Watford axe back room staff

Watford have made three key members of their adminstrative staff redundant as the club continues to battle with the fall-out from Gianluca Vialli's disastrous season in charge.

Media manager Andrew French, secretary Julie Clayton and marketing services manager Ian Davies have all been shown the door.

Chairman Graham Simpson said: "It is not cost-cutting, it is restructuring. It is an internal affair and it is our business. It is not something I want to air publicly."

Vialli is suing the club for £1.6million after he was sacked last summer following a season in which the club spent heavily on transfer fees and player wages.

Davies, who left the club on Friday, said: "It was a complete and unexpected shock."

His colleague Clayton, who had been with the club for 16 years, was Vialli and Graham Taylor's secretary and previously worked for Glenn Roeder and Steve Perryman.