The opening section of last night's fans forum Q&A with Watford owner Gino Pozzo and chairman Scott Duxbury looked at the hiring and firing of managers.

Below are the first set of questions, each with their respective answer:

The appointment that was made last summer ended quite quickly. What do you feel went wrong with the appointment of Rob Edwards?

Gino Pozzo (GP): “I think that like any coach or any player, there is a fit. You either get a good fit and things work out, or you don’t and you can quite see that things aren’t developing in the right way. It’s not a matter of the quality of the coach. We’ve seen it before with many coaches, who have very good profiles, who were not successful in one place and then moved to another place and are much more successful.

“Let’s say we saw the work, we saw the approach and it was not working for us. Maybe the fact that he goes to Luton and it works there can mean something more different from us and Luton. It was really about that.”

In terms of the appointment you have made now, what do you think you’ve done differently when it comes to appointing Valerien Ismael?

GP: “We have a way of seeing what we want from our team. We want our team, in all aspects, to work hard. And not just work hard in a general way. We want to take care of a lot of the aspects that comes into the play, and so we want to take care of the players on and off the pitch.

“We want to have a certain discipline inside the changing room. We want to make sure that they are coached and are prepared for the kind of game that we want to see on the pitch.

“And when the Technical Director went to interview a different number of options, this was the one that ticked all the boxes. Then of course sometimes when you come in there are things that don’t work out quite as you expected.

“But in this case even the fact that this coach had experience at this level. We saw when we got promoted in the year with Xisco, we were all particularly impressed with two teams, and I think it was Brentford, and it was Norwich who were playing a more predictable type of game.

“But these were the two teams who were a bit of a surprise, and we saw a level that, in a way we wanted to see in our team.

“That’s why we believe in this case it’s a much stronger appointment and a better fit.”

Did you do anything different though? Were you looking for something different compared to, say, Rob last summer?

GP: “Well we wanted to make sure the kind of approach to training and to discipline was of a certain standard. And we think that we have found this with this coach.”

The difference in terms of strategy and style came across quite strongly. What are your thoughts if Watford fans say we’ve lacked a structure and style, we’ve been far too reactive, and we need a clearer strategy and a continuation on the head coaches – like we’ve seen at Brighton, the clarity from one to the next?

GP: “In this case we are looking for a certain coach that is proactive, for example, in recovering the ball. Someone that doesn’t like to sit back and wait. Someone that likes to go more proactively recovering the ball.

“So we’re looking for a high intensity and so of course around that you need a certain type of players. And of course you need a coach that actually wants to do that. In this case we have stressed more certain attributes.

“When you are going out to sign a coach during the season you are much more limited. Depending on the moment you have to be a bit more flexible in your choice.

“But in this case we had more time – we had more time to confirm this appointment and I want to thank the technical staff because they’ve done a very good job, both Cristiano and Ben, who joined us in November. I think that this has been done with much more care.

“I think there are a lot of points that brought this coach together and so we don’t expect any surprise.

“Also the fact that the coach has been involved earlier and so has been able to participate also in the profile of the players that we wanted to keep, the players that we want to move out, and the players that we want to sign – this should guarantee higher degrees of a better fit between the team and the coach.”

You had a clear picture of what you wanted this coach to be, but it has felt we’ve gone from one type of coach to another type of coach to another; a disciplinarian to a cuddler to an attacker to a build from the back. Do you think you now have a clearer picture of what you have more consistently?

GP: “Look, some of the choices were not only dictated by the profile but also the style of the coach. We have an advantage, we are here every day. We really don’t need to look at the games to understand what is going on.

“And most of the time you see how the team is reacting during the training, and how they work during the week. And you can really have a good expectation of what will happen over the weekend.

“When you see that going on week after week, day after day, the results on the pitch tend to reflect very closely what you see in training. It’s not just about getting a couple of bad results. It’s more about what you see.

“They’re going to change, or not. Because if you don’t see any change during the training, of the training regime, how would you expect the situation to improve?

“In the case of Xisco - who I think did a brilliant job for us in the Championship and who had a closer philosophy – remember when we switched from Ivic to Xisco it was more because it was not a good fit at that time with the players we had, in terms that there was not the ability of bringing the game to the opponent. Xisco has been much more proactive in that sense.

“Moving to the Premier League we were feeling that there was a lack probably of confidence of achievements in that moment, so we looked for a more experienced profile. And Ranieri was most definitely offering that, but what you gain on the one side you lose on the other.

“And then, going back to what we were saying earlier, you get a coach like Roy Hodgson, who had been very successful at Crystal Palace. So again you expect that as a short-term appointment you can do a job, and then he comes in you see, wow, it’s not ok.

“Not because he isn’t a good coach. He’s an excellent coach and we saw that every day. We go back to, yes, sometimes we make decisions based on what you’re looking at. When you make a mistake on the first coach and the first is not working, you try to react to that because when you see what is going on at the training every day will not change, then sorry, I can’t wait for something to happen inevitably.

“I prefer to expose myself, and change and admit the mistake that we make, and try to fix it.

“In fact, most of the time if you remember in the past, it was not much correcting mistakes, it was more like changing course.

“For example the first time when we got promoted with Jokanovic. And we actually did not confirm Jokanovic, and we went for Quique Sanchez Flores. So it’s not about results. We just achieved a great result and we changed the coach. Why? Because we saw that there was an opportunity to improve.

“Of course the easiest decision would have been to confirm the coach, but we went for something different because we felt there was something missing. And so we are not shy of making that decision always when we see there is a possibility for improvement.

“Most of the time we got that right. You’re not always gonna get it right, and I know that. But I’d rather take that decision and I’d rather make a mistake once in a while and say I’ve given 100%.

“I really want the best for the club and I’m not going to say that and protect myself. I prefer to expose myself and be my best for the club. Sometimes we make mistakes. If we don’t do anything it’s difficult to make mistakes.

“But it’s a matter of how you face the problem in front of you. I know that you probably would have preferred to sit back and say ‘ok, we’re not gonna do anything and that’s how it’s gonna be’.

“Sorry but we’re not gonna go down, or we’re not not going to go up without a fight. That I can promise you.”