Project Fear - How a pre-season friendly became a diplomatic triumph
To invite Hansa Rostock as visitors for a pre-season friendly at Vicarage Road, said the doom-mongers, was an invitation for panic on the streets of Watford. But sometimes in football, on and off the pitch, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
29.07.26, 17:40 Updated 04.08.26, 14:21 7 Minute Read
Mike Walters
Project Fear was in full swing long before the first wave of 6,000 missionaries from the Fatherland set foot on the High Street.
To read some of the pessimism on social media was a prescription for a duvet day, hiding under the bedclothes until the all-clear siren sounded.
Our guests had a reputation in Germany - for hard-core ultras rearranging the furniture, a far-right fringe with inclinations somewhere between Conan the Barbarian and Genghis Khan, and a pyrotechnics department which makes forest wildfires look like sparklers in the back garden on Bonfire Night.
To invite Hansa Rostock as visitors for a pre-season friendly at Vicarage Road, said the doom-mongers, was an invitation for panic on the streets of Watford.
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Mike Walters spent 40 years on Fleet Street as a top sports writer and a regular in the Press box at Vicarage Road. His first game as a wide-eyed Watford fan was a 5-0 FA Cup win against Reading 55 years ago and, coupled with his national newspaper experience, few supporters are better-equipped to cover English football's original family club.