Blog
Why it’s hard for humans to be Hornets
In a nutshell it means we tend to give disproportionate importance to immediate rewards – we’d rather have a smaller prize now than wait for a bigger one.
For example, if someone offered you £100 right now or £120 in a year’s time, you’d probably be inclined to take the cash right away. It also explains why you’ll eat a chocolate bar now when you want to look good on the beach in a few months, or smoke when you know the painful consequences that may await you later in life.
When you think about it, it makes sense. You might not be around in a year to claim the money. And who cares if you eat that slice of cake, you can do some exercise to make up for it later. In humans, impulsiveness and weak willpower come as standard. A bird in the hand and all that.
The problem is when Hyperbolic Discounting affects us as fans.
We picked our team years ago. Or it picked us. Either way, we’re stuck with each other for life.
Rationally, we should take the long term view. So what if we have some dodgy results now? Just so long as it is part of a plan to make us better tomorrow. Look at Manchester Utd, their fans are still reaping the rewards of their board’s patience when Sir Alex Ferguson made a slow start after being appointed manager. At Watford we don’t even expect success; we’re not used to it. Surely we’d be prepared to accept some bad results at the start of a new reign – especially one that is being overseen by a group who has enjoyed success in Italy and Spain.
Well no. We lose 5-1 to Derby County and people are spitting feathers. Some even went as far as to demand Zola’s head.
Is he mad? Selling Martin Taylor! Get him out!
Never mind that
Pozzo’s Watford: The case for the Prosecution
I’m not so blinkered as to think that everyone will agree with what is going on at Watford. It’s radical and it understandably leaves a lot of people, Watford fans included, feeling very uncomfortable. I think a healthy debate about the right and wrongs of what is unfolding at Vicarage Road should be welcomed and encouraged, and as supporters we’d have been foolish not to expect our club to come in for criticism for their chosen direction of travel. Mr. Samuel is the first high profile journalist to publish an overtly negative view, and whilst he correctly identifies some of the issues currently challenging fans of Watford and indeed football in general, I feel the piece is wide of the mark in a number of areas.
A state of flux…
The crowd was very quiet – a definite trend for the season thus far, and I think it’s because we’re in a state of flux. There isn’t really enough to get too excited about, whilst there is an underlying feeling (hope?) that the bad stuff will get sorted out – eventually. Personally I get the feeling that most Watford fans understand the situation we’re in, and whilst none of us would choose to go on a winless streak, we recognise that Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Meaningful Lyrics
If, like Kelly, you want to get involved then email us – podcast@fromtherookeryend.com – and we’ll see what we can do. So here is Kelly’s first FTRE blog post, reflecting after the Brighton home game.
Creating the sum of our parts…
So, there are my credentials, make of them what you will. What I’m trying to say is that I attempt to remain balanced, and I’ve been mildly surprised at the number of supporters who after a fourth straight defeat in all competitions, are struggling to cling on to a bit of perspective.
Pondering the Pozzos
Watching the Football League Show on the BBC a couple of weeks ago after Watford’s opening day victory over Crystal Palace, I couldn’t help but take in and think about pundit Leroy Rosenior’s comments that Watford fans were feeling ‘uneasy’ about gaining loads of loan players from the new owners’ fellow clubs, Udinese and Granada.
THIRTY YEARS AGO – 1982/83
Each will be 8 pages long and feature photos from back in the day, clips of newspaper articles and a interview with a key player from the team that season. On top of that will be the words of From The Rookery End’s very own Mike Parkin. Mike has been thumbing through the archives, chatting to the players and will your guide through the games of that season and the events in and around Vicarage Road.
Watford 2012
Well that wasn’t so bad was it? For the football fan, the summer usually represents a seemingly never ending wait for the season to re-commence. Days are spent searching for even the smallest crumb of news regarding your club, scouring the darkest recesses of the internet to find out a bit about the 13 year old Moldovan that someone claimed may be on his way for a trial.
A Pozzo Preseason
However, the problems with preseason friendlies are all too clear. You only get to see the first team in full effect for the first half (no one wants to get too tired or get an injury) and there is nothing truly on the line to bring out the competitive side of a players! However, last summer Southampton ran a slightly different pre-season friendly. The club invited Athletic Bilbao (Spain), Werder Bremen (Germany) to St Mary’s where each team took on the other two (three games total) in a games lasting just 45 minute. They did it again this last weekend with Arsenal and Anderlecht.
One Manager, One word…
It’s obviously an interesting time to be a Watford supporter, so here at From the Rookery End, we have tried to guage the mood of fellow fans by asking them to sum up their current feelings in one word. We got a fantastic response (Sometimes more than one word, but these are exciting times – we forgive you!), and these are collated bellow. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section – we’d love to hear how you are feeling!