoted as saying he never wanted to leave Watford)

David Bardsley because he was played out of position and had asked for a move under Taylor.

and Mark Falco

Notable in's.. (Ok you can cry when you see this lot!)

Trevor Senior, Peter Hetherston, Gary Chivers, Mark Morris

New assistant is Alan Gillette
Physio Derek French
Reserve Manager Geoff Taylor

John Alexander joins as Assistant Secretary to Eddie Plumley.

By September the performances and results on the pitch combined with the quality of players sold compared to the lack of quality brought in had the fans baying for Bassett's head. The results were bad but the standard of football was a dire mess. Watford were at the foot of the table going down.

Bassett tried to buy players to correct the problem but then found he had another problem....Money.

Elton was trying to sell the club. The buyer was BPCC PLC owned by Robert Maxwell, Print Tycoon and later to be found to be 'A bit of a crook'.

Robert already had holdings in Oxford and Derby County and the league blocked the takeover pending a review of the situation. This dragged on and was eventually blocked by the league who then instigated a rule banning ownership of more than one club.

So the club still had a reluctant Elton as owner through his company William A Bong.

Christmas arrives with no joy in Santa's sack.

After a 3-1 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday Bassett drops 5 players and comes out with the quote..

"The players have dropped me in the cart."

Blissett, Coton and Gibbs attempt to arrange meeting with Bassett over the comments. Rumours of dressing room unrest leak out.

Finally January arrives and Bassett goes with his backroom staff, with Elton admitting Basset was a mistake, destroying in his short reign what Taylor had taken Ten years to build.

Steve Harrison took over with Tom Walley back as coach.

Derek Mann becomes new Physio and Steve Foley is the new youth team boss. (They both only last 2 months due to the price of housing in the Watford area)

Billy Hails then Becomes Physio with Stuart Murdoch as Youth Development Officer.

Elton lends another 1/4 million pounds to avoid the drop but it is all to late as Watford are relegated from the top flight

In the League we finish 20th out of 21 (Relegated to division 2)
We Won 7 Drew 11 Lost 22
We Scored 27 Goals and conceded 51.

In the FA Cup 6th Round
3rd Rnd Hull City (H) 1-1
3rd Rnd Rpl Hull City (A) 2-2
3rd Rnd 2nd Rpl Hull City (H) 1-0
4th Rnd Coventry City (A) 1-0
5th Rnd Port Vale (A) 0-0
5th Rnd Rpl Port Vale (H) 2-0
6th Rnd Wimbledon (A) 1-2

In the Football League Cup  4th Round
2nd Rnd 1st Leg Darlington (A) 3-0
2nd Rnd 2nd Leg Darlington (H) 8-0
3rd Rnd Swindon Town (A) 1-1
3rd Rnd Rpl Swindon Town (H) 4-2
4th Rnd Manchester City (A) 1-3

In the Full Members Cup 3rd Round
3rd Rnd Ipswich Town (A) 2-5
 

Highest Scorer Malcolm Allen 9

Manager: David Bassett until Hull City Jan 1988.
Steve Harrison from Wimbledon Away onwards (Jan)

IN for this season came

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road