Watford: Gianluca Nani and Pozzos sent clear fan message about transfer plans | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Watford must be better in terms of their recruitment in this summer's transfer window.

That's according to Football League World's Watford fan pundit, Justin Beattie, who believes the Hornets will need to have a clear strategy in the market.

It is set to be a big summer at Vicarage Road, in what is Tom Cleverley's first transfer window since he took charge of the club as manager.

As a result, the Hornets will no doubt be keen to get things right, to give the 34-year-old the best possible chance of guiding Watford to promotion from the Championship and back to the Premier League.

However, it appears there is some feeling among at least some fans, that the way in which the window is approached by Watford's sporting director Gianluca Nani and the Pozzos will have to change, if that is to work.

Watford told to improve their summer signings

The Hornets were arguably one of the quieter teams in the transfer market during the 2023/24 season, with six players being signed by the club for their first-team in the summer window.

That was then followed by the addition of one more in the January window, with the return to the club of Emmanuel Dennis, on loan from Nottingham Forest.

Meanwhile, attacking midfielder Giorgi Chakvetadze's loan move from Gent was also made permanent at that point.

However, some of those signings did not exactly work out, and contributed to a somewhat frustrating season for the Hornets in which they finished 15th in the Championship table, 17 points adrift of play-off places.

Valerien Ismael was therefore sacked as manager in March, with Cleverley being brought in to replace him initially on an interim basis, before taking on the role full time.

In the wake of that managerial switch, Beattie believes that the club must also do things differently when it comes to how they sign players, with an emphasis on their attacking options.

When asked by Football League World what the one thing he would change about his club this summer is, the Watford fan said: "For me it has to be recruitment. We have to make sure we are signing players that Tom Cleverley wants and needs and can utilise correctly.

"Not just going out and picking up loan players like Emmanuel Dennis just for the sake of it. We need to make sure that we are strengthening upfront, so we need to focus very much on forward players, scoring goals, making it exciting as we go forward again.

"All the kind of things that have been lacking for the last two or so seasons, and to do that we need to make sure we are recruiting properly. So that has to be the one thing that changes over the summer."

Watford will have to sign better this summer

You do get the feeling that this is a fair assessment of the situation at Watford when it comes to their recruitment during the upcoming market.

There is certainly an argument that the club did not get things right last season, with many signings struggling to make an impact.

Indeed, the fact that one striker, Rhys Healey was sold to Huddersfield Town in January, just a few months after Watford had bought him on a permanent deal of their own, feels rather telling.

It is also worth noting that this will be the Hornets' third year in the Championship, since they were last relegated from the Premier League.

That of course, means it is the last year in which they will receive parachute payments from when they dropped out of the top-flight.

As a result, it may be imperative that they make sure they take advantage of those extra funds that they can still invest be working effectively in the transfer market, while they still have the chance to do so.