STARK STARING VLAD
Dropping Deeney was the final nail for Ivic as Watford use the sack more times than Santa
THE club that goes through managers like Zsa Zsa Gabor went through husbands is at it yet again.
Watford handed scowling Vladimir Ivic his cards after Saturday ’ s 2- 0 defeat at Huddersfield, where he effectively wrote his own P45.
Within 24 hours of the axe falling, Dinamo Tbilisi’s Spanish coach Xisco Munoz ( right) was announced as his successor.
And Munoz would be wise to leave the engine running if he is not threatening automatic promotion very soon.
At face value, a 13th managerial change in eight-and-a-half years at Vicarage Road may look premature and harsh.
The Hornets, seeking an instant return to the Premier League, are fifth in the Championship and the four-point gap to the automatic promotion places is hardly insurmountable with 26 games left. But as the usual suspects in the knee- jerk tendency rushed to condemn Watford’s haste, Hornets fans – always the best barometer – were not sorry to see the back of the unsmiling Serbian.
The tipping point was dropping club captain Troy Deeney for the Keystone Kops defeat by the Terriers after he had scored in three consecutive games.
Deeney has never liked being ‘rested’ and has always believed that rotation was best left to tumble dryers. He couldn’t hide his distaste for Ivic’s needless tinkering, and when he was left to stew on the bench for “disciplinary reasons” - namely speaking out of turn – something had to give.
As Deeney is the lone survivor of 12 previous managers or head coaches, it was always going to be Ivic who was sacrificed.
The board made little secret of where their loyalties lay in the stand-off.
Executive chairman Scott Duxbury released a statement, saying: “Nobody at the club is in any doubt over Troy Deeney’s high level
of professionalism in his work. Troy is quick to hold his hands up when his conduct has fallen short of the required standard but we are satisfied that was not the case.
“There will be no hangover from this. We must move on and Troy, as club captain, will play y a major role in achieving our aims this season.”
Neutral sympathy y for Watford will be in short supply after the breathless turnover of personnel in the cockpit, and the sacking - of Nigel Pearson in
July – with just two games left in the Premier remier League relegation dogfight – will forever be a stain on owner Gino Pozzo’s judgement.
But scratch beneath the surface and the end of Ivic’s reign was widely unlamented among the supporters in Hertfordshire.
The football he served up was dour, sideways, uninspiring and usually confined to binary – scores of nil or one. Even when Ivic won the manager of the month award – always a poisoned chalice e – for November, he looked as if he e was being asked to hold a warm cowpat when he was pictured ured with the trophy.
And four goals in 10 away way games w was a dismal return. eas turn.
I It is true he was in inheriting a s squad where e t oo many y p players didn’t t f fancy the muck uck a and nettles of the Ch Championship.
An And when Swedish wedish winger K Ken Sema was s unato unavailable, he was also forced to pick a team in which the only left-footed -footed player was goalkeeper Ben Foster (right).
But above all, Ivic’s reign gn was simply joyless.
And if his successor does es not release the shackles and find a winning formula, Watford rd can settle in for a prolonged spell l below the penthouse.