Sir Elton John has told Watford he “couldn’t be more proud” of his beloved club’s sanctuary for exhausted NHS staff.
Until sport was brought to a shuddering halt by the pandemic, the chart-topping superstar thought the best performance at Vicarage Road this season would be the Hornets dashing Liverpool ’s dream of an ‘Invincibles’ season in February.
But the club’s response to coronavirus – turning their stadium into a respite centre for medical staff from nearby Watford General Hospital – has won more plaudits than any 3-0 win against the Premier League leaders.
And two-time former chairman Sir Elton has never been more moved by his boyhood club’s outreach.
Between them, Elton and Golden Boys godfather Graham Taylor, who died in 2017, built English football’s first ‘family’ club 40 years ago when hooliganism threatened to engulf the game.
Now they are pulling out all the stops in the name of decency again.
Club chairman Scott Duxbury said: “I’m sure Graham would approve of what we’re doing.
“I speak to Elton regularly and he could not be more proud of the club. For him to see the values he and Graham set are very much alive and well is something he, and we, should be proud of.
“This reassures me that the values of the football club are stronger than ever. This is not a PR exercise – the staff here have worked really hard over the last two months to implement it. Words are easy, but everything we stand for as a club is being demonstrated.”
With 100 club staff and 300 fans volunteering to work round the clock, Watford are providing meals for more than 1,000 NHS staff daily.
At the back of the stand named after former boss Taylor, 18 of the 20 executive boxes – including captain Troy Deeney’s – have been converted into sleeping pods.
The Sir Elton John suite has become a meeting room for hospital managers to hold regular Covid-19 councils of war.
They have also laid on counselling rooms, and 10,000 medical ‘scrubs’ have been washed in the club laundry.
The media suite is now a call centre for the hospital, and from tomorrow the club’s sensory room will become a satellite lounge for the maternity unit’s post-natal
outpatient care.
Duxbury added: “I need to pay credit to the staff who work with me every day. They want to make a difference.”
