Premiership Countdown: 15 Days To Go.

The days at Watford’s Vicarage Road are quite different now than they were when Elton John bought the Fourth Division club during the 1976-1977 season. Incredibly, the club rose to the First Division in the early 1980s and finished their first season in the top flight second to the eventual champions, Liverpool.

That meteoric rise sounds like the career of young American Jay DeMerit, who passed on his chance to try to make it in the MLS and instead moved to England on a whim, playing in a pub league and another amateur side. His guts lead to a friendly against Watford, who later signed a one year contract with him.

The rest is history. Read the interview with DeMerit in today’s Guardian newspaper.