Is Watford’s revolving door a bad thing?

What are those? Pictures of your family to leave on your desk? We don’t really do sentimentality round here. Wouldn’t bother buying yourself one of those comfortable reclining office chairs either if I were you. Why is there an e-mail going around with the sub-heading ‘Xisco Munoz – P45 draft’? Don’t worry about that. Yet.

I imagine this is something like the conversation that took place this morning when Watford’s new manager was shown his office for the first time.

Former Valencia, Real Betis and Levante winger Xisco Munoz is the latest man to sit in the incredibly hot-seat at Vicarage Road after Vladimir Ivic was relieved of his duties following a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield on Saturday.

Ivic was only appointed Watford manager himself back in August, but his failure to get the best out of a talented group of players has seen him sacked after just 22 games in charge, even though the Hornets sit fifth in the Championship table.

The usual consternation on social media that occurs every time the club has rid itself of a manager in recent years followed the announcement of the Serbian’s departure, how could Watford possibly sack someone who has got a recently relegated side into the play-off places and only lost four games in the process?

The appointment of Ivic was designed to get Watford playing a high-pressing, possession-based style of football after a turgid season in the Premier League that eventually resulted in relegation.

The reality is that Watford have one of the best squads in the Championship despite some high-profile departures in the summer, and have been papering over the cracks of underwhelming performances with fortunate wins and unconvincing draws.

What makes the decision to remove Ivic even less surprising is that it is Watford who have sacked him.

The Hornets have now changed manager 13 times since Gianfranco Zola resigned in December 2013.

Whilst a high level of managerial turnover is usually associated with a club that is struggling, since Zola left the club Watford have won promotion to the Premier League, recorded their highest league finish since 1987 and reached the FA Cup final.

In that time only Javi Gracia has lasted longer than 40 league games, and even he was let go a matter of months after guiding the club to a second-ever FA Cup final.

Club captain Troy Deeney, who reportedly fell out with Ivic in the manager’s final days at the club, questioned why any manager would want the Watford job when he appeared on TalkSport on Monday:

“If I wanted to be Watford manager, I certainly don’t have any credentials to do that. And also, if I’m being totally honest, why would I go into a job where you’re probably going to get sacked in five months.”

Deeney’s sentiment is shared by many – taking the Watford job is just a quick way to ruin a burgeoning career.

Colouring these dismissals with emotion or empathy is to completely miss the point of how the Pozzo family, who have owned the club since 2013, understand football.

The Pozzo’s, headed by 55-year-old Gino, were crowned ‘European Soccer’s Ascendant Family’ in a Wall Street Journal article in 2015 after Udinese, Granada and Watford had all reached the top tiers of their respective league systems under the ownership of the Italians.

Player trading between the three clubs became increasingly common, as well as the sharing of expertise and coaching ideas between northern Italy, southern Spain and suburban Hertfordshire in a cold, calculated attempt to gain advantages over their rivals.

They have since sold Granada on to Chinese investors and survived angry supporters baying for Gino Pozzo’s head in Udinese as the team began to struggle once investment was directed more heavily towards Watford.

Their unique approach – Udinese have had 11 managerial changes themselves since the summer of 2014 – has been heralded as innovative in some quarters, but generally derided as a disaster waiting to happen in England. There was much talk that the Pozzo model had ‘failed’ following relegation from the Premier League in July.

The role of the manager has taken on an almost mythical level of importance in English football thanks to the successful long-term reigns of the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Bill Shankly and Brian Clough throughout the latter half of the 20^th century, meaning calls for ‘more time’ to ‘turn things around’ are usually espoused by TV pundits when a Premier League manager starts to struggle – particularly if the said manager is British.

This is not the case in Italy. Sports statistics company RunRepeat found that between 2010 and 2020, the average Serie A manager is expected to last just 35.1 league games compared to the 69.4 league games afforded to the average Premier League manager, and it is completely normal to go through three or even four managers in a season.

Whilst it is simplistic to say the Pozzo’s Italian background has directly influenced their approach to managers at Watford, the club’s chairman Scott Duxbury made it clear that it is not a traditionally ‘English’ approach that is being followed at Vicarage Road when he spoke to the BBC in 2017 when Watford were still in the Premier League:

“We take a view that the role of a coach, particularly at a middle-of-the-table club, is a short one. I think the lifespan is two years. They will either move on to bigger and better things, or there will be problems and then you will look to move on and look in a different direction.

If you take that pragmatic approach, and history suggests it is the right approach, then I think it is only common sense you build a stable environment around the club so that if a coach does move for whatever reason, success or failure, the actual club and infrastructure around it remains so you can transplant in another coach to continue the development.”

It is still too early to say if the Watford model is either good or bad, the next ten, 20 or even 50 years of the club’s history will bear that out. What is certain is that the chop and change nature of the Pozzo’s ownership is different to what is traditionally expected in English football, and that will continue to ruffle feathers until more clubs begin to go through four managers in a season.

But for now, you should probably hold off on getting your initials engraved on the club stationary Xisco.

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