An exclusive interview with watfordfc legend Heidar Helguson
Heidar Helguson tussles with Liverpool's Steven Gerrard at Anfield in the 2005 Carling Cup semi-final. Pic: Action Images
With the greatest respect to the diminutive Dutch winger, his move was not only for a smaller sum but it also left a far-less indelible mark on Hornet history than that of Helguson. It brought the Hornets level at 2-2 after Liverpool had raced into a 2-0 lead and, although the Reds were to go on and win the game 3-2, Helguson had announced his arrival.
Don’t forget, Google was barely 18 months old, and Wikipedia wasn’t born until January 2001. All the club had was a fax – yes, a fax – of details from Lillestrom, and some of that wasn’t in English. That led to me writing a press release claiming Helguson had been born in a town called ‘striker’ and played up front for Akureyri because I transposed the pieces of information.
“When I joined, the gaffer just said that he expected the same from me as he expected from all his players – give me all you’ve got. That’s what I did, and it helped that he usually played to my strengths.” Ultimately the Hornets were relegated and Helguson scored six goals in 17 appearances – “Personally, I was pretty pleased with that,” he said – and he scored eight more in 35 outings the following season as Watford failed to bounce back up.
It became something of a behind-the-scenes joke during the ‘Vialli season’ that Helguson was referred to as ‘Judge’ because he was on the bench so much. I remember him saying that he spent so long sat in the same seat in the dug-out that the letters of his name on the back of his shirt had left an impression on the plastic!
“I absolutely enjoyed working with Ray. He had faith in me and it’s always good to play under someone that likes you as a player.”
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