Whether it is with Malky Mackay, Sir Elton John or Al Bangura, Watford’s head of operations Iain Moody is normally not far from the action at Vicarage Road and is a face you are likely to recognise, even if you are not exactly sure who he is.

Moody is an integral part of the backroom staff at the Hornets and is crucial in making sure things run smoothly at the club.

To fully explain Moody’s role would take more space than this page permits as his remit is wide-ranging.

Arranging the accommodation for away trips, ensuring the players know where to be for appearances and liaising with other clubs and the FA on a regular basis all comes under Moody’s control.

The 35-year-old is also often at the centre of the action at Watford.

He was the first to greet Sir Elton when he flew to the training ground to meet the players in 2009, represented the club at Danny Graham’s tribunal and was at the forefront of the campaign to stop Bangura from being deported.

One of Moody’s jobs is helping new signings settle into life at Watford.

“We are limited to what we can do. I think Manchester City have about 40 player liaison officers and about 15 of them work for Mario Balotelli,” Moody joked. “It is only a small part of what I do, but it is an important part.”

“It is the every day things,” he continued. “If you sign a player who is under 23 and he has come from abroad for example, you cannot get him a car even if they have money to spend. No hire company will rent a car to someone who is under 23, especially if they are a footballer.

“It can become a problem because for the first month you could be living in a hotel, with no means of transport and you can’t speak English so just popping out for pizza becomes quite an obstacle.”

Moody recalled reading about how Juan Pablo Angel became depressed after signing for Aston Villa for £9.5m in 2001, as he struggled living out of a lonely hotel room before the club hired a player liaison officer.

Moody explains: “There are loads of parallels you can draw from other industries, whereby it is difficult to imagine any other industries investing the sort of money clubs do in football players and then just not maintain it or not look after it.

“Whether it is £10m on a Columbian striker or for us £50,000 on a midfielder from Inverness, it is still a significant investment and something you hope will become an asset of the club.”

Moody admits it can be a difficult balance though, as there is “a danger of becoming a complete lackey to the players” who can ask for “ridiculous” things.

The head of operations remembers the time he was at a meeting in Paris and a player asked him to order a taxi from his house to Waitrose four miles away.

Moody explains this aspect to his job has become much easier in recent seasons as a large proportion of the squad are now young players, many of whom still live at home with their parents.

One of the “success stories” for Moody is Tamas Priskin, who arrived from rural Hungary unable to speak a word of English but despite showing little enthusiasm in lessons, learned to speak the language fluently within three months.

He said: “Tamas just seemed to do it without any formal education whereas we had other players who went through intense language courses and never really got it.

“Tamas is a great success story for us because he came here as a youngster, I am sure had some tough times mentally but came out the other side and was an asset we made money out of.

“I know his manner on the pitch meant he was not that popular with the fans but he is a really nice kid and was never a problem.”

Moody has had two “strands” to his career, he explained.

He was a football writer for 18 months in the 1990s as his degree in French and Italian came in useful for his editor with the influx of foreign players arriving in the Premier League.

The father of two, who can also speak a little Spanish, German and Dutch, would talk regularly with several foreign players and it was his relationship with one of those which led to a career change.

He explained that in the past the big clubs did not look after their foreign players very well and he became particular close with Chelsea’s young Italian midfielder Samuele Dalla Bona.

Following a string of events, which started with Dalla Bona telling Moody he was going to his local pub to watch a Chelsea game as his “Sky was broke”, the then football writer began doing odd jobs for the Italy Under-21 international because he was a “nice kid”.

Eventually Dalla Bona asked Moody to be his agent and Watford’s head of operations was introduced to Athol Still, whose client Sven-Goran Eriksson had just been appointed England manager. But the life of an agent did not sit well with Moody.

He explained: “After five years of working as an agent, I had had enough spinning and shyster, which is the world they generally operate in.

“I think there are moments where you look at the things you are doing. Yes, you are doing it to make a living but as someone who classes themselves as a football fan – I know that sounds a bit of a funny thing to say – but as someone who believes in football as an entity and has always loved it as a kid, there were moments where I was called upon to do things that just didn’t sit well with me.

“That is not meant as a criticism, I am not making moral judgements on what other people do to make a living, but I got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it and you are constantly trying to move players on at times where it is clearly not in the player’s or the club’s interest.

“So I left on my own accord without anywhere to go, but after five years I wanted to do something else and work for a club. I believed the two things I had done and the experiences and knowledge I gained would be beneficial to a club.”

Moody joined Watford initially as a press officer and with time became more involved with players and their agents again. But in 2007, he was employed to his current role as head of operations.

He says playing a “tiny part” in the play-off success and keeping Bangura in the country were two of his main highlights but it is the close relationship within the backroom staff which he “treasures” most – something he believes is a credit to Mackay.

“We are a difficult club to categorise but I think we do things very well,” Moody said.

“Long before I came to the club, there was an ethos around the club about a Watford way of doing things, whether it is the way we carry ourselves on away games or our concern on the impact we have in the local community.

“I think this club achieves more than we should. I think everyone knows we have been through a rocky few years, there has been a lot of uncertainty and lots of people have had to leave. But everyone who has left the club has done so knowing we are a good club that does things in the right way.

“In my little part of the world, one thing that takes up my time is signing loan players, part of the reason is because no one wants to rent them accommodation because they are only here for a short time. So they are often in hotels and are generally young as well.

“But almost without exception, the loan players retain a great affinity with the club and look back fondly on their time at Watford both from a footballing sense and a personal sense.

“I still speak to Tom Cleverley regularly and he still says we are the first result he looks for on a Saturday. I saw Ben Foster recently for the first time in a while and he still talks about the two years here being the best time of his career and I still get texts from Adam Johnson occasionally when we have had a good result.

“These are all people I worked with closely when they were here and it is nice they have gone away with a small bit of Watford in their hearts. It is a testament to the club as a whole and the impact we have.”