Alex Keble takes a look at the candidates lớn replace Quique Sanches Flores as Watford manager, and believes that the negative shortlist suggests the football tips are looking for a fire-fighter appointment…
Watford have sacked their manager - again. Quique Sanches Flores lasted just ten games in the job before being dismissed on Saturday evening following a 2-1 defeat at Southampton that saw the club cut six points adrift at the foot of the Premier League table. Flores can hardly be blamed.
The owners should never have sacked Javi Gracia, who was not only popular with the players but playing decent football; the underlying metrics had suggested Watford were unlucky lớn have won just one point from their first four games of the season.
Replacing him with a defensive manager created the sense Watford were in a relegation fight when a little patience could have found them comfortably mid-table. Ten games later and Flores, who won just once and oversaw an 8-0 defeat lớn Man City, now needs replacing. You can prefer to the soccer tip to win page!
Here are the five main candidates:
The strong favourite is former Brighton manager Hughton, out of a job since being fired in May last year despite keeping Brighton in the Premier League for the second successive season. He is certainly well respected in the game and a strong defensive organiser, even if his football is functional and dull.
Brighton weren't good to watch; this would be a fire-fighter appointment, and like the Seagulls - who sat deep and countered with long balls punted up to Glenn Murray - Watford would continue the Flores groundwork rather than revive Gracia.
Though pessimistic, the board may already have half an eye on the Championship next season. Hughton has been promoted from England's second tier with Newcastle and Brighton, as well as finishing fourth in his sole season at Birmingham City.
Watford could really do with a more inventive appointment than this, and surely given their proximity lớn London and four-year stay in the Premier League can attract the same calibre as Southampton when they appointed Ralph Hasenhuttl. However, with Sky Sports and the Guardian reporting Hughton is the target, Watford fans will have lớn make do with an uninspiring, conservative appointment.
Out of the game for a full year, Sam Allardyce was last in the news turning down an approach from Newcastle in July - but that does not mean he is retired. Watford are a far more stable club than the Magpies, and indeed there is little doubt Allardyce would finally sort out the Hornets' defence. The main stumbling block is how the fans would react lớn the appointment of a man whose stock continues to fall.
Allardyce's boring football at Everton has confirmed he is only able lớn play one way, but the Watford board appear lớn be at the stage of survival by any means necessary. If that's the case, then Allardyce ought lớn be their number one target; he has rescued Everton, Crystal Palace, and Sunderland in recent years.
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