Striker Helguson talks about his two spells at Watford

In fact, it was seismic in this corner of Hertfordshire as never before had the Hornets paid a seven-figure sum for a player.

Before the arrival of the Icelandic striker, the Hornets’ largest outlay had been the £950,000 they paid Real Zaragoza for Nordin Wooter earlier that season.

With the greatest respect to the diminutive Dutch winger, his move was not only for a smaller sum but it also left a far-less indelible mark on Hornet history than that of Helguson.

The striker, who was simply known as ‘H’ around the club, clocked up more than 220 apearances during his initial five-year stint at the club and a further loan spell in the 2009/10 season. His 75 goals in that time included a bit of everything: bullet headers, long-range efforts, tap-ins and that memorable overhead goal against Coventry on the last day of the Premier League season in May 2000.

For someone who might have been six foot tall in long studs but was below that mark in his socks, Helguson had a prodigious leap. He got up far higher than players of greater stature, and he could hang there too. And it wasn’t a problem if there were defenders in his way as he attacked the ball: he was happy to muscle them out of the way.

Was there a secret to why and how he managed to, literally, scale the heights?

“It wasn’t something I particularly worked on,” he said. “I did play a lot of basketball when I was younger, and maybe that helped with the timing.”

It was a sign of things to come when Helguson barged his way between Liverpool defenders to beat keeper Sander Westerveld to David Perpetuini’s free kick a minute into the second half of his debut on January 15, 2000.

It brought the Hornets level at 2-2 after Liverpool had raced into a 2-0 lead and, although the Reds were to go on and win the game 3-2, Helguson had announced his arrival.

“I really remember that goal,” he said. “Scoring on your debut, against Liverpool, it was dreams come true stuff.

“It was also the first time I’d played in front of that many people. The atmosphere was great and the Watford fans gave me a great welcome. They always really supported me.”

Unlike the way transfer rumours start today, back in 2000 there weren’t the social media accounts, Twitter feeds and football gossip websites. Helguson’s arrival came out of left-field for most people, except those at the club who were frantically trying to learn more about their new striker.

Don’t forget, Google was barely 18 months old, and Wikipedia wasn’t born until January 2001. All the club had was a fax – yes, a fax – of details from Lillestrom, and some of that wasn’t in English. That led to me writing a press release claiming Helguson had been born in a town called ‘striker’ and played up front for Akureyri (the actual birthplace) because I transposed the pieces of information.

However, Helguson had a goalscoring pedigree. He made his debut for UMFS Dalvik in Iceland as a mere 15-year-old, scoring five times in 11 games which earned him a move to Throttur. Another 31 goals in 54 league games there attracted attention from around Europe and he joined the Norwegian side Lillestrom.

After a quiet first season, he netted 16 league goals in his follow-up campaign and that is where Graham Taylor spotted him.

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“I didn’t know an awful lot about Watford to be honest,” admitted Helguson.

“I knew the town was around London, I knew Elton John was the owner and also the success they had with the promotions under Graham Taylor in the past. That was about it.

“The club being in the Premier League was a big factor in me signing, but I don’t think I would have turned the moved down if they hadn’t been in the Premier League as I was very keen on playing in England.

“When I joined, the gaffer just said that he expected the same from me as he expected from all his players – give me all you’ve got. That’s what I did, and it helped that he usually played to my strengths.”

When Helguson arrived at Vicarage Road, the club were already staring relegation in the face and a week after his goalscoring debut he netted again, but this time in a 3-2 defeat away at fellow strugglers Bradford City.

“That was a tough game to lose, but I felt we just had to keep going. The Bradford defeat hurt, but I don’t think we felt it was all over then,” he said.

“It wasn’t looking good when I signed so I suppose I was prepared for a long second half of the season.”

Ultimately the Hornets were relegated and Helguson scored six goals in 17 appearances – “Personally, I was pretty pleased with that,” he said – and he scored eight more in 35 outings the following season as Watford failed to bounce back up.

Taylor retired, Gianluca Vialli was appointed manager and Watford went through a rollercoaster 12 months on and off the pitch.

“I don’t think the club itself changed that much, it was just the footballing side that was different,” said Helguson.

“It was a shame it didn’t work out for Vialli as he as a good guy,” he added before pausing and saying with a laugh: “Even if he did play me at wing-back once!”

It became something of a behind-the-scenes joke during the ‘Vialli season’ that Helguson was referred to as ‘Judge’ because he was on the bench so much. I remember him saying that he spent so long sat in the same seat in the dug-out that the letters of his name on the back of his shirt had left an impression on the plastic!

He scored seven times in 38 outings, but a whopping 27 of those were as a substitute, and often he was played out of position – such as at wing-back.

“I didn’t really mind it at the time to be honest,” said Helguson.

“I would have preferred to play striker all the time but you play where you are asked to play, and you do it as well as you can. It was better than not playing I suppose.”

Everything changed that summer. Vialli and virtually his entire backroom staff left, except for one man: Ray Lewington. He had been in charge of the reserves and was promoted to manager.

Lewington had worked with and seen Helguson at close quarters, and clearly saw what Taylor had but Vialli hadn’t. Helguson was back in the team and netted 13 goals in 2002/03 season, helping the club to the FA Cup semi-final.

“I absolutely enjoyed working with Ray. He had faith in me and it’s always good to play under someone that likes you as a player.”

After an injury-hit 2003/04 season, Helguson enjoyed his most prolific campaign in 2004/05, scoring 20 times as Lewington guided the Hornets to Championship safety again as well as reaching the League Cup semi-finals, where Liverpool beat them 2-0 over two legs.

The Icelander swept the board at the end of season awards, winning Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Display of the Season.

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However, with success came attention from other clubs. Watford were struggling financially and in June 2005 he moved to Fulham for £1.3m. Was that a move forced upon him or did he want a new challenge?

“It was a bit of both,” he said. “I wanted another chance in the Premier League and I knew the problems the club was in at the time, so I think it was the best solution for both at that moment.”

After Fulham, Helguson had a brief spell at Bolton before moving to QPR. It was from the West London club that Watford loaned him in September 2009, initially until the end of December and then a further loan period through to the end of the season.

His ‘second debut’ was at home to Leicester on September 19, 2009. The visitors led 2-0 at half-time, Helguson replaced Henry Lansbury during the interval and duly set up Danny Graham for a goal in the 58th minute before scoring twice himself and then having to go off injured after 81 minutes. The game ended 3-3 and once again Helguson had immediately endured himself to the Watford fans.

Did he feel he had unfinished business when he came back on loan?

“No, not really. It was a chance to come back to a place I knew I liked to play at and a chance to get back to Watford, where I knew I would feel good and get back some sort of normal surroundings. The situation at QPR at the time was weird to say the least. 

“Obviously I remember that Leicester game for a lot of reasons: scoring, the reaction of the crowd when I came on and sadly getting injured, which took me a while to get back from.”

Helguson rounded his career in Britain off with a season at Cardiff, played a couple of games for Skautafélag Reykjavíkur in his homeland and then hung up his boots on a career of more than 400 club appearances, 52 caps for Iceland and 141 goals in total.

Helguson stays in touch with many of his former Hornets teammates and follows the club’s fortunes from Iceland – and has also visited Vicarage Road in the last couple of season.

“I always look for their results and I will always be a Hornet,” he said.

“I am very grateful for the reception I get when I come back and it’s always good to see the people I know that are still there working at the club.”