Watford Football Club is a professional football club that competes in the Premier League which is the first tier of the English League. The club popularly called The Hornets is based in Watford, Hertfordshire, England.
The club which was founded in 1881 as Watford Rovers derived the nickname from its traditional colours of Hornet, yellow and black. Watford also used to have hornet on the club badge but they replaced it with a hart, which is an old-fashioned word for ‘stag’, which is a male deer. The club changed colours and crest several times during their stay in the lower divisions of The Football League.
For the first time in the history of the club, it entered the FA Cup in 1886 and joined the Southern League a decade later. The club joined the Football League in 1920 after been crowned champions of Southern League in the 1914/15 season under former manager Harry Kent.
The club’s current home ground is called Vicarage Road. Watford moved to the stadium in 1922 after playing on several grounds in their early days. The stadium has a capacity of 23,700 seats after been redeveloped on several occasions. Vicarage Road is relatively a small stadium for a Premier League side.
Watford attained success during the tenure of former England manager Graham Taylor. The club gained promotion from the Fourth Division to the First Division during his reign at the club between 1977 and 1987. In 1982/83 season, the Hornets finished second in the First Division, later played in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup and also reached the 1984 FA Cup Final.
Former manager Taylor returned to the club as a full-time manager in 1997 when it experienced a decade of decline between 1987 and 1997. He, however, led the club to successive promotions to the Premier League for one season in 1999–2000 after their stay in the Second Division.
Watford again gained promotion to the Premier League during the 2006/07 season under the management of Aidy Boothroyd. The club got relegated eight years in the Championship. However, in the 2014/15 season, the Hornets gained promotion in Premier League and started playing in the first tier of English football during the start of the 2015–16 season.
The club, like other clubs, has traditional rivals and that of the Hornets are Reading and Luton Town. Watford, when compared to their rivals, are successful and competing in the higher divisions than both of them who are in the third tier of English football. The club hired former manager Quique Sanchez Flores in 2018 and sacked him six months after and appointed Nigel Pearson in 2019 to rescue the club from relegation waters.
At the start of the 2019/202 season, the club signed Ismaïla Sarr from Stade Rennais for a sum of £27.00m, Craig Dawson from West Brom for a sum of £5.40m. The club also brought in Danny Welbeck from Arsenal after his contract expired last season.
The club’s highest-paid player is French midfielder Abdoulaye Doucouré. He earns a weekly wage of £70,000 per-week. Watford’s wage payouts are quite low, despite paying their players huge wages.
Troy Deeney who is the club’s captain is the third highest-paid player. The English striker pockets £65,000-per-week. The players have earned a base salary of £2,340,000 per year.
Watford F.C. 2019-20 Payroll
| Player | Gross Weekly Wages |
| Abdoulaye Doucoure | £70,000 |
| Andre Gray | £70,000 |
| Troy Deeney | £65,000 |
| Gerard Deulofeu | £60,000 |
| Tom Cleverley | £50,000 |
| Daryl Janmaat | £45,000 |
| Roberto Pereyra
Danny Welbeck |
£45,000
£45,000 |
| Sebastian Prodl | £45,000 |
| Etienne Capoue | £40,000 |
| Nathaniel Chalobah | £35,000 |
| Heurelho Gomes | £35,000 |
| Ben Foster | £30,000 |
| Jose Holebas | £30,000 |
| Will Hughes | £30,000 |
| Christian Kabasele | £30,000 |
| Isaac Success | £30,000 |
| Adam Masina | £28,000 |
| Craig Cathcart | £23,000 |
| Kiko Femenia | £20,000 |
| Marvin Zeegelaar | £20,000 |
