Watford owners have earned right to sack coach after four games

Dismissing the man who took the club to the FA Cup final seems soulless – but being decisive has served them well

Watford do not do normal. They do not do convention. But they will do everything they can to preserve their trophy. That trophy is staying in the Premier League, finishing as high as they can and not worrying about the PR consequences of sacking a head coach just four games into the league season.

Dismissing Javi Gracia appears brutal. It appears soulless. After all, the Spaniard had taken Watford to their first FA Cup final in 35 years, finished a credible 11th and is undoubtedly a good man as well as a good coach. And it was only last November that Watford announced Gracia had signed a 4½-year deal, with an option for a further extension, as he became the first manager to renew his contract at the club since the Pozzo family bought it in 2012.

The feeling now is that Watford allowed themselves to get suckered

into convention with that one. They thought that continuity in the dugout might be the way ahead because that is what every other club around them appeared to be striving for. They were never going to hand the keys over in the way that Bournemouth have done with Eddie Howe and Burnley with Sean Dyche, but they saw the rationale and went along with it.

In all probability, it is unlikely that any head coach at Watford will ever again be offered the same length of contract as that signed by Gracia – who is expected to leave with 12 months’ money. Instead, the expectation is that the coach will probably have a maximum shelf life of around two years and they have rehired Quique Sanchez Flores – again flouting convention – on a short-term contract. And, crucially, he comes with a point to prove.

Every club needs to have an identity. There is also scope for smaller, ambitious clubs such as Watford to do