Football League World
·5 August 2024
In partnership with
Yahoo sportsFootball League World
·5 August 2024
The ex-Fox isn't happy with some comments being made by those who follow the Hornets.
Former Leicester City player Anthony Knockaert, whose missed penalty led to Troy Deeney's infamous winner in the play-offs, has taken a shot at Watford amid trolling from Hornet supporters over the fluffed spot-kick.
Championship football never ceases to amaze, but it will be hard for anything in the English second tier to ever top what happened at Vicarage Road in May 2013.
Leicester had the chance to secure their place in the play-off final as the French midfielder won a late penalty, albeit a dubious one.
He stepped up to take it and, well, Johnny Phillips can take it from here. "Knockaert takes, Almunia saves. Knockaert follows in, Almunia saves again! Absolutely astonishing!
The images of Deeney jumping into the crowd and Knockaert in sheer disbelief as to what just happened is something that will never be forgotten, especially by those in attendance.
Knockaert has now revealed that Watford fans like to make sure he's reminded of the moment pretty often, and, in response, he has lashed out at the current state of the Hornets.
The Mouscron player took to Instagram to address the seemingly mounting number of messages that he receives from Watford supporters that try and bring up the awful memory for the 32-year-old.
He said, on his story: "OK just to maker it clear... you guys keep writing 'Here's Hogg'. Whatever.
"Without me you would have never experienced a play-off final in Wembley that you lost. Kevin Phillips, you remember? You all that stupid that you are even writing this like you made it.
"How to describe Watford Football Club? Unstable club that has six different managers per season.
"So please enjoy your life and leave me alone for once."
Former player Tom Cleverley is now the man in charge of the first team. It's his first job in such a role, and he only got it as an interim when Valerien Ismael was dismissed from his position as the boss.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Watford have had a double-digit number of managers (10). For a bit of context, if you go back to the 10th most recent permanent manager that Manchester United have had - Frank O'Farrell - he took charge in the early 1970s.
Some of the bosses that the Hornets have had in the past four years weren't even born when Farrell was first appointed by the Red Devils.
If a PR person were to assess the Frenchman's social media message, they'd probably say that it wasn't a good idea because, knowing the British public, there are now going to be even more people in his replies and mentions saying "Here's Hogg."
It wasn't very smart of him to say what he said, in terms of the messages that he'd received, but he's got a point about the state of the club that gave him such an abhorrent lifelong memory.
The state of the squad isn't great, and if Yaser Asprilla leaves the situation will be even more bleak. They have an inexperienced manager and a board that is so trigger-happy that they would fit perfectly in a spaghetti Western.
They didn't have a brilliant campaign last time out. They ended up with the same number of points as Sunderland. That would have been a solid achievement, had the Black Cats not hugely underwhelmed and finished 16th.
They aren't a team that is poised for success, and the general instability that Knockaert mentioned could really hurt Watford in the upcoming campaign.
Live
Live