In the final part of the transcript of Thursday's fans' Q&A with Gino Pozzo and Scott Duxbury, subjects covered include more debt and directorship, the need for ongoing communication - and a desire for a pre-season trip somewhere exciting!

Gino, can I pick you up on something you’ve just said. You just said that we’re going to be debt-free. I want to get back to the finances because I think it’s a very, very important part for all of us. At June 2022, football-related debt was £54m, loans against transfer fees receivable was £35m, secured creditors were £72m I believe, and you put in £52m. So when you say debt-free, what does that actually mean? When we get back the June 2023 accounts, what will we be actually expecting? And does that free up liquidity to invest in the first team now as well?

GP: “Well we have been constantly investing in the first team. That’s an ongoing operation. Except for what the club owes to me, which as you were saying before we’re not asking for that money back, every other debt – in this case the only financial debt we have is Macquarie – is going to extinguish in June 2024.

“So you will see at June 2023 that we have around £25m or £30m, and in June 2024 that will be completely gone.”

So that is secured debts?

GP: “Correct.”

And there is no other debt inside Watford or Hornets Investment Ltd, or any of the other…

GP: “Nope, no, no. There is nothing else. That’s the final debt. Everything else is the normal with the suppliers. We have no outstanding debt to anybody. We don’t owe money to anybody. We sold players, we reduced the cost of the playing side. There’s no other secret there.”

So the Joao Pedro money will effectively be looking to correct that debt position?

GP: “It is part of the cash flow so of course we are selling players to generate the cash flow and support the operation. The good news now is we have found a reduction in the salary, and the salary now is constantly going down as the players we had coming down from the Premier League are sold or the contract is expiring.

“We are coming to a lower cost. The club is not generating debt in operation and the sale of players is helping the ones that were generated during Covid.”

I just wanted to ask you a question about personal feelings about the season. Kind of looking inwards, how did you feel when Luton got promoted? Because me personally I felt sick when Dabo missed that penalty at Wembley. How did you feel when Luton got promoted? I don’t know if you heard about it but there were various banners with ‘Pozzo Out’ at Huddersfield and then as you’ve heard today – and I’m very sorry to hear about that – the toxicity amongst fans. Being such a young person and only really following Watford for the last seven years it’s very concerning that this has been the worst year for a lot of people following the club. How does it make you feel when you see things like Luton promoted, potential toxicity among fans, banners wanting you to leave the club? Looking inwards at your personal feelings, does that make you feel annoyed, frustrated, saddened, concerned? How do you feel?

GP: “Of course it’s frustrating, but it’s frustrating for everybody. I think that everybody would feel the same after any loss, and the people that work with me will tell you that you don’t want to talk to me for the next 24 hours, the next 48 hours. But I think that’s a common thing for everybody. And given the level of commitment and work we put into the club, of course it’s more frustrating.

“When I hear some of the fans saying ‘Oh I’ve had enough of this, I don’t want him any more’ . . . I cannot quit. I have to stay and I have to make it work, and I have to make it better. I don’t have that option and I don’t want that option to be fair.

“Of course it comes down that, when you see things like that, yes it is frustrating. But then I’ve been in football long enough and I know that after them moments – and I think you’ve got to live that frustration, it cannot just pass by you like nothing happened – you need to go back and say, ‘ok we need to do better, we need to do more’.

“And even when we had a successful season or a successful game, that’s still what I want to do. What can we do more or what can we do better?

“The results do have a great impact, we also need to rationalise what we want, because sometimes you make a decision under that kind of pressure and maybe that is the wrong state to make that kind of decision. I can’t sleep with my frustration at night and then I start thinking about how to get things better.”

Can I come back to the answer of the directorship. We all know that company law says that the directors set the strategic direction. Earlier in this meeting Gino you said that you set the direction. You said you made the decision not to sell Doucoure. You said on transfers that you and Scott both sign off on final decisions. You said you don’t make decisions in isolation. So why is one of you a director and why is one of you not?

GP: “Sorry if my way of expressing myself is not adequate, is not sufficiently clear. You all know that I participate in the life of the football club. I do express an opinion every time there is something important. But that doesn’t mean that I technically make the decision. Because the decision is made by a group of people that participate in this decision.

“The fact that I’m not a director that doesn’t mean that I can’t express an opinion. And of course when we bought the club what I choose is people who understand how we want the club to be run. So my influence is when I choose someone I make sure to choose someone who will have the same vision about the club, otherwise then it would be a bit silly because I would have a conflict inside the club.

“That is the kind of influence that I exercise.”

Thank you for the two of you to come and do this. Obviously it’s a shame it’s taken the toxicity and the results in the last four years for you to come and do this. Can we get a commitment from you, Gino, that you’ll do this on a more regular basis? Because I think for us, the fans, it’s important to hear you say you’ve got your philosophy, we’ve heard all your commitments and your words. For us now we need to see action. You’ve bought Ben in, you’ve got Giaretta, you’ve got the leadership. For us as fans over the last few years it hasn’t looked like there’s been a strategy. There hasn’t been anything like that. We’ve heard the words, for us now we need to see action. We need to see a change, we need to see improvement. Yes the stadium has improved, we’ve been to the Premier League, we’ve been to the FA Cup Final. Brilliant, but that’s in the past. It doesn’t get us three points in the first game of the season. What does get us three points in the first game of the season is players, strategy, a team that shows commitment, fight and isn’t going to crumble when we’re 2-0 up. Because that’s all we’ve seen for the last four years on average. For us as fans that’s now got to stop, otherwise the toxicity will continue and all the rest of it. And none of us want that. We want the family club, we want all of that back. But, for us – and I speak for myself but I think I can speak for a few people – it’s now on you. It’s now on you lot to turn this around and show us you do have a strategy, and you do have a plan, and things will change. But I’d like to have that commitment from you that we’ll hear from you more often than we have done. Can we get that from you?

GP: “Again, I think the fact that I’m here today, and after 11 years this is the first time we have a forum, I couldn’t choose a better time over the last 11 years. I’ve actually chosen to talk to you when I’ve felt that it was really important. To send a message out of continuity of what we want to do in the sense of the base we have, is a strong base.

“I understand and I agree with you, and that’s what we said before, we don’t live in the past. There is a base to build something even more important.

“I will be here every time it is needed for me to be here. If I come out every single week and sit with you, that will not change anything if we don’t get results on the pitch. I always feel it is important for us to act more than to talk.

“Then of course I do agree with you, we need to establish a contact with the club, a relation with the club. That’s extremely important. One thought that actually made us decided to get involved with this club was the family, this community, the fact that we could talk about football in a certain way, not with violence. That’s very important to us when we got involved.

“And of course we want to keep that. We need to do more in that sense. The important thing is we get the results on the pitch, and then there’s the boring stuff which is why I don’t want to talk too much about what we have done today.

“But it’s important to look at what we have, because what we have will enable us to have better results in the future. And what we have is a very solid base. At least, I know, that doesn’t give you points today but it will give you points tomorrow. There is a sense for us of achievement of what we have done but that’s just set the base for what we want to do next.”

Two very quick questions if I may. If you want to look at a team that had the right attitude on and off the pitch last season it was our magnificent ladies team. Absolutely brilliant. [Applause] Might I also get you to confirm, I hope, that the club will continue to subsidise the coaches for supporters, the cost of those coaches? And talking of coaches when are we going to run one to our pre-season friendly at Hibernian? [Laughter]

SD: “Yes we will continue with the coaches. Pre-season is still up in the air with regard to completion and who we’re playing, including Hibs. So we have to review that.”

One last question and thanks for tonight. Mine was really about pre-season. The last good pre-season away game we had was Sampdoria about 20 years ago. We seem to be getting Stevenage and Boreham Wood every year. As fans, we’re not Brighton and we’re not in Europe but we do like an away day. Now we’re hoping with Ben’s contacts can we get a game at Hamburg or somewhere like that? So we can go on a European tour really.

SD: “All pre-season games are chosen by the coach. The opposition profile, what he wants to achieve with the build-up and where they are with regards to pre-season, and leading up to the first league game of the season he chooses the profile of our fixtures.

“Yeah I’d love, from a commercial perspective, to play Real Madrid or Paris St Germain at home! But the coach is completely in control of who he wants to play. Speak to Ben, speak to Cristiano. They talk to the coach and they decide. The coach decides with them who they want to play. We really don’t get involved in that, it’s down to the profile and the characteristics.

“That’s why with this coach – we usually go to Austria – we’re staying here for the full seven weeks because he wants to work. He wants to work and he wants to get the players in the mindset that this isn’t just a holiday in Austria. It’s seven weeks of work here with all the facilities. As of Monday we’re preparing for the first game of the season, we don’t leave here.”

Apart from a weekend in Edinburgh?

SD: “Possibly.”

The two gentlemen behind you [Luther Blissett and Ian Bolton] are two of the finest exponents of Academy and homegrown players. Can we make sure the Academy gets more opportunities to come through? It was one of the highpoints of, let’s face it, a difficult season when Tobi Adeyemo put that goal away in the 72nd minute of the GT game. Christ Almighty, give them a chance. Let’s see more of them coming through.

SD: “I’ll end then on what most people probably don’t want to hear. I agree it was the highlight, with Morris, with Andrews, with Tobi. What I’m proud of is – it’s a famous quote - I want us to be a Top 30 club. I want us to be the best EFL club we can be.

“We’ll always be an EFL club, that’s who we are. We’re a community-based club. And this constant aspiration, we must be a Premier League club . . . I love the EFL. I love the fact it allows us to develop young players. The Academy has never been stronger.

“Of course I want to win the league and the prize for that is we’ll be in the Premier League. For how long I don’t know. We will always be an EFL club. That’s what I fundamentally believe in.

“And that’s why our expectations, it’s not resetting, it’s not re-evaluating, that’s who are we are. We should be proud of it. We’re one of the best EFL clubs, and it allows us to develop the Academy, it allows us for the players to come through, and it allows us to be always competitive. And maybe we’ll win the prize and get to the Premier League, and maybe we'll stay there for a few years. Maybe we’ll stay there forever.

“But we will always be an EFL club because that’s who we are. We’re a community-based club and we should never forget it and we should always be proud of it. That’s my view.” [Applause]