The Leicester fans I know are absolutely delighted by this news. Will probably make our match with them a little harder next week.
I gather Gracia has already agreed to take over and Leicester have offered us £4m as it's "the going rate". I'm sure Filbert will be having a celebratory drink !
I wouldn't worry too much about this match, whatever their manager our record at home to Leicester has been very good in recent years. Fun fact (as you will see from this link) since the 1992/93 season we're unbeaten in home matches against Leicester when neither team has been promoted or won the title: https://www.soccerbase.com/teams/head_to_head.sd?team_id=2741&team2_id=1527
Can't believe that Leicester haven't planned for this situation, although evidently this is the way Leicester do things... ...Mike Stowell is taking up his fifth spell as caretaker manager while they find a replacement.
When we sacked snake, I think only 3-4 hours passed before Gracia was unveiled. I reckon most of the bookies didn't even get a market in place in time.
I think they’ll plough on until the summer, given that relegation is massively unlikely, and then pick up either Rodgers or Benitez. I’d love it if they appointed Moyes. Would give us an upper hand in next years battle for EPL2 glory.
On MoTD2 (I think it was) they said that Gracia is the first Watford manager to manage 39 matches in the Premier League. Obviously he broke the record of 38 jointly held by GT, Boothroyd, QSF & Mazzarri.
It’s is pretty bizarre how most other clubs run themselves. My previous company sacked the MD once and had a replacement in pretty much the next day. It’s just a sensible way to run a business but we seem to be pretty much the only club who think like that. For most clubs I guess it’s a bind optimism that they appointed the right manager in the first place and misplaced hope that any bad spell will end and they won’t need to act. Most other PL clubs also have a pretty narrow field of vision as well when it comes to the pool of managers they will consider. If you pretty much only consider managers from the merry go round then those out of work right now are going to be crap and anyone decent will be in a job, so it becomes a bit of a vicious circle.
I hope the lovely Emma trots out the old ‘please give a warm Watford welcome back to our former manager Brendan Rodgers’! It won’t beat the boos that the snake got but I bet it’s close!
Absolute ******, despise the man. Either way for Leciester a) Mr Integrity does well and will leave for a better club or b) he will be found out. This has pissed me off quite a lot.
Totally with you on this. It wasn't until this morning's drive in to work listening about Rodgers that I realised that my hate for him is still very much alive.
I'm sure his CV will be sitting in the intray alongside Messrs Hughes, Allardyce and Pardew. Lots of good prem experience there. Can't go wrong.
Can't believe you're defending Mr Integrity! Get with the programme. Will be interesting to see how he does.
I think he’ll do so so over the rest of the season - but as much as I’m not keen on the guy, I think he’s a good manager and with sound investment, they’ll do well under him. Still think there needs to be a rule that clubs can’t take contracted managers until the close season or a designated ‘manager’ window. Plenty of out of work managers to give interim contracts to if a club makes the decision to sack their manager - should be under the realisation they have to take someone out of work. That being said, it’s not the same as the Silva situation if Celtic have given the move their blessing. And it’s not as if Rodgers can take Celtic any further than he already has.
Two consecutive spicy home ties. Welcome back you ****. Good thing is we know it takes a while for players to to implement his style and will no doubt be dog turd for a month.
He really wants the job, has done for ages. I think the guy is a bit of a tool but we need someone to come in and just inject some enthusiasm and positivity in the short term. Long term, he has a massive ego to massage and he went to Celtic to win trophies, I’ll be very happy if he brings that kind of attitude to Leicester. I’ll gladly put up with a David Brent character if it means watching Leicester can be an enjoyable experience again. If he sees us a way back into a ‘top, top’ job as he’d say then so be it, I think we’ll become a bit of a player farm anyway with all of the youngsters coming through at once. Also, I think he’s the perfect guy to use the experience of the remaining title winners and motivate the young players at the same time. He seemed to do a really good job with his captain Gerrard guiding his young players like Sturridge, Sterling, Henderson etc at Liverpool.
So Mr Integrity strikes again. I love (insert club name) I have so much to do a here, I’m loving my job, it’s disrespectful to think about (insert club name).... rinse and repeat No one would mind if he was simply honest and said it’s a better job and I’m ambitious. It’s the lies...
Summed up beautifully. He is absolutely a footballing David Brent, but, and it hurts me to say this, we played some bl**dy nice football when he was in charge.
Get used to hearing "As I said" every other sentence. Don't get me me wrong, I think he's a good manager with a nice style of football. I mean, he made Tamas Priskin look a good striker. He's just a colossal *****.
Priskin being Filbert's all time favourite Watford player. Of course he is happy with the appointment.
I like that almost 20 years after they came and swiped Martin O’Neill, Neil Lennon and eventually Steve Guppy from us, we’re luring their manager away as we are a more attractive prospect than a team that’s won every domestic trophy for three years. O’Neill leaving triggered 10 years of utterly **** times for us.