The Watford hierarchy have faith in the work Valerien Ismael is doing and are prepared to stay patient if the Hornets hit a rocky patch, but football is a results business.

That was the message from chairman Scott Duxbury at last night’s At Our Place fans' event at London Colney when the issue of culture and building an identity under a head coach was raised.

Patience is, of course, not a word the Hornets are renowned for under Gino Pozzo’s tenure given the number of head coaches that have come and gone.

More than ever, fans are judging the ownership on actions and not words after last season when Rob Edwards was jettisoned so quickly following his appointment and Duxbury’s now infamous ‘hell or high water’ comment. Slaven Bilic and Chris Wilder followed but the result was one of the pre-season favourites for promotion finished 11th amid acrimony and mounting disillusionment in the stands and no clear identity on the pitch.

Asked how much patience will be employed this season if there is an identity but results don’t follow, Duxbury said: “We believe in the work and we believe in how that’s translating to the pitch. It’s a game of results, we need results and we’re aware there will be bad moments.

“We’re going to stay patient, we need the supporters to stay patient. If we all believe in what we’re seeing we can build something, but we absolutely have learnt from the recent past and we’ve always said it’s about the work.

“It’s very difficult to bring coaches in mid-season and then try and get a change because they can’t impart their work, they can’t impart the pre-season. The pre-season is everything, absolutely everything.

“We’ve had seven weeks where we’ve put that work into the squad and now we’ll see the benefit. We’re certainly going to stand by and see that grow because we believe in it, but everybody has to be patient – players, supporters, Gino – when there are moments that aren’t with us, but hopefully those moments don’t last long and we all move on because this is a results business.

“We’re here to play attractive football and we’re here to win games, but we understand it’s a process and we’re building something.

“Saturday (the 4-0 win against QPR) is great and we’re not by any means getting carried away with it, but it just validates the work that has been done in the seven weeks. It gives that confidence to everybody – players, the coach, Gino, the supporters – it just validates it.

“We’re here certainly to support and we expect that we’re going to have a very good season, but we’re obviously aware there will be moments when things don’t go well and we’ve all got to stay together.”

The chairman had been asked if failing to get promoted last season was perhaps what was needed so the club could have a proper reset, but Duxbury responded: “No, it’s never a good opportunity not to achieve your goals. We all believed on paper we had a great squad.

“I always say all of your successes are built upon reacting to your failures, so in that regard yes, but no - we wanted to be promoted, we failed, that’s not a good thing.

“How we react? Well, you’ll judge now. I think so far we’ve reacted well and it’s not just about recruitment, it’s about the whole philosophy of the football club and getting back to our original DNA and the work ethic, so that I’m pleased about.

“There was a comment earlier we won’t get promoted. We just want to win every game. We want to be entertained, we want a performance, but we take every game as it comes and there isn’t one single footballer, in any team, that enters the field of play not wanting to win that football match, and that’s what we want to do and see where that takes us.

“I don’t rule anything out but as long as we have that level of performance, leave Vicarage Road or any away game knowing that you’ve seen the team try it’s hardest and implement a plan.

“There were games last year, without being disrespectful to anybody, you couldn’t actually see an identity of what we were trying to achieve, now you can and that’s wonderful. As long as we continue to do that I’m happy we didn’t get promoted last year but that certainly wasn’t the plan.”