NO SILVER LINING FOR CLAUDIO
Ranieri’s recent record in the Premier League reads like a resignation letter
CLAUDIO RANIERI was the wrong appointment and a man out of his time in the Premier League – but Watford’s tailspin was not all his fault.
None of the last 20 Hornets head coaches, going back to Aidy Boothroyd in 2008, has made it to 100 games in charge, so the Tinkerman’s sacking came as no surprise, least of all to Ranieri himself.
But something had to give after Friday’s woeful 3-0 home defeat by fellow strugglers Norwich.
Sadly, it was a charming 70-year-old whose place in English football legend is secure after his title miracle at Leicester but whose Premier League record in the last four years reads like a letter of resignation.
Since it all went pearshaped for him at the King Power, the Emperor Claudio has lost 25 and won only five of his last 34 games in the top flight.
At Fulham in 2018-19, he lasted 106 days. At Vicarage Road, his reign was just six days longer.
Ranieri deserved more than seven points from a possible 39 at Watford, who were unlucky to lose against Chelsea and in a snowstorm at Leicester.
But the manner of the Norwich defeat meant owner Gino Pozzo was always likely to act.
Since Pozzo took over in 2012, he has shown the door to 14 managers.
Executive chairman Scott Duxbury has always relished the “inconvenient truth” of Watford’s hire-and-fire model bringing the club more success than recrimination, but since 2015 Pozzo has overseen six of the 14 top-flight seasons in the club’s 140-year history.
He has also presided over an FA Cup final, two promotions and turned Vicarage Road into a smart stadium.
If Ranieri was the fall-guy for a calamitous performance which left Watford in the drop zone for the first time this season, he have mitigation. Since November’s 4-1 thrashing of Manchester United, which saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sacked, he has been without flying winger Ismaila Sarr.
And the club’s decision to veto £3.5million bargain buy Emmanuel Dennis going to the Africa Cup of Nations, after the Nigerian FA missed a deadline to inform Watford of his selection, has backfired badly.
The Hornets’ top scorer with eight league goals was sent off after a distracted display against Norwich. Since leading 1-0 at Brentford with eight minutes to go before losing in December, Watford have taken one point from five ‘winnable’ games.
Now they will hope to be written off as relegation fodder and fly under the radar.
But it won’t be Ranieri who springs the escape hatch.