While Quique Sanchez Flores may have picked up four points during his second tenure at Wolves, has there really been much of an improvement? Javi Gracia seemed to have bucked the trend of Hornets managers under the Pozzo family, outlasting the likes of Flores (first time around), Walter Mazzarri and Marco Silva although the latter seemed to lose focus after being linked with Everton.
The Spaniard was manager for 51 games, securing a win percentage of 37.9% during his 20 months in charge, more than any of the above but paid the price for a dreadful start to the current campaign.
History shows that going back to a former manager rarely works but the club’s hierarchy opted to bring back a man who won just 12 of his 38 games in charge during a first spell at the Hertfordshire outfit.
With 11 games of the current campaign now gone – not far off one third of the entire Premier League season – they have still to win a match and things are looking bleak for Flores.
Saturday’s 2-1 home reverse to Chelsea broke a run of three successive draws and sees Watford bottom of the standings and six points adrift of safety, so is Flores bulletproof or will he soon be shown the door?
Former Palermo chairman Maurizio Zamparini took the ‘hire and fire’ method of club ownership to the limit, once making nine managerial changes in one season while employing two coaches twice, admitting he had been rash in his judgement.
While there is no suggestion the Vicarage Road outfit are going to follow that extreme model, it would be no surprise to see Gracia back at some stage.
It will probably not be this season although Flores will need to get something going soon otherwise he might endure a similar fate to his predecessor.
There will be the usual suspects linked to the post but why would any manager want to work at Watford knowing they are under pressure the moment they walk through the gates?
The next three games will prove pivotal to Flores’ hopes of turning things around as they would be in the section marked ‘winnable’.
A trip to struggling Norwich is followed by a home clash with Burnley, while the men in gold and black will visit Southampton on November 30 to end the month’s proceedings.
There are nine points on offer but the board and fans would probably settle for three – as long as they all came in one match – but will that be enough for Flores to survive?
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