It has been well documented in recent times that the average tenure of a football manager is just over one year. Remarkably, this depressingly low statistic doesn’t seem to apply to Championship club Watford, who earlier this week appointed their fourth manager in the space of just 37 days. To put that into some context, currently, the average Watford manager stays in the job for just 222 hours.

Former Chelsea and Yugoslavia International Slavisa Jokanovic became the Hornets’ latest appointment last Wednesday. He will be hoping to build on, what has ironically been a very good start to the season for Watford. The Hertfordshire based club currently sit in 3rd place in the Championship, level on points with both sides above them.

So, after such a good start to the season, how have Watford gone through three managers in just over a month?
Italian manager Beppe Sannino, who was appointed in December of last year, was the first to go when he resigned on the 31st August. Despite his side sitting in an impressive 2nd place in the Championship, Sannino blamed a breakdown of his relationship with senior players and with the board for his departure.

Former Brighton manager Oscar Garcia was next in the Watford hot-seat. However, the day after his first game in charge, he was admitted to hospital complaining of chest pains. Just over 20 days later, Garcia resigned for health reasons.

If Garcia’s departure was unfortunate, his successor, Billy McKinlay’s was downright bizarre. McKinlay, Garcia’s former assistant, replaced the Spaniard as manager following his resignation. Despite winning one game and drawing another, the Scot was sacked after just 11 days in charge. Although no official reason was given for McKinlay’s premature departure, it appears reports linking him to former club Fulham may contain some truth.

Jokanovic began his tenure at Hillsborough on Saturday with a 3-0 win. Good luck Slavisa – think you might need it!

Greg Whitaker

 

Image courtesy of bbc.co.uk