As night follows day, there are few guarantees of relegation quite like appointing a third manager of the season but the perennially occupied Watford board are on course to make another big call with Claudio Ranieri on the brink of being sacked.
Rock bottom came with a 3-0 loss at Vicarage Road to fellow strugglers Norwich. The Hornets are only not rock bottom in a more literal sense courtesy of Burnley having played two fewer games due to postponements enforced by Covid and the weather.
That is about the only consolation they will be able to find after becoming the first Premier League side since September 2019 to concede three goals to the Canaries. Manchester City were the last, though that 3-2 loss came at Carrow Road; for the last time Norwich scored three on the road, you have to go back to August 2015, when they beat Sunderland 3-1 at the Stadium of Light.
So nadirs of this proportion are rare, however familiar they are starting to feel at Watford. It means Ranieri’s position is looking increasingly untenable, his side taking just one point since November’s 4-1 thrashing of Manchester United which led to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s departure.
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Diego Martinez
Diego Martinez, the former Granada manager who is currently without a job, is reportedly being considered as his successor. It would be the fourth time Gino Pozzo has turned to a coach made in La Liga following Javi Gracia, Quique Sanchez Flores and Xisco.
Fabio Cannavaro
According to the bookmakers, Fabio Cannavaro, who has also been linked with the vacant post at Everton, is among the favourites too. The former Italy defender has spent his managerial career in China and Saudi Arabia so far.
Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard is a more natural fit if Watford are to begin looking ahead to a season in the Championship, as he impressed during his spell with Derby and (arguably) did enough to earn a shot at the Chelsea job. Despite his early exit to make way for Thomas Tuchel a year ago, there was a lot to like about Lampard’s Chelsea reign, not least the way he navigated a transfer embargo.
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Paulo Fonseca
Fonseca was relatively unknown to English football fans before the summer, when he emerged as one of the prime candidates for the Tottenham job before it was filled by Nuno Espirito Santo. While those talks eventually collapsed, he was later touted as the next Newcastle manager before Eddie Howe’s arrival. Fonseca’s most successful spell came in Ukraine, when he won three successive titles with Shakhtar Donetsk.
Daniel Farke
Farke was sacked by Norwich earlier this season, ironically after their first win of the campaign. The 45-year-old won plenty of admirers during his four years with the club thanks to his commitment to expansive football, even surviving the cull after their last relegation.
Next Watford manager odds
- Fabio Cannavaro – 2-1
- Frank Lampard – 4-1
- Paulo Fonseca – 6-1
- Daniel Farke – 8-1
- Scott Parker – 9-1
- Rafa Benitez – 11-1
- Mark Hughes – 14-1
- Graham Potter – 25-1
Odds via Betfair and correct on 24 January
Analysis: Ranieri deserves to lose his job
By Daniel Storey, i‘s chief football writer
Nobody can take what Claudio Ranieri did at Leicester City away from him. He took a group of players and led them to the most unthinkable league title victory in the game’s history. Even if some of those players went on to play for financial elite clubs and thrive in those circumstances, Ranieri still managed to keep them over-performing for the entirety of that incredible season.
But since then, Ranieri has drifted. Watford appointed him after he had been sacked by Nantes and, more pertinently, won three of his 17 matches as Fulham manager. Fulham were struggling to consolidate themselves in the Premier League; Ranieri wholly failed to turn around that slump.
And that is exactly what has happened at Watford. You can reason that this is a team low on quality (particularly in defence) and Ranieri did record surprising wins against Manchester United and Everton, but they have been far too easy to score goals against and are not effective enough in attack to account for that lack of defensive stability. Outside of those purple patches in their two wins – four goals in 13 minutes against Everton and two in two against United – Watford have scored 10 league goals in 1,156 and conceded 30.
Ranieri deserves to lose his job. We may often rage against managerial short-termism and a lack of patience in the Premier League, but Watford will be relegated if Ranieri stays and if there’s one thing worse than making a mistake it is exacerbating the impact of that same mistake by keeping faith long after hope has run out of things changing. Losing 3-0 at home to Norwich isn’t a red flag; it’s a white flag of abject surrender.
This is an extract of The Score, Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Read this week’s column here or sign up here to receive the newsletter every Monday morning.
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