The assembled media at the Watford training ground this morning were left in no doubt about who is in charge of team affairs when new head coach Slaven Bilic proclaimed: “I am the manager. I am responsible for the team. I am responsible for the training ground.”

Towards the end of Rob Edwards' tenure there were suggestions that his relationship with sporting director Cristiano Giaretta was not as close it could be.

Indeed Edwards had been in a position to tell the players that Giaretta had left the club shortly before the last game against Sunderland, and that he would be leading a new off-field structure with greater control over many areas.

Fast forward 10 days and Edwards has gone, Giaretta hasn’t left and Bilic is the head coach. When asked about the dynamic, Bilic made it clear how things would work.

“The way I wanted it, the way I asked, the way I demanded it, I have to be responsible. They gave me that here, and they gave me that power,” he said.

“Then there are people here who can help me.

“A couple of days ago we needed something for away games which wasn’t being provided. There are no phone calls or being asked to wait a few minutes by a secretary, I went straight to Cristiano and in two minutes it was there.

“These roles may be called differently at other clubs, whether it is Head of Recruitment or Technical Director, it is more or less the same.”

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Bilic was asked if he had been told anything by the Watford board about where they felt shortcomings were under the previous head coach.

“That is between me and them to be fair,” he said.

“There are always the same couple of sentences that go around when a manager gets sacked. Sometimes they are right but it’s very rarely the case.

“Rob Edwards left me a good squad in a good state. We have a few unlucky injuries but every club has that. There is a good working atmosphere and everyone is looking forward to the next game, and what I noticed is that the team wants to do better.

“They haven’t done bad. They have done ok, but definitely not good for what the club’s ambitions are. Now I see the people who really want to improve.”

He said that he had not discussed the change of head coach with his players.

“I haven’t talked to the players about that. What I have heard from them is the positivity, that they want to improve. They know about me from things I have done before and they think I am the right man to take them back to the Premier League.

“I am going to help them, my staff are going to help them. That is why we are here, and it’s why the club have brought me here.”

Bilic is nobody’s fool, and when asked about whether he had been given any assurances over how long he would have he turned the question back on himself.

“There are no assurances. My assurances come through my work, the atmosphere, team improvement and of course the results.

“But I don’t want to think in that way. I am sure the board are rooting for me. Look, I don’t think any board wants to get into negative situations, especially this one here.

“As long as I am here and everyone is pushing in the same direction, then we all want the same success. The board here have given me everything I need.”

He said that when he joined West Brom in 2019, he was only told that the Baggies were hoping to get back to the Premier League in three years – a target he felt wasn’t stretching enough.

“Our clear ambition – the club and mine – is promotion. When I went to West Brom a few years ago that wasn’t the case. The club were in their second season in the Championship, and usually in the first season you push for going back up and if you are there for a second one, then you sell players.

“The club ambition at West Brom was to go up within three years. Me and my staff thought ‘lets go back up now if we can’, and we did it.

“My ambition, and that of my staff, is promotion. That is the way I like it.”

The 54-year-old said that it took him working in the Championship to truly understand why it’s such a difficult league.

“Sometimes when you watch the Championship but from your sofa, whether that’s in Croatia, or England or anywhere else, you think ‘ok, that’s not bad’.  But that’s because you are not part of it.

“When you are actually inside it, this league is crazy. So many games, two or three games a week. It’s almost impossible not to have a few bad moments, and then it’s all about how you react when they come.

“You are playing so much that you don’t always have time to train, and so it’s important when that good wave comes along that you jump on it and do everything you can to prolong it for as long as possible.

“It helps me and my staff that we know what to expect from the Championship. There are no surprises. It’s the same for most of our squad: they have been here recently.”

Throughout his first press conference, Bilic was peppered with questions about job security, including whether he felt confident he could last longer in the job than most of the previous incumbents in the last decade.

“If I wasn’t confident of that then I wouldn’t be here,” he said.

“This job is not about me securing a pension or getting a good pay-out. It’s about the opportunity to do good things for me and for the club. The pitch is my opportunity.”

That was followed by a question asking whether knowing the Hornets have a history of pulling the trigger meant he would be on his toes.

“You should always be on your toes,” was the reply.

“There is nothing wrong with that. What I want from my players is to be on their toes. What any boss wants from his staff is for them to be on their toes. That is a good way to be.”

Bilic was also probed on if he felt the way Watford operate makes it hard to achieve success.

“This club is very well run. I have been around England, around Europe and around the world, and this is a very good club,” he replied.

“Every owner and board cares about the club, but here at Watford they are present. If you are weak, that might get on your nerves, but if you’re strong then it’s an advantage.

“Sometimes it is down to the manager and a few key staff to control everything. Here, everybody senior is right there. I have been in one or two clubs where the people are not there. You wonder if they really care. This club is totally the opposite.

“I see the set-up here as something that can help and that I can count on, not something that is a threat to me.”