Wikipedia:Peer review/List of Watford F.C. players/archive1

List of Watford F.C. players

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because… I want to take it up to Featured List status, as part of a possible featured topic drive. Any feedback is welcome, in particular for the lead. I will steadily reduce the redlinks: my aim is one a day, with a focus on quality rather than quantity (examples 1 2), but I'm interested in opinions on whether the "proportion" is too high for an FLC.

Thanks in advance, WFCforLife (talk) 15:44, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Brianboulton comments:-

• A number of suggested tweaks in the lead:-
  • The prose flow is better if the first two sentences are combined (this also allows you to lose one of the repetitive "Watfords"): "Watford Football Club are an English association football club, based in Watford, Hertfordshire, and formed from the 1898 merger of West Hertfordshire (previously Watford Rovers) and Watford St. Mary's."
  • Remove the inappropriate italics
  • "They play their home matches at Vicarage Road, since moving from Cassio Road in 1922." Sentence needs rephrasing, and also it should be clear that Vicarage Road refers to a stadium. Thus: "Since moving from their former ground in Cassio Road in 1922, they have played their home matches at the Vicarage Road stadium." (or similar)
  • "For the 1920–21 season" → "At the start of the 1920–21 season"
  • Probably better to say they joined "Division III (South) of the Football League" and to follow by saying that "They have played in the Football League or Premier League ever since, their highest ever League finish being second in the top division in 1982–83" I am not sure that their appearance as beaten cup finalists is worth a mention; the focus of this article is the list of players, not the club's achievements.
  • The last paragraph should be promoted to be the firat paragraph, as this is the declarative statement of the article/list's purpose. The wording should be changed from "the club" to "Watford Football Club."
    • I think I've addressed all of these suggestions. WFCforLife (talk) 18:32, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

• Regarding the chart (which on the whole is very impressive - congratulations):-
  • The green symbol and its explanation are somewhat confusing. I've worked out (I think) that this means former Watford players who were still active in the game for other clubs in the 2009-2010 season. I'm not sure if this classification is particularly relevant to this list, but if you think it is, can the explanation be clarified?
    • Reworded. WFCforLife (talk) 18:32, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
  • The purple symbol indicates holders of club records. While most of these are OK, can individual players really be said to hold records relating to their transfer fees? Surely these are club, not individual records?
    • Removed transfer records, this is more relevant to the club's history, or a future records and statistics list. WFCforLife (talk) 18:32, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
  • What is the basis for redlinking? Some names with equivalent credentials are not redlinked. I note your intention to supply articles for some of the redlinked names, but it doesn't seem feasible to do them all. Personally I would look again at the redlinking policy, and probably reduce these to a handful where there is a realistic prospect that articles will be written.
    • It's a complicated situation. My understanding is that:
      1. Southern League players fail WP:ATHLETE, and should not be linked at all unless they have played in the Football League.
      2. Making one Football League appearance passes ATHLETE. While this alone does not guarantee eligibility for an article, my understanding of the relevant MoS section is to redlink an article that is probably worthy of inclusion. It's important to remember that a lot of the players whose Watford careers were mundane will have done things elsewhere.
      3. There are six or seven unlinked players from post 1920 who should be linked for consistency. In these cases, there was no clear destination under the naming conventions. It would be bad practise to guess the future article name, knowing that there is a good chance that someone else could create an article on that person with another title. WFCforLife (talk) 18:32, 13 February 2010 (UTC)
  • The list appears to include appearances in the makeshift regional leagues that operated in the Second World War. I can't see this reflected in the lead where you list the leagues from which appearances are drawn.
    • The statistics do not include these competitions, but the dates are an issue. Some players played competitively on both sides of the war, and played wartime football during it. It would be misleading to suggest that they left in 1939 and rejoined in 1945. But if their time at the club is treated as one period, it would then be inconsistent not to give the accurate year of departure for players who left during the war. WFCforLife (talk) 18:32, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

The list looks comprehensive and has very few blanks or "unknowns". I am sure it will fascinate the legions of Watford fans. Please note I am not watching peer reviews at present but can be contacted via my talkpage on anything arising from this review. Brianboulton (talk) 16:30, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for your comments. I'll leave the peer review open to see if anyone else can offer opinions on the issues identified with redlinks and dates. Regards, WFCforLife (talk) 18:32, 13 February 2010 (UTC)

As no other editors have offered their opinions, I'm closing the peer review. Brianboulton's comments were very helpful. The linking situation would have benefitted from additional editors' input, but as an FLC criterion I guess it can be discussed at length there. WFCforLife (talk) 22:16, 25 February 2010 (UTC)