By Paul Holmes
September 30 2002

Watford chairman Graham Simpson has admitted that the appointment of Gianluca Vialli as manager was a mistake. Vialli was appointed as The Hornet's manager in the summer of 2001 after a successful spell as Chelsea manager.

Vialli failed to realise the financial constraints faced by teams outside the Premier League and his lavish spending is one of the reason's for Watford's current financial crisis.

Simpson did admit that the Italian brought some good times to Vicarage Road though. "I think it was perhaps a misjudgement and it won't happen again. But I still think at times last year we saw some lovely football," he said.

"If we had been able to afford Luca, who knows what he might have achieved in two more years?

"He didn't get the chance he needed because we couldn't afford him.

"Maybe if we'd been wiser we'd have done things differently but we did it for the good of Watford. It was a punt and it didn't work."