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Watford win the Premier League sack race – 10th manager in 8 years

5 years ago
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The Premier League sack race has been well and truly won by Watford in this 2019/20 PL season.

After only four weeks they have sacked Javi Gracia, despite drawing at Newcastle in what proved to be his final game.

Last season he took them to the FA Cup final and 11th place in the Premier League with 50 points.

Only four games into the news season he is binned, starting the season with three PL defeats but then his final two Watford games being a 3-0 League Cup win over Coventry and that 1-1 draw at St James Park.

Watford are a bit of a basket case with managers and with Quique Sánchez Flores revealed today, they have now had 10 different managers from June 2011 onwards and two caretaker bosses.

Even when they went up into the Premier League in summer 2015, manager Slavisa Joakanovic left.

Then Quique Sánchez Flores took over and only lasted a season, despite getting to the FA Cup semi-finals and finishing 13th in the Premier League.

That one season Flores spent in England saw him beat Newcastle three times, knocking NUFC out of the FA Cup and home & away in the Premier League, Newcastle relegated in that 2015/16 season.

Watford official announcements:

‘Watford Football Club confirms the departure of Head Coach Javi Gracia.

Chairman & CEO Scott Duxbury said: “Javi has represented Watford with great dignity and will always be deserving of our fullest respect for his achievements.”

Javi Gracia’s staff will also be leaving the club, ahead of the imminent appointment of a new coaching team.

Everyone at the Hornets wishes Javi and his staff all the very best for the future, and they will always be welcome visitors in the future at Vicarage Road.’

AND

‘Watford FC announces the appointment of Quique Sánchez Flores as the club’s new Head Coach.

The 54-year-old returns to Vicarage Road, having guided Watford to a comfortable mid-table finish during the 2015/16 campaign – the club’s first season back in the Premier League.

He also led Watford to the semi-finals of the FA Cup during his year at the helm.

After leaving England, Sánchez Flores took Espanyol to an eighth-place finish in La Liga and also had a spell in China with Shanghai Shenhua.

In 2010, the former Spain international led Atlético Madrid to Europa League glory as well as the club’s first Copa del Rey final in more than 10 years, later lifting the UEFA Super Cup in a period of huge success at the Vicente Calderón Stadium.

Sánchez Flores has also coached Getafe and Valencia – achieving third and fourth-place La Liga finishes with the latter – as well as Portuguese side Benfica and United Arab Emirates outfits Al Ahli and Al Ain.’

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