Hodgson Out

But I thought he dropped the club in it by actually stating that?

 

I’m not really certain that was intended at all. But someone asks a question regarding Gosling/Rose, all he could do was give the truth as anything else would have looked mental - as everyone knew anyway, they just wanted confirmation.

I doubt any other thought entered his mind regarding protecting the owner or indeed, throwing him under the bus.

I do agree that Hodgson isn’t a total puppet like others have been - and he does have his own mind (for instance about clearly hating journalists and Watford fans) - but he knows the Pozzo’s better than most. He knows the parameters and methods and still took the job. So by extension, I think he’s still a stage-managed manager to some extent.

 

I've wanted most manager sacked after a certain point. I've never had one that I hated from the very moment they started as with Roy.

Worst I've seen under the Ponzos and that's a long list.

 

He’s a rude c**t who doesn’t give a toss and is openly making snide comments in pressers. How can anyone actually be behind this man? Genuine question.

Total lack of respect.

 

100%, mate.

 

Not withstanding his now weekly pop at fans who haven’t actively done anything against him since he took the job, no one is actually looking deeper at some of his comments.

Forget about whose judgment about Louza is best - no one pick up the fact he said he took him off to rest him as we were 3-1 down? So he’s basically admitting he threw the towel in on the game?

 

I see Roy has been taking tips off Dux and Gino on how to interact and treat the fans.

Guess he'll be gone soon and the U23 manager will step in until the end of the season.

 

Ray was the reserve team manager at one time (as well as First team Manager) so maybe he is the man to step up!

 

It's all very weird, really, because Hodgson has been more plain-speaking since he came in than any other coach we've had about our situation, yet then at the same time he has completely refused to take into account the experience of the fans as a collective in going through that situation, as well as the wider background/context, when it comes to his comments and proclamations.

Of course, he's the very opposite of a PR professional, but you might think even the Ponzos would take a judgement and have a word with him to consider stopping actively antagonising us, given their own refusal to say anything at all and careful guidance of us into said situation.

 

I have to say I can’t stand these potshots against the fans. The tone he takes it’s as if he achieved our best ever finish last season and we’ve turned on him for one sub with which we disagreed. And he’s done this time and time again. I just find it baffling because paying lip service to the fans seems to me to be the easiest thing in management.

Here’s a thought: maybe our fans are more familiar with Cleverley’s qualities and flaws than he is considering we have watched him for what five seasons now and Roy has coached him in club football for seven games.

 

All part of their plan to fire him and get us back onside with them if we don’t get anything out of our next 2 away this week. There is then a 3 week break - assuming no Everton rearrange - till Liverpool away with then only Man City and Chelsea ( and Palace) away to come so low expectations with only the next 5 homes games to turn our season around and after three straight home defeats the dynamic duo cannot be trusted to “ go for it”

Enter Omer Riza while they run the roulette wheel round to find next seasons “ lottery winner”

 

Jesus, I didn't take the break into account at all - two games leading up to it that realistically on balance of probability we would expect to lose both of, and then a wide open berth. It's that Ponzo Dog Doo-Dah Band music starting up again, isn't it...

 

I'm hoping it'll be a sacking during the international break. Can't stand the bloke.

 

The added bonus will be 4 managers in a complete basket case of a season.

It's never boring!

 

Not a fan. I don’t like his style of play, how he interacts with the fans, the results or his player evaluation.

But (and I recognise there are a number of questionable stipulations here but I still think this is true to a degree) (i) if we’re 80% likely to go down and (ii) the best candidates to secure promotion next season are available/likelier to accept in the summer where they’ll get preseason, a defined set of goals etc, might it be best to wait until then?

Yes, two of my top three candidates (Martinez and Bielsa, but not Knutsen at Bodo/Glimt) are available now but the summer just looks like a much more appealing time to take over. And as crap as Roy is/has been, surely he is slightly likelier to keep us afloat that anyone internal.

 

Yes, but that kind of logic, reasoning and strategic planning almost never come into it with the Ponzo.

 

Yep, last time we got relegated they gave Hayden Mullins 2 games to save us. Anything goes with Gino 'Mr Football' Pozzo.

 

Who on earth realistically thinks we're getting Bielsa? Can't see him working in this system, maybe he has previously but doesn't strike me as the type to just be handed players. Secondly, wasn't he like the 4th best paid manager in the Prem?

 

Didn’t realise he was that well-paid. That would certainly be a very big stumbling block. But I do think (and I say this unironically) the fact that he likes to take each job only a season at a time could work well with the Pozzo head coach outlook. He also generally likes to work for historically big clubs (eg Marseille, Lazio, Leeds, Bilbao) with a certain kind of pedigree which we obviously lack.

That said, given our budget and playing squad, even accounting for the Pozzo madness, we are one of the top 25 jobs in England this summer and probably one of the top 4 available (United will be up for grabs, probably Leicester too and maybe maybe one of Brentford, Burnley or Norwich). So for any manager who wants to manage in England and wants to start their new job at the start of the season, we’re probably still a good option.

 

This is some wildly optimistic stuff. Watford isn’t even the top four job in Hertfordshire anymore. We’re an absolute mental asylum of a club that the likes of Bielsa wouldn’t go near in a million years, for about a million different reasons. I couldn’t think of a more diametrically opposed club and manager.

 

Yep. It’s not even a difficult question to get out of. “I did what I felt was best for the team in the situation, if some fans disagreed that is fair enough, but I am the manager and the buck stops with me.”

 

If we sack Roy we will be a massive laughing stock. Hope it happens for comedy value to honest.

 

Imagine hiring and firing Claudio Ranieri and Roy Hodgson in the same season. You could not make this stuff up.

 

He is the Manager who had a line painted on the road all the way from his apartment to the training ground so he wouldn’t get lost on his bike, I can hardly see him getting us out of our mess!

 

Bielsa is the new equivalent of suggesting Eddie Howe, absolutely zero chance of it ever happening for a list of reasons as long as that line from his apartment to their training ground.

 

Well we’re rather more likely to get Bielsa than Stevenage or Boreham Wood aren’t we?

We have our issues, to put it mildly, but many managers will hold their nose because fundamentally the squad and budget and pay is better than most managerial jobs in England and few of those better are/will be available. If Bielsa (or anyone else for that matter) wants to manage in England next year and wants a full pre-season, he’s unlikely to get any better offer as weird as that may seem.

I suppose some managers would prefer to back themselves to build something with a smaller budget team and confound expectations but budget is almost always destiny in football at the moment and we’ll have a top 3 budget in the Championship next season.

 

The thing is whether we’re the fourth best job in English football or not, that doesn’t obligate any manager to take the job, they can pass and wait for another one. When you then factor in how our club is run, how we manage recruitment and the fact we only ever employ out of work managers on short contracts and low wages whilst giving them next to no control over anything, it becomes a lot less about how we technically rank as the highest available job in England.

 

Well that’s where manager preferences come into the equation.
Would the manager prefer control or a larger budget/more competitive squad?
Would they prefer a lesser team with a full pre-season or to come into a relegation dogfight in December and back themselves to turn things around?
Would they prefer the freedom of a shorter contract so they can treat the club as a stepping stone or the security of a long-term deal?
Would they prefer to focus on the coaching or recruitment side of things?

Individual preferences will differ but the combination offered by Watford and the Pozzos may actually work for some accomplished managers.

 

It hasn’t worked up to now, our longest served Pozzo manager I would think was Zola, who was probably kept on so long as he was their first and they hadn’t decided to turn the position into a merry go round!

If a manager is able to match the owner’s expectations then they have a chance, however the minute the performance/points obtained ratios drop they are sacked. Could it be given the tools on offer our owners have unrealistic expectations, they provide the tools not the manager!

 

Zola lasted more matches but Gracia had the longer tenure (fewer matches per season in PL and one of his preseason periods was longer)

Personally I think the Pozzos standards this season/results expectation has been reasonable. And last season to. Most on here seemed pleased/relieved when each of the managers was fired. The issue has been the club’s dire appointments.

 

True. But then most on here (rightly) criticise the club for not trusting managers longer term.