Hornets: Plenty more Paolos

9:23am Monday 12th February 2001

WATFORD are keeping their eyes peeled looking for more Paolo Vernazzas.

Manager Graham Taylor said: "Because of the influx of foreign players, there are now players like Vernazza with some of the very big clubs who are good players but are not getting a look in with the first team. I happen to believe and know there are some more about and it is a matter of picking the right ones.

"Paolo, our opening goalscorer on Saturday, is 21 years of age and he is going to get better. The second goalscorer is 22 years of age. Darren is maturing into the centre-half role. He had a good chance of a second goal, with a header. We are looking to him to add that to his play but primarily keep his defensive play right.

"The third goalscorer is 20 years of age and, then again, Heidar Helguson is only 23.

"We are building up the team in the long term. Gifton is only 20 and Robinson is only 22. They have all got their better years ahead of them.

"If they get to their mid-20s and move on then the question is: 'Have we players coming through?' If the boys prove they can hack it at first team level, there comes the time when you do reward them but you have to prove you can hack it over two or three years."

Taylor points out he is about to offer some scholars a professional contract.

He said: "It is a very important step but they are long way from having made it. You have to play 100 to 120 games and then you can say you have made it and then you have to determine at what level you have made it.

"We have to accept, if they reach 24 to 25, they are likely to move. You are unlikely to get more Nigel Gibbs playing their whole career at one club.

"They get tremendous pressure on them from agents about better deals, and sometimes that sidetracks them. I am not talking about our lads, but players in general.

"We all have heard the grass is supposed to be greener on the other side. We all know that is not necessarily true."

Taylor is pleased Steve Brooker is making progress with Port Vale.

"If you don't think it will work out, if we don't think they are quite what we want, the next question is can they get a career going elsewhere?

"I said that to Tommy Mooney at Aston Villa and look what he has done. If Brooker goes and does that at one or two levels lower than us, then fine. We sign players for a future with Watford but if that does not work out, then we want them to make it elsewhere and that has always been my philosophy.

"Developing players and trying to get to the top league is not easy. Vernazza has joined into that young group very well.

"He knows them. I take a lot of pleasure in seeing younger players develop just as long as they do not want too much too soon."

With Taylor planning ahead, he could be signing or grooming players he will not be around to manage.

"Whenever I go in as a football manager, even though I know it is unlikely, I always do the job at club level on the assumption I will do the job for the rest of my career. Then you do build on a long-term basis while trying to get short-term results," said Taylor who will have been back at Vicarage Road five years on February 19.

"The fact is, I may not be here as manager when the scholars we are signing now break into the first team, is one thing.

"I have to mentally work on the assumption of what we should be doing if, five years down the line, I was the manager. "