When Watford conceded an almost comical own goal to Oxford United in the third minute on Saturday, it wasn’t greeted with chants of: “you’re getting sacked in the morning”.
Those chants had greeted Paulo Pezzolano after the Hornets had gone 1-0 down in their previous two games. But having beaten Hull City after Oli McBurnie’s opener and drawn with Portsmouth following Yang Min-hyeok putting them ahead, perhaps the fans were feeling a little more charitable.
Indeed, Jeremy Ngakia’s double secured a relatively comfortable 2-1 win in which Watford had 22 shots, 10 of which on target, and most of the Vicarage Road crowd went home happy having taken seven out of nine points, and you couldn’t blame Pezzolano for singing along to the Elton John classic “I’m Still Standing” blasting out from the loudspeakers.
You know the punchline. Pezzolano wasn’t still standing by Tuesday, nine league games into his tenure, ironically three days after the supporters didn’t demand it.
Now, there were issues with the Uruguayan. His Amorim-esque habit of putting square pegs in round holes and, in particular, his relegation of Kwadwo Baah, the darling of the Rookery End, almost exclusively to five-minute cameos from the subs’ bench has mystified fans.
“We need everyone.”
— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) September 28, 2025pic.twitter.com/3otoAg4jhS
But there were signs of at least improvement on Saturday, with two more fan favourites in Rocco Vata and Nestory Irankunda starting together for the first time under Pezzolano, giving the attack some much-needed punch.
But Watford do as Watford do, using another international break to sack another “permanent” head coach.
The issue, of course, is much deeper than Pezzolano. It is not the constant sacking of managers, it is the constant appointing of managers who are simply not good enough.
The “brains trust” of owner Gino Pozzo and chairman/chief executive Scott Duxbury have now burned through 21 head coaches in 13 years, and you can make the strong case that only two of them went on to bigger and better things. Marco Silva, who lasted an almost marathon tenure of 24 league games, in 2017-18, ended up solidifying Fulham as a Premier League club, while Claudio Ranieri (13 league games and 10 defeats in 2021-22) guided them to within a whisker of the Champions League.
Aside from that: Roy Hodgson went back to Crystal Palace and did OK. Rob Edwards took Luton Town the Premier League, but had a hand in their successive relegations, although is doing well at Middlesbrough.
And that’s it, and that’s the problem.
As Pozzo and Duxbury go back to the future with Javi Gracia expected to take charge again, bringing back memories of the run to the 2019 FA Cup final, it should be recorded that not even he did well after leaving Watford the first time. He was last seen having a hand in Leeds United’s relegation in 2022-23.
The saddest thing is that the club signed some good players over the summer, for a change.
Technical director Gian Luca Nani (who holds the same role at Udinese) and his assistant Valon Behrami, the former Watford and Switzerland midfielder, have brought in several potential stars – including Irankunda, midfielder Hector Kyprianou and striker Luca Kjerrumgaard.
It was a shame that Tom Cleverley never received this kind of backing from the board. Cleverley, a legend as a player and a popular manager, was sacked at the end of last season on the same day as the season-ticket renewal deadline.
His appointment, replacing Valerien Ismael, was more by luck than judgment, being promoted from the academy. But he did well until being hit by a rash of injuries and a board who did not sign a striker last January despite being urged to by supporters.
Now the Pozzos have done some great things for Watford. The recent spell in the Premier League and reaching the Cup final is the second greatest spell in the club’s history and Vicarage Road is a stadium fit for the top flight now.
When Elton John took over as Watford chairman in the 1970s, he rang up England manager Don Revie for advice on who to hire. He told him Graham Taylor.
Who knows who Pozzo calls and his inability to identify quality head coaches has left the club out of the Premier League for four seasons. And until his next hire works it is impossible to trust him to make the next appointment the right one.
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