Tag Archives: Management Change

25th January 2022- Roy Hodgson is appointed Manager

BBC Sport: The club have not announced the length of Hodgson’s contract.

Sky Sports: All parties will assess Hodgson’s future at Watford at the end of the current campaign.

The wonderful football cartoonist David Squires featured Roy’s return in his weekly Guardian strip.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2022/feb/01/david-squires-on-sexy-beast-roy-hodgson-reboot-watford-job

24th January 2022- Claudio Ranieri sacked

Sky Sports: Ranieri has failed to turn around the team’s fortunes since being appointed in October, with the Hornets dropping into the Premier League relegation zone for the first time this season after Friday’s 3-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Norwich.

Watford Observer: The embarrassing loss was the final straw for club chiefs, who had become increasingly concerned about the Italian’s record, which ends with just two wins and a draw from 14 games in all competitions.

4th October 2021- Claudio Ranieri is appointed Head Coach

BBC: Watford have appointed Claudio Ranieri as manager on a two-year contract.

The Guardian: Ranieri, whose first game in charge with be at home against Liverpool after the international break, will be joined at Watford by assistant coaches Paolo Benetti and Carlo Cornacchia and fitness coach Carlo Spignoli.

Sky: Ranieri last worked in the Premier League with Fulham in 2018/19 but was dismissed after just a few months after failing to arrest their struggles.

The day after Ranieri’s appointment The Guardian’s football cartoonist David Squires took our ever changing managers and included them in a strip that also featured the big Netflix TV hit of the time Squid Game.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2021/oct/05/david-squires-on-squad-game-the-brutal-drama-featuring-watford-fc

20th December 2020- Xisco Muñoz Appointed Head Coach

BBC Sport: Former Valencia, Levante and Real Betis winger Xisco, 40, becomes the Hornets’ fifth manager in just over a year.

Sky Sports: Senior club figures have been hugely impressed with Munoz, despite a relative lack of managerial experience. They believe the club has the players necessary to return to the Premier League at the first attempt, but feel a new manager was needed to change tactics and formation, putting an emphasis on attack, rather than defence first. It is expected Munoz will revert to a 4-4-2 formation.

The Guardian: The 40-year-old Spaniard – with an attacking philosophy to his coaching – was most recently manager at Dinamo Tbilisi, where he guided the club to a second successive Georgian league title in 2020.

19th December 2020- Championship, Huddersfield Town 2 Watford 0 after which Vladimir Ivic was sacked as the Hornet’s Head Coach

BBC Sport: Huddersfield capitalised on first-half mistakes by former England goalkeeper Ben Foster and Etienne Capoue to beat Watford.

Sky Sports: Goalkeeper Foster dawdled on a backpass from Ben Wilmot, allowing Isaac Mbenza to chase him down in the box. The veteran’s attempted clearance only ricocheted off the shins of Mbenza and into the path of Campbell who gleefully tapped into the empty net.

BHappy: And then he was gone.

Watford Observer: Watford head coach Vladimir Ivic has been sacked this evening following the 2-0 defeat to Huddersfield Town. 

BBC Sport: The Hornets, who have won nine of their 20 Championship games this season under Ivic, are fifth in the table, four points off second-placed Bournemouth and nine off leaders Norwich.

Sky Sports: Before arriving at Watford, Ivic had great success in Israel at Maccabi Tel Aviv, winning the Israeli Premier League in back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020 – ending a run of three seasons without the title for the most decorated club in the country. Before his arrival there, he had also won the Greek Cup with PAOK in 2017 in his first senior management role.

The Guardian: His overly defensive tactics have been unpopular with Watford fans, though, and the team’s style of play has not been easy on the eye.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55283941