Watford owner Pozzo must listen to Bilic in transfer window

However, add in Ben Watson and Miguel Layun and you have a quartet of signings that were essential to the Hornets.

Those four players all joined the club at the start of 2015, Layun and Watson signing during the January window and both Motta and Connolly being brought in during March when ‘emergency loans’ were still an option.

The Hornets were in serious danger of falling out of the promotion picture as a run of six defeats in 10 league games at the end of 2014 left them toiling in sixth in the table, having been top on November 1.

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They had the goals of Troy Deeney, Matej Vydra and Odion Ighalo, plus the craft and guile of Almen Abdi, Fernando Forestieri and Ikechi Anya.

What they needed was a couple of midfielders, and help to shore up a defence that had only kept two clean sheets in the final dozen games of 2014.

The recruitment team kicked into gear, and brought in four players who between them had nearly 1000 senior appearances in the bank already – plus Layun was an established full international for Mexico.

Not only did the four new boys supply what Watford needed in a positional sense, they also offered bags of experience.

Layun’s second appearance for the club saw Charlton hammered 5-0 at Vicarage Road. A week later and the Hornets found themselves 2-0 down at home to bottom side Blackpool, Watson was brought on at half-time, and the Hornets smacked home seven goals in a 7-2 victory romp.

Motta first appeared in the 1-0 home win over Fulham on March 3 and Watford lost just once in his nine outings.

Marco Motta celebrates victory at Brighton in 2015 with Odion Ighalo (Image: Action Images)

It wasn’t until April 3 that Connolly made his debut: he was sent on as a substitute with 12 minutes to go at Derby, shortly after 10-man Watford (ironically Motta had been sent off) had drawn level at 2-2, and the on-loan defender helped secure a vital point.

Connolly actually only started four times for Watford, but they took 10 points from those games, kept two clean sheets and the defender even chipped in with the second goal in a 3-1 win at Nottingham Forest.

From Layun’s debut on January 10, Watford took 48 points from a possible 66, and secured promotion with a game to go on that memorable April afternoon in Brighton. There are 20 Championship games left this season, so two fewer than when that 2014/15 run began. However, if the current side could replicate the same haul of 48, they’d finish the season on 88 points – a total that would have secured automatic promotion in two of the last three seasons.

Obviously there is one small but significant word in there – if.

And there is also a reason why this article is heralding the January transfer window of 2015, and that’s because the club brought in four experienced players in key positions.

No random signings, no largely inexperienced youngsters, no recruiting in areas that were already strong to the detriment of other positions where options were sparse.

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It is mad that there is even a debate about what the club will do during the current transfer window, but such has been the often-illogical nature of transfer windows – regularly skewed by the desire to use particular agents to recruit players – that nobody can be sure what will happen during the next four weeks.

After all, in 2015, Watford used the January transfer window to do what most other right-minded clubs would do: sign what they needed.

Now clearly the unprecedented list of injuries is bound to have a bearing on what the club do in terms of transfer business.

Nonetheless, this window really does have ‘make or break’ written all over it.

There are 26 days left in January during which Mr Pozzo will surely show all of us just how much quality he feels needs to be added to the squad – and in what positions - for Watford Football Club to be a serious promotion contender come the end of the season.

There are two signings confirmed, although both Ismael Kone and Matheus Martins were secured before the injuries really started to stack up. And although both have played a decent amount of club and international football, they are also still very young and not just moving clubs, but moving continents.

Ismael Kone (right) is one of the players already signed this month. (Image: Action Images)

The impending signing of Portuguese full-back Joao Ferreira is a strange one. Whatever your thoughts are on both Jeremy Ngakia and Mario Gaspar (and their respective performances at Norwich should have enhanced them), the fact the club has two right-sided defenders suggests it’s one of few areas of the pitch that Watford have options.

I doubt very much that anyone outside Pozzo and his recruitment team had any input into that decision. Ferreira is a young prospect but has spent the first half of this season warming the bench at Rio Aves. His eight league appearances for the Liga Portugal side this term have all been as substitute and amount to 177 minutes.

Let me be clear: I am far from against signing young, precocious talents. In fact, the Pozzo network has done an amazing job in unearthing some wonderful players.

Never mind the likes of Richarlison, Joao Pedro and Yaser Asprilla, had anybody heard of Vydra before he came to Watford as a 20-year-old? Or Abdoulaye Doucoure, who had just turned 23 when he signed for the Hornets?

But the thing to remember about such young players is that it can take time to see them at their best. The Pedro of 22/23 is very different to the Joao we saw back in the 19/20 season.

Head coach Slaven Bilic has regularly spoken of needing recruits that can pull on a shirt, walk out on the pitch and do the job that is needed of them.

In other words, more experienced, worldly-wise players who have been around the block a few times – and essentially can slot into the areas of the pitch where the Hornets are lacking.

In Bilic the club have a head coach who has played and managed at the highest level, in both club and international football.

Yet we know, from recent experience, that what the head coach, the rest of the squad and most fans can plainly see the club needs is often very, very different to what the owner and his recruitment team actually deliver.

Of the summer window signings, I think it’s pretty fair to say that the majority were not players from Rob Edwards’ list.

Bilic has made it clear that he feels Watford need midfielders and wide players, though he did add in a striker given he has now lost both Joao Pedro and Keinan Davis, scorers of 12 of the Hornets’ 31 league goals this season.

So there we have a pretty clear ‘shopping list’ from a manager who has already secured promotion to the Premier League with West Brom, as well as leading Croatia to the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 and steering West Ham to seventh in the Premier League.

Watford head coach Slaven Bilic. (Image: Action Images)

Why, then, is there even any doubt that the club would follow the guidance of someone who has been there, done it and got the t-shirt?

Simple – because we have an owner who cannot help himself from thinking he knows best. His choice of sporting directors, agents and previous transfer window performances mean we all know that there is every chance the signings made this month will differ from what Bilic wants and needs.

Of course, Bilic took the job with his eyes open to the way Watford operate, and there have been many, many very good signings during the Pozzo years.

But the need right now is acute. It’s not the time to be signing players that may be international stars in five years, or who could double in value given time and patience.

What Watford should be bringing in are players who can do the job the head coach needs, in the positions where the head coach feels he needs them, and hit the ground running.

There are far-reaching implications, off the pitch as well as on it, should Watford not return to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

And even though it often appears that Pozzo views Watford as a player trading business that also happens to field a team in the English leagues, even that model is severely undermined should the club stay in the Championship.

Player values are affected by the division you are in. The chance to sign the best young talent diminishes the longer you aren’t playing top-flight football. The likelihood of your best players staying drops with every game they have to play outside the Premier League.

Yes, this is going to be a fascinating, nerve-wracking and ultimately defining January transfer window.

Surely, this is the time to fully back the head coach? Bilic cannot keep pulling rabbits out hats like he did at Carrow Road.

With only the addition of free agent Leandro Bacuna, he has guided Watford to 26 points from a possible 48 since he joined, and yet has rarely been able to field what most people would agree is his strongest team.

There have been some pretty woeful performances in that time, but on each occasion he has galvanised his squad and they have bounced back.

The awful away defeat at Blackpool was followed by a 2-1 win over Norwich at home. The abject surrender at Millwall was cast aside four days later by ‘that’ 4-0 win.

Those two grim defeats just after Christmas and an absentee list so long that Sky Sports created a graphic about it didn’t stop Bilic presiding over Monday’s win at Norwich.

The Croatian is charming, funny and extremely knowledgeable. He gives straight answers to straight questions, and his depth of understanding of the game, his players and opponents is hugely impressive.

He says, privately as well as publicly, that he can get Watford to the Premier League. His track record, authenticity and demeanour all suggest he can back up his words with success.

Just like in that 2014/15 season, Watford are in the promotion mix but will need to average around 2.5 points a game again to go straight up.

That January window may be many years ago, but it shows the owner can sign players that the club actually needs in the position it needs them.

So, it’s now all eyes on Mr Pozzo. The head coach wants it, the players want it, the fans want it. Promotion has always been the target.

We’re unlikely to hear any words from him, so we can only judge his actions.