Quite softly spoken, obvious Italian accent but with something of a nuance most likely gained during his Harvard education.

That is how I’d describe the speaking voice of Watford owner Gino Pozzo, the question I’ve probably been asked the most since lasty week’s Fans’ Q&A at the training ground.

Now before anybody says ‘well if we’d had audio instead of a blog we could have judged for ourselves’, I agree: if audio had been allowed it would have been a very useful addition for all those not in the room.

However, and I need to make this clear, the Watford Observer did not want, or ask, for the planned audio recording to be removed. Our only wish was to be allowed to attend and report, which we were and for which we are grateful.

But there was no ‘horse trading’, no attempt to convince anyone involved in organising the event or anyone at Watford FC to drop the audio in favour of a live blog. In fact, right back at the start of discussions about the event, I had conversations with the organisers where we talked about a live video stream!

When we found out the audio had been taken away, the WO offered not to blog if that would enable the audio to be ‘reinstated’. That wasn’t the case and so we blogged – but like the vast majority, we’d rather fans had been able to hear what went on too.

It’s also worth saying that Luther Blissett’s unsolicited, supportive and ultimately successful intervention, asking chairman Scott Duxbury to allow the media – and particularly the WO – into the forum also didn’t come with any conditions or caveats. It’s quite a slight on the club’s greatest legend that a small number of fans even thought that.

It’s only fair to explain these things, and at the same time recognise the hard work – in their own time – that the Supporters Group put into working on the event, both in advance and on the night.

Having organised and been involved in such things a few times myself, they are largely a no-win situation where the best you can do is hope to please some of the people. You’ll never please everyone.

To learn of some of the abuse they received, directly and anonymously, is perhaps the saddest and most unwarranted evidence of all that one of the subjects discussed at the forum – a massively divided and toxic fanbase – is unfortunately very true right now.

I also got a bit of the same mindless mistreatment the organisers were subjected to – though nowhere near as much – and it’s horrible. Nobody involved in Thursday night, the organisers, the media, the club or the fans, set out with any bad intent. We all may have made mistakes, but if you’re going to dish out nastiness in response to a mistake, then you better be 100% sure you’ve never made a mistake yourself.

This was the first time the owner had faced fans in more than a decade, and to think an event nearly 11 years in the making could occur without errors or faults would be sheer folly.

One thing this whole has episode has shown is that there is an urgent need for some unity. Fans v fans and fans v club is not going to help either party. There are certainly a lot of things to be questioned and much we can disagree about, but for any progress to be made there has to be some attempt at harmony or else the fighting will always hold us back.

That’s not to say the owner’s two-hour appearance means he’s off the hook for another decade. Far from it - and if he ever feels less disinclined to give a proper interview to the WO, I’ll go wherever that requires. But in the short term, we have to accept our differences and try to find a path to progression.

As for the night itself, for me it was interesting but not fascinating. I found out some things, got explanations to others but also left London Colney thinking there were key subjects that simply didn’t get covered.

Let’s be honest, our bar of expectation was set so low that by simply turning up, Pozzo cleared it.

And when more than 1,000 questions were submitted in advance, plus those asked as follow-ups in the room on the night, it was bound to be difficult. But things like have we investigated our apparent hamstring injury problems; is Academy funding going to be increased; why have so many players historically been put on long contracts; stewarding at Vicarage Road towards the end of the season. They were either not mentioned or not examined in depth.

However, it would be churlish to paint a negative picture. It was, as I said, an interesting night I felt. The owner talked about the managerial merry-go-round, Mogi Bayat, the club’s debts (and planned removal of them), his key senior staff and even revealed more about himself and his philosophies.

He showed some contrition. Perhaps not enough for many, but there were admissions of mistakes and things that needed to change. However, on the latter, I personally went away with a feeling that the likelihood of seeing wholesale change in the way the club operates any time soon is unlikely.

There were some contradictions. For example, at the start of the night Pozzo explained the decision to axe Rob Edwards by saying he has an advantage over the rest of us by being able to see training and sense the mood in the camp at London Colney on a daily basis.

But then later, in response to a question asking whether the head coaches we’ve had might find his close presence at the training ground stifling, he said: “You don’t see me watching the training. You don’t see me participating in the team meetings.”

There were a few times where he, when asked multiple questions at once, appeared to dance around those he didn’t fancy answering. That may not have been deliberate, as often it’s easy to forget everything when you’re faced with several questions in a sentence.

However, one that stuck in my mind was when a fan in the room asked “How much have we actually paid in severance payments to our ex-managers?”. My ears pricked up as that’s something I would like to ask myself, but the fan then followed by also asking Pozzo about his philosophy, is he going to change or do we carry on as we have and hope to get lucky?

The owner focussed his response on the latter (and actually bristled slightly at the use of the word ‘lucky’) but never gave an answer to the severance pay issue, and the evening moved on with that still hanging in the air.

On the whole, Pozzo answered questions very calmly. Aside from the above when I felt he showed a tiny bit of attitude towards the ‘lucky’ reference, the only other times he seemed to be ready to bite back were when he felt fans were overlooking the success and achievements of the first six years of his tenure, or when suggestion was made the club had gone full circle and was back where it started when he took over.

It's easy to understand both those comments and questions from fans, and Pozzo’s desire to defend things like six seasons in the Premier League, an FA Cup Final, a massively improved stadium and a training ground to be proud of. It is a difficult balancing act to remember past glories while decrying recent failings.

As one fan in the room put it, we don’t get points next season for anything we’ve done in the past, and that’s hard to argue with.

I felt the owner was polite and courteous, and I was particularly impressed that every time he spoke he stood up. It’s only a small thing, but it’s a classy thing. He struck me as someone who would stand up at the dinner table every time a lady joined. Clearly not a key trait necessarily required for running a football club, but as this was a chance to also judge him as a human being these things, I think, are worth mentioning.

As was the fact that, when the forum came to an end, he stayed in the room and chatted more informally to fans. There are plenty of places in the office area at the training ground he could have retired to, but he chose to stay around. Again, not something that will change the opinions of some of his detractors, but also not the behaviour of someone who didn’t feel the need to mingle when he didn’t have to.

Having played back the entire evening on my voice recorder (which took 18 hours in total, and typing it all up left me with a shoulder injury but no hamstring issues), something that did become apparent was that – to my ear at least – there was a little too much said by fans, which meant there was less time than ideal available to hear what the whole event was all about: what the owner thinks.

Being a sad statto, I actually worked out that the whole event lasted 134 minutes, and fans spoke/asked questions for 39 of those minutes. So almost a third of the time was NOT the two key guests speaking. I think that ratio is too high, but perhaps that’s because I’ve had years of interviewing – often where you are allocated a set time regardless of what ground you cover – and so know the key is short questions, eliciting as much detail in the answers as possible, and following in with brief supplementary lines of enquiry if you think the answer lacked sufficient information or clarity.

One thing I was delighted to see was that both Luther and Ian Bolton were in attendance, representing the Former Players' Club. A year ago when I took on this job, it soon became apparent that relations between WFC/LB/FPC were not what they ought to be.

To see Luther publicly supporting the owner and chairman for their participation in advance of the event, then have him in the room throughout, and see him chatting to the likes of Ben Manga and Cristiano Giaretta afterwards was hugely encouraging and must not be underplayed.

Which brings me back to the key message from all of this. We’ve had our differences, mistakes have been made, very strange decisions taken and there have been obvious setbacks over the last few years after so much progress both on and off the field.

To varying degrees, that was pretty much accepted by all in the room, and there was a sense of water starting to flow under the bridge. A desire to move on, but with continuing dialogue and greater transparency required.

You can like or dislike the owner. You can support or totally disagree with the philosophy and way of working. But a desire to see Watford FC thrive again is what unites us, and now we all need to find a way of staying true to our own beliefs, continuing to call the club to account where necessary, while getting behind the new head coach and whatever team and tactics he employs.