Watford admit Vialli error

Vialli failed to restore the Vicarage Road club's Premiership status and was sacked in the summer as financial problems struck.

"I think it was perhaps a misjudgement and it won't happen again. But I still think at times last year we saw some lovely football," Simpson said.

"If we had been able to afford Luca, who knows what he might have achieved in two more years?

"He didn't get the chance he needed because we couldn't afford him.

"Maybe if we'd been wiser we'd have done things differently but we did it for the good of Watford. It was a punt and it didn't work."