Another one gone as Pozzo just carries on

WITHOUT knowing what passed between Nigel Pearson and Watford owner Gino Pozzo, it is difficult to judge the decision to sack him. Emotions run high in the aftermath of football matches, but it is hard to believe Pearson and his employer couldn’t have patched matters up, had there been will on both sides. The numbers suggest Pearson did a reasonable job. Watford looked relegation certainties when he took over on December 6. They had eight points from 15 games, were seven from safety and three behind Norwich. Pearson (right) has amassed 26 points from 21 games, at an aggregate of 1.23. Project that over a season and Watford would sit on 46.74 points, safely mid-table. Maybe Watford’s owners expect more. The rate they burn through managers suggests a perpetual air of disappointment. Slavisa Jokanovic won promotion but left at the end of that season, Quique Sanchez Flores finished 13th and was replaced, Walter Mazzarri sat six points clear of the relegation zone but it wasn’t enough. Now three managers have gone in a single season. Could it be that Watford’s playing of the transfer market isn’t as smart as the club assumes? That these finishes, these struggles, are not underachievement, but a reasonable reflection of their status? Marco Silva had the right idea; he tried to sack Watford for Everton before they could do it to him. Given Pozzo’s track record for scapegoating the manager, if future appointments also use the club as no more than a stepping stone, who can reasonably blame them?