Watford relegation autopsy - including next manager requirements and club legend status

Forty years ago this week, a provincial club who had spent their entire existence scuffling below stairs burst through the skylight.

On a magic carpet ride, which took just five years to sail through the divisions, Graham Taylor and Elton John plotted a memorable flight path, culminating in Watford's promotion to the penthouse – for the first time in 101 years of toil - with a 2-0 win at home to Wrexham. The following season, tugging no forelocks and curtseying to nobody, the Hornets finished runners-up behind Liverpool and 30-goal striker Luther Blissett won the Golden Boot as top scorer in Europe's major leagues.

More of Blissett, and his invincible place in a club's affections, later – and it's a sad state of affairs. But first, the bigger picture.

Sometimes, in football's twisting kaleidoscope, supporters lose track of history and entitlement takes over. It is human nature to forget the hideous 1-0 defeat at Darlington which left the Hornets bottom of the entire Football League, in 92nd place, fewer than seven years before Taylor delivered them to the promised land.

And it is easy to forget the humiliation of FA Cup third round round defeat at non-League Northwich Victoria, where Sir Elton was among the away following and tried to lift morale among hundreds of long faces aboard the football special at Crewe station on the retreat from ignominy. But for the best part of 100 years, the likes of Darlington and Northwich Victoria were the asteroids in Watford's orbit far more than Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal.

Since that giddy night against Wrexham, and the traditional promotion paddle in the pond at the top end of the High Street, the Hornets have spent 13 of the last 40 seasons in the penthouse – and