Luther Blissett is one of several former Watford players involved in launching a society of former Hornets stars with the purpose of reaching out to the community, while helping supporters connect with the club's past achievements.

The Former Players' Club was officially set up in the last month, with Neil Price heavily involved as he looked to follow through on a conversation he had with Watford legend Graham Taylor back in 2009.

Taylor wanted Price to form an association of former players similar to the ones he had seen at other teams, in order to continue pushing his philosophy of putting family and community at the heart of the club.

The idea has taken some time to officially come to fruition, but the former players have already been reaching out to the community throughout the ongoing difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

"The idea came from a conversation had by Neil price with Graham Taylor back in 2009," explains Blissett.

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"Graham expressed his wish to have an association for former players, because he had one at Aston Villa and a number of other clubs that Graham was aware of that had done very well. He wanted the same at Watford and Neil was tasked with trying to get that together.

"This went on in conversation with the club for maybe two or three years or something, but nothing really came of it. But then a few of us former players from Graham's time got together about two or so years ago and we all expressed a wish to do something to bring us all back together because we had such a good evening talking about past games, and about the club that we all love and spent so much of our time at, and it just felt the right thing to do was to get it going again and Neil has been instrumental in getting the players together to start the Former Players Club, which we launched two or three weeks ago.

"We actually spoke with Rita (Taylor) and told her what was behind what we were doing and she gave us her blessing because she wants to uphold Graham's legacy of family and community and that was a really big part of it. It involves fans and players, which is what Watford has always been about.

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"We started this on Facebook where I was getting a lot of messages from fans who were missing their football, and that connection with their club, and they were approaching me. And from that, myself and a number of other players reached out and made these phone calls to supporters, and it's been going on right the way through the pandemic right the way through the summer up to now."

The former players are hoping to be involved throughout the community and not just with the club itself as they consider ways in which they might be able to offer help to people who need it.

Blissett hopes doing this will also keep the club's achievements under Taylor alive through his and other players from that era's involvement, while one or two more recent players have signed up as well.

"It's a fantastic time to launch this because Watford are on their way up again," he said. "We've got the likes of Paul Robinson, Aidy Mariappa and even Heurelho Gomes are coming on board with being former players.

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"All the players involved will be regarded as ambassadors for Graham's legacy, because of the behaviour and what what that stood for. The Watford way, the way we conduct ourselves, on and off the field.

"They are ambassadors, and they will be continuing in all those areas, whether it be helping with the COVID appeal which we're doing now anyway, which involves so many charities within our local area, or if the club wants appearances. All these things are open to us, businesses wanting players to come and maybe do talks, or whatever. All these things are accessible.

"We would love all businesses and supporters to get behind what we're doing, so they can be a part because the good thing about what we're doing is they can share their memories with us and we can share ours with them.

"And that can be done through talks through various events or whatever. At this moment in time, they can be done safely over Zoom and that sort of thing. The avenues are there to still keep that connection which I think is very important."

As well as benefitting the community and those involved with the club, Blissett also thinks the former players could help the current players or any new arrivals to the team to understand what it means to play for Watford and how important the club's history is to those who visit Vicarage Road when they are able to.

"The Premier League with all its glitz and everything is amazing," said Blissett. "But to finish second in the highest league in the country to Liverpool, and to have one of your players as being the top goalscorer that season in England, and in Europe as well. That is the sort of benchmark that Graham Taylor's legacy leaves for people to understand. And that's the standard at Watford football club, and everybody connected with it and our supporters now need to understand that it's not about just the Premier League, it's about so many things.

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"Players that have come along from almost obscurity to become household names and be part of something so much bigger than what all of us were. And I think that's something that we are trying to rekindle in our supporters to make them proud of their football club, not only because of the results on the pitch, but because of what their club has done in the community and the way it has spread that word throughout football.

"Fans should always be proud of their football club and players, when they understand and know where that club has come from and what it's been through, I think they will all be very proud of it regardless of how it turns out for them."