Iwan Roberts: Watford was a beginning and almost an ending too!

When I was a kid I had been to a few clubs that were close to mum and dad’s house in north Wales.

I grew up in a little Welsh speaking village with about 2,500-3,000 people in it, so everybody knew everybody else.

I had been to Wolves and I didn’t really enjoy it. I came back - I was 15 or 16 at the time - and I said, ‘dad, I don’t want to be a footballer any more, I'd rather stay in north Wales and become a policeman’ and my dad said ‘whatever you want to do, don’t rush into anything. Okay, you might not have enjoyed your time at Wolves but as one door closes another one opens’.

Went to Leeds, played a couple of games for them, went to Aston Villa and played a couple of games for them.

Went to Man United, when Mark Hughes and Clayton Blackmore were there – this was around the mid-80s. They offered me an apprenticeship with a guaranteed two-year professional contract - and I turned it down.

Why? I come from a Liverpool family, my dad was a massive Liverpool fan – and they weren’t the Man United they are now. I played a couple of games at The Cliff and Eric Harrison was in charge – he later joined up with the Wales team as assistant to Sparky (Hughes).

Anyway, I turned it down. Went to Watford, who had Tom Walley as manager, a Welsh speaker. Malcom Allen was there as well – I’d played against him in the local leagues in north Wales.

I have so much to thanks Watford for. As a young lad, I didn’t really speak English. I went to a Welsh school, all the lessons were in Welsh, I used to speak Welsh at home and Welsh to my mates so I didn’t really speak English.

So I have gone down there to a room full of Cockneys – lads like Tim Sherwood and the Holdsworth twins. They were good lads, don’t get me wrong. But the dressing room was full of Lacoste and Sergio Tacchini - I used to get my clothes from Barmouth market! So I took a bit of stick, but it as all good fun.

I would never have got too big for my boots and I think there are two reasons for that: my dad, who is no longer with us, he’d have battered me! And Graham Taylor - he gave us such valuable lessons. Not just about conduct on the pitch and what he wanted from you, but his expectations off the pitch as well, how to behave, how to conduct yourself.

They are things that have stuck with me forever – how to behave yourself and how you represent the club at the end of the day.

I learned such valuable lessons on how to become a good centre forward and how to behave off the pitch as well – like I said, I owe Watford a lot.

Mixed feelings

While I started my playing career at Watford, Vicarage Road was a place where I experienced mixed emotions at the end of the 2003-04 season.

Norwich had clinched promotion, without playing, when Crystal Palace beat Sunderland and it was party time when we went to Watford, with 5,000 fans following us.

I was on the bench again - we had Matty Svensson and we had Leon (McKenzie) who’d done well since he’d signed for the club.

I’d been in and out, getting a couple of games, coming off the bench. I was desperate to score 100 goals for the club - only two other players have ever got treble figures for Norwich City - and I think I might even have got a chance in injury time, having come on as a very late sub.

Iwan Roberts in action during the final minutes of Norwich City's game at Watford in April, 2004 (Image: Archant)

But I still didn’t know what my future was at the club. We had three games to go after Watford. Nigel Worthington hadn’t spoken to me and as a player you get the feeling when you’re not getting a new contract. Not that it affected me in and around the training pitch, I was still a Norwich player, I was planning to end my career here, I didn’t want to go anywhere else.

I would love to have stayed and maybe become part of the youth set-up under Keith Webb. I was offered a position when he was promoted to reserve team coach under Nigel. I had an interview with Michael Foulger and (then secretary) Kevan Platt about the position and I think they wanted to give it to me but it would have meant I couldn’t carry on playing. I think the job was mine if I retired and I was like, I could still play.

Did promotion that season spell the end for me? Hand on heart I think there is one thing that niggled certain people at the club and that was my book, All I Want For Christmas. I don’t think Nigel was too pleased about some of the things I put in it.

Norwich players celebrate promotion, with Iwan Roberts at the back, second from right (Image: Archant)

So at Watford, I didn’t feel part of the celebrations to be honest. I played my part, scored some important goals that season, but didn’t feel part of it that day because I only came on late.

And maybe I knew the writing was on the wall that I wasn’t going to be a Norwich player the following season.

WATFORD THOUGHTS

I look at the results over the past few years and apart from last year when Josh Sargent scored those two goals, I think Watford have bullied Norwich.

They are a big side, they have pace up front in Ismaila Sarr and Ken Sema and I like the lad on loan from Aston Villa, Keinan Davis - I think you’d take him all day long.

I was there last Wednesday night for Slaven Bilic’s first home game as manager. They’d had a great 4-0 win at Stoke in his first game, but I was expecting a lot more to be honest.

I look at their team and I think they are as good a starting XI as any other club has got. They have got a strong squad, but they were really poor against Swansea – or rather, Swansea made them look poor. They lost 2-1 in the end and I was really disappointed with them.

From what is saw against Swansea they weren’t as physical as I expected them to be.