Ranking the 21(!) Watford managers during the Pozzo era from worst to best | OneFootball

The Pozzo family, led by Giampaolo and Gino Pozzo, officially took over at Watford in June 2012 and since then, they’ve gone through 21 different managers.

While Watford are often criticised for their approach, it has brought them some success over the years, having won two promotions to the Premier League since the takeover.

We’ve assessed all 21 of the managers hired under the Pozzo’s and have ranked them based on their time at the club.

21. Roy Hodgson

Pound-for-pound, Hodgson is definitely one of the best managers on this list, but his time at Vicarage Road was a total disaster.

He oversaw the club’s relegation in 2021–22, winning just two of his 18 matches in charge. Even Harry the Hornet caught a few strays.

20. Claudio Ranieri

Similar to Hodgson, Ranieri has done some tremendous work with other clubs, but the less said about his stint with Watford, the better.

The Italian only lasted four months in the job and won just two of his 14 matches.

19. Chris Wilder

Wilder joined towards the backend of 2022-23, with the club four points adrift of the playoffs with 11 games remaining.

Unfortunately, the season fizzled out under the Yorkshire boss as he only won three of his 11 games in charge before departing at the end of the season.

18. Valerien Ismael

There was a time when things seemed to be clicking for Ismael at Watford, only for things to fall apart towards the end of his tenure.

He was dismissed in March 2024, with the club sat 13th in the Championship. Overall, an underwhelming appointment.

17. Rob Edwards

Watford arguably dropped the ball by sacking Edwards when they did.

The former Welsh international was sacked just 11 league games into the 2022-23 campaign, with the club only one point adrift of the top six at the time.

To make matters worse, he then guided local rivals Luton Town to the Premier League in the same season.

16. Paulo Pezzolano

Watford looked far from convincing under Pezzolano, but on paper, the results weren’t disastrous.

He had the Hornets sniffing around the top six before being dismissed earlier this season.

Pezzolano’s biggest flaw was his lack of man-management skills, with a number of Watford stars looking visibly frustrated under his tenure.

15. Billy McKinlay

McKinlay only took charge of two games before being replaced by Slavisa Jokanovic.

During those games, he beat Brentford 2-1 and drew with Brighton. A small sample size makes him a tough one to rank on this list, but he did what was required at the time.

14. Oscar Garcia

Similarly to McKinlay, we’re only judging Garcia on a very small sample size, as he only took charge of four matches before he left Watford due to health reasons.

Watford were ultimately promoted at the end of the 2014-15 campaign and we’ve always wondered what might’ve happened had Garcia stayed for the entire campaign.

13. Tom Cleverley

Cleverley took charge of Watford in March 2024, with the club in a somewhat precarious position at the time.

Things had gone stale under Ismael and it was Cleverley’s job to steady the ship and get the club back on track.

Despite losing the likes of Ismael Kone, Yaser Asprilla and Wesley Hoedt, Cleverley had Watford competing for a playoff spot during the first half of the 2024-25 campaign as they sat sixth at the midway point.

However, results dried up in the second half of the season and the board lost faith in the 36-year-old, leading to his dismissal at the end of the campaign.

12. Walter Mazzarri

Mazzarri lasted the entire 2016-17 campaign and just about kept Watford in the Premier League. Things started brightly, but quickly unravelled towards the end of the season.

Under the Italian, the Hornets finished 17th in the Premier League and six points above the relegation zone.

The end of that season was particularly painful as Watford lost their last six matches by an aggregate score of 16-3.

Still, at least he kept them up.

11. Sean Dyche

Dyche was the first managerial casualty of the Pozzo era.

On the whole, he did a solid job. He guided Watford to 11th in the Championship during his only season in charge, the highest that the club had finished for four years at the time.

We’ve marked him down for the absence of a Guardiola impression.

10. Marco Silva

Watford were a breath of fresh air at the start of Silva’s tenure.

Under the Portuguese coach, Watford recorded memorable wins against the likes of Arsenal and Newcastle and flirted with the European spots for the first few months of the season.

However, things took a turn for the worse when Everton tried to poach him in November 2017. After that, Silva seemed to lose the dressing room as he lost eight of his last 11 matches before being sacked.

Had Everton not turned his head, he could’ve gone on to be an all-time great at Vicarage Road.

9. Slaven Bilic

Under Bilic, Watford averaged 1.48 points per game in the Championship during his five-month stint in charge.

Over a full season, that’s the equivalent of 68 points, which would’ve seen Watford finish just one point adrift of the playoffs in 2022-23.

Bilic also rises a few places on this list for masterminding Watford’s 4-0 thrashing of local rivals Luton Town. And his impeccable music taste.

8. Beppe Sannino

Sannino was tasked with picking up the pieces in the 2013-14 season, with Watford sat mid-table in the Championship upon his arrival.

In total, the Italian took charge of 36 games, boasting a respectable points-per-game record of 1.5 in the second tier, before he resigned.

Prior to leaving the club, Sannino had started really well in 2014-15, winning four of his first five league matches and laying the foundations for Watford’s promotion that season.

7. Vladimir Ivic

Ivic always came across as quite cold, but he did have Watford fighting for promotion during his tenure.

Indeed, Watford boasted the best defensive record in the Championship under the Serbian boss, only conceding 15 goals in his 20 league matches.

He was eventually sacked with the club sat fifth in the Championship, four points adrift of automatic promotion.

Whilst not the most popular Watford manager, he arguably laid the foundations for their promotion in 2020-21.

6. Nigel Pearson

Watford were already on their third manager of the season when they appointed Pearson in December 2019.

The club looked doomed to relegation prior to Pearson coming in, but the former Leicester City boss managed to make the Hornets competitive once again.

During his stint in charge, Watford averaged 1.18 points per game, which would have been more than good enough to keep the club in the Premier League, had he been in charge for the entire season.

5. Quique Sanchez Flores

Sanchez Flores had two separate stints at Watford, with the first being much more successful than the second.

In 2015-16, he guided the club to a 13th-place finish in the Premier League with Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney firing on all cylinders.

He also took the club to an FA Cup semi-final, where Watford beat the likes of Arsenal, Leeds and Newcastle in the competition that year.

Given the work he’d done, it was a shame that the Spaniard moved on at the end of his debut season.

He eventually returned to the club in September 2019, although that didn’t go as planned. Flores only won one of his 10 league matches during his second stint, before being sacked again in December.

Still, given the success of his first stint, he at least deserves a spot in the top five of this list.

4. Xisco Munoz

Xisco is a tough one to judge.

On one hand, he got Watford promoted to the Premier League after picking up the pieces from Ivic, guiding the club to second in the league table.

But, on the other hand, he did somewhat look out of his depth as soon as Watford arrived in the top tier. Albeit, Watford were outside the bottom three when he was dismissed.

With the feel-good factor around the club in the second half of the 2020-21 campaign, we’d say that fourth is around right for the Spaniard.

3. Gianfranco Zola

Zola was the first manager appointed under the Pozzo era and Watford were plenty of fun to watch under the Italian.

With technical players like Matej Vydra, Fernando Forestieri and Almen Abdi at his disposal, he took Watford to the play-off final in 2012-13, where they unfortunately lost to Crystal Palace in extra time.

While Zola’s only full season at the club ended in disappointment, it was one hell of a ride.

His best moment undoubtedly came in the play-off semi-final second leg against Leicester City when Deeney scored a 97th-minute winner to send the club to Wembley.

And allow us to remind you that Zola was some player.

2. Javi Gracia

Gracia recently called it quits on his second stint with Watford, following a series of inconsistent results.

While his second stint with the club wasn’t amazing by any means, it was also no disaster, with him leaving Watford on the cusp of the top six.

However, his place on this ranking is obviously thanks to the stellar work that he did with the club during his first stint in charge.

Watford were at the peak of their powers under Gracia in 2018-19, who guided the club to 11th place in the Premier League, along with reaching the FA Cup final.

His dismissal just four games into the 2019-20 campaign also seemed particularly harsh, given what he’d achieved during the previous season.

1. Slavisa Jokanovic

Who else?

Jokanovic will always have a place in Watford fans’ hearts after guiding the club to automatic promotion in 2014-15.

He was appointed in October 2014 and won 21 of his 35 league matches that season to secure second place with 89 points.

Unfortunately, he never got the chance to manage Watford in the Premier League as he left shortly after winning promotion.

“I felt he didn’t have a real will to renew my contract. My priority was to stay at Watford after promotion. It made sense to think that way,” Jokanovic told The Sun.

“What happened next made me realise there was no real intention to renew my contract. There was a first contact but there wasn’t a follow-up from him, which should be normal in any negotiation process. After waiting, I assumed that I had to move on.

“I never demanded a pay rise like that. I simply understood that we all deserved to improve our terms after the team’s success and the promotion to the Premier League.

“I felt I was being offered probably half of the lowest wages of a manager in the Premier League.”