MANAGERS have to be somewhat of a chameleon, wearing many hats for their numerous jobs. Physiologist, mentor, businessmen, father, friend and boss to name but a few. There is no doubt that 'tactical genius' is up there and that the majority of time is spent on winning games, trophies and promotions. But by far the most difficult test is yet to come for Boothroyd.

"Obviously some players will leave us, but it will be important that other clubs want the players that I want to move on. If not, then we'll be left with players that can't fit what I want to do and we'll have to wait and move them out accordingly. Managing that transition period will be my biggest test so far."

It is that period of transition which will enable Boothroyd to eliminate the much maligned style of play that has seen its fair share of blustering critics, lambasting the Watford way. But this won't mean instant success, don't expect to see Smith becoming Seedorf or DeMerit becoming de Boer overnight.

Boothroyd is still hungry for three points every week, that much won't change at least. And if it was the choice between beautiful football and a win, well, it goes without saying what he would choose.

"I hear a lot of managers talking about the 'right way to play' and there are one or two TV pundits that really should know better who talk about the right way to play. The right way to play is winning and if you're winning then everything is great, if you're not then everybody starts to think that you should be doing something different and it takes a little bit of reflection and it takes bravery and it takes people to make decisions and I'm willing to make those. I've never backed away from them and I think that now's the right time to do that.

"It won't happen overnight, it never does. We've got five weeks to prepare in pre-season and then we'll be working on it throughout the season. There will be traits of what we've done before, but we'll be adjusting and adapting and hopefully we can see a mixture of the winning results and the winning football we played in the early part of the season and some of the flair and entertainment that we played in the play-off games.

"I hear this phrase going around as well about winning ugly, to me beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I'd much rather have a beautiful win than ugly possession football that gets you nowhere. So make no mistake, we're not keeping the ball for the sake of keeping the ball, we'll be playing incisive attacking football and we'll try to emulate some of the bigger and better teams in the top league."

So, the biggest test of his managerial career beckons, how on earth will he manage to switch off over the course of the summer? And more importantly, can he now not wait to get back to work, despite the fact that the season has only just ended?

"Well, despite looking like somebody who needs a good holiday, I'm thoroughly relishing this challenge and I'm excited about it, I've done it with youth teams before lots of times, but I've never done it with a professional team and played in this way. It's not going to be total football, far from it, but it will be a lot more incisive.

"It's something I'm totally looking forward to and I know the players are. The response that I got from those two play-offs game was fantastic.

"Sometimes we do the best with what we know, but sometimes people who report on football don't really look beyond what they think and what their beliefs are and that's fine, but as long as everybody else knows that, because they have an opinion too.

"Looking back at the record of the club over the last three and a half years, I am proud and disappointed. Proud because we've achieved an FA Cup semi-final, a promotion and a play-off semi final and that isn't a bad record for a club that was going to drop into League One. Disappointed because we had enough to do it this year and we didn't and that really gets to me.

"But also, I'm excited, I've not felt like this since my very first months in the job where I was fresh faced with no pressure and thought I'd give it my best shot and if it came off, then brilliant and if it doesn't, then I can never say that I didn't give it my all and do things my way.

"So I'm looking forward to the challenge and I'm excited about it at the same time. We've had expectation this year, huge expectation and I've been disappointed by some of the responses that we've got. Disappointed from some of the coverage from the media, disappointed by one or two fans, and it is just one or two because the majority of them are very good.

"It does prickle you and it does spike you, I wouldn't be human if it didn't. But it's not my job to get emotional, it's my job to remain emotionally calm and intelligent and to lead, because the minute I stop being strong, it allows other people to be weak. And there's no place for that at Watford."