Watford face relegation struggle after Valerien Ismael’s dismissal, but Neil Warnock might save them if….
Another one bites the dust on the Vicarage Road coconut shy, and Valerien Ismael’s departure makes it 21 Watford managers in a row who have failed to reach 100 games in charge.
Now the Hornets are back where they started when owner Gino Pozzo moved in 12 years ago – mired in mid-table, with their.
Like most of Pozzo’s previous liaisons with a firing pin, supporters had few complaints about the latest casualty. Ismael had gone from serving up largely enjoyable football before Christmas to just three points from the last nine home League games. And the performances regressed from assertive to risk-averse, backwards-and-sideways, timid and feckless.
Tom Cleverley, who had been in charge of the club’s Under-18 age group since retiring as a player last summer, has stepped in as interim boss.
In reality Watford are now looking for their 12th permanent head coach since 2019, and following Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat by Coventry the first port of call is to avoid relegation.
That may seem a remote danger, especially after QPR were trounced 4-0 on the opening day of the season and beaten manager Gareth Ainsworth claimed: ‘We may have lost to the champions.” Too good to go down? Don’t you believe it.
Final whistle: Valerien Ismael has been axed by Watford (
Getty Images)
If Cleverley can’t stop the rot in a huge game at Birmingham next Saturday, Watford’s Easter double-header is against promotion-chasing Leeds and West Brom.
At face value, there is enough quality to survive, but in five years the Hornets have gone from FA Cup finalists with the likes of Roberto Pereyra and Gerard Deulofeu in their ranks to brittle fodder with the properties of Easter eggs : Nice packaging, but hollow and liable to melt under pressure.
