AFTER the crisis meeting between Luca Vialli and myself, I was hopeful that we might establish a dialogue, but wary too. I have never asked the football club representatives, who were at my meeting with Vialli, if they sympathised with his complaints but I heard, through the grapevine, they were as gobsmacked by his petty misconceptions as I was.

As we picked up the pieces at the Watford Observer, we made sure the headlines were particularly clear and not open to misinterpretation.

The relationship between a local paper and a football club is rarely a smooth one but it is vital to both parties. That fine balance of mutual need sometimes swings in favour of one. For instance, when times are successful, the football club may tend towards a little arrogance, feeling it has the upper hand. When they struggle, they tend to be humbler.

This is no more than a manifestation of human nature, but the whole point of the Vialli problem was not whether he got on with me, but the fact is a manager does need the support from, access to and understanding of a local newspaper. It is a two-way street.

As for our own relationship, I was told subsequently that Vialli was pleased we had talked and thrashed out the situation, and it did seem as if we could talk more freely after our discussions on October 31 2001. He still did not pass on his home or mobile number, but he was as good as his word and talked to me every week, never failing to call.

Sometimes he would be late and I would be kicking my heels for three or four hours, but he was not alone in putting me low on his priority list. My wife does too.

The main thing was that he recognised the need for me to be on that list.

I suppose we were like the partners in an arranged-marriage there was no choice in the matter, but after some time we began to rub along relatively well.

Over the next few months, while the board was getting increasingly concerned about the way the season and the finances were heading, Vialli seemed more approachable and I felt I was making new ground.

Some three months after our crisis meeting, he began to impart off-the-record observations and admitted that the First Division had surprised him.

To be honest, while his season at Watford worked out just as I feared it might, I felt myself warming to the man. He had a good sense of humour and began to be more open in his dealings with me.

I suppose there was something of the Titanic syndrome about last season. It was launched with such assuredness, faith and belief in invincibility, that no one could quite grasp or comprehend the full impact of the disaster.

Even I had not entertained the fact that it would be a total nightmare, bad though I thought the problem was.

Perhaps, looking up at the captain's face contorted by concern as the water began to lap over the deck, we felt momentary sorrow for his predicament but it was he who had ordered the ship to go full steam ahead in iceberg-filled waters and it was the owners who insisted he adopt such a policy.

Personally, I think and thought at the time, many of his off-the-record observations should have been on the record. He should have given a freer rein to his thoughts. He might have caused some comment and some of it might have been critical, but I think fans would have gained insight into a further dimension to the man.

I never got to really know Vialli and despite the rapprochement, he never gave me his home or mobile number, but what I know of him, I liked or enjoyed. I appreciated his humour and his acceptance that he had made some duff buys. But then I have been fortunate in that there has not been a Watford manager I have not liked on a personal level. Yes, some I have liked more than others, but none I have disliked. I can say honestly that I liked Vialli. But then I also liked Dave Bassett as an individual. I just did not like what, unintentionally, they did to our club.

I do not know whether Vialli continued to "dislike me" and finished his tenure still not respecting me or still feeling there was too much irony in my writing.

What I do know is that I felt far more comfortable talking to him in April 2002 than in September 2001 and, while the season had been a minor disaster results-wise, and a financial cataclysm, I was more aware of the man and his beliefs.

For a brief spell, when Watford put together a succession of good results, it looked as he was coming to terms with Division I. He signed Wayne Brown, Gavin Mahon and Danny Webber, three players who proved to be suited to the environment.

Although it was not publicly announced, it was generally known that Paul Okon's arrival and wages were funded personally by Vialli, or so he intended at the time.

I was not that struck on Okon myself, but Watford experienced a revival and it looked as if they might make a late charge for the play-offs. We kept our fingers crossed, but it proved to be an illusion and the Hornets faded badly.

However, I would sympathise with those who argued he was getting the hang of the division, but he had compromised his own credibility and the club's finances so badly with all but one of his earlier investments, we knew it would take an awful lot to retrieve the situation.

Not since Colin Lee had a manager bought so many duds and, although he had placed some on the list, there were no takers.

Then came the ITV Digital collapse.

November 20, 2002 14:30