So it all started last Tuesday when I was scrolling through football subreddits, feeling proper bored after work. Stumbled upon this post where some bloke kept repeating “Watford is OURS!” in all caps. Got me thinking – what’s this Watford Forever stuff people kept mentioning in comments?
The rabbit hole begins
Grabbed my laptop and just typed “Watford fans takeover” into the search bar. First link was some archived news article from 2009. Didn’t realize it went that far back! Spent next hour skimming fan forum archives – felt like being an archaeologist digging through layers of angry matchday threads.
Got myself distracted by these old protest photos: fans holding “We Are Watford” banners outside Vicarage Road, some blokes cooking burgers for protesters. Looked like a proper community barbecue but with police vans parked nearby. Weirdest damn thing.
Connecting the dots
Eventually found this fan-made timeline showing how it unfolded:
- 2009: Owners nearly bankrupted club with shady loans
- 2010: Fan group hijacked shareholder meeting with 200 supporters
- 2011: Supporters Trust raised £500k through pie sales and raffles!
- 2012: New local owners took over backed by fan pressure
Real eye-opener was seeing how they saved their club basically through bake sales and stubbornness. Not some rich sugar daddy swooping in.
The lightbulb moment
Everything clicked after reading this interview with a grounds keeper who worked there 30 years. Said when new owners came in, they didn’t fire any staff – just put club badge stickers on all the lawnmowers. Sounds daft but showed the values.
Sat back thinking how most clubs get bought by billionaires treating them like toy cars. But these lot fought to keep their club’s soul. Not about trophies – about that connection between a town and its team.
Now when I see Watford lose 5-0 (again), I don’t laugh. Instead I remember how they almost lost everything twice. Bloody legend supporters.
