TOUGH AT TOP NOW CLAIMS FLORES

QUIQUE SANCHEZ FLORES knows there has never been a better time to be a football manager given the lucrative contracts on offer.

But the Watford boss – back for his second stint at Vicarage Road after replacing Javi Gracia – insists there has never been a

time.

He said: “It depends what you are looking for. If you just want to be famous and make a lot of money, it’s okay.

“But if you are not in that kind of role or you think in another way, then coaches are in a weak position. Their job depends on bad results. The interest in football now is higher than ever – there’s more need to keep in the division for all of the teams.

“Sometimes the leaders of the clubs, they change, because they are nervous or whatever. So the position of the coach is really weak right now.

“Even in England. England was the paradise years ago – but not any more.”

Gracia became the first managerial casualty of the Premier League season last week with Watford bottom, although at a club which has fired managers on a regular basis since the Pozzo family took charge, it did not come as anything of a surprise.

Flores is the 11th managerial appointment in the last seven years but defender Craig Cathcart, who will miss today’s clash with Arsenal through injury, insists it isn’t the club in turmoil it can appear from the outside.

He said: “It’s the coaching staff which changes the most, everyone behind the scenes is the same. That’s the way football is going at the moment.”