Watford’s 3-1 home defeat to West Ham on Saturday has intensified speculation that Javi Gracia is on borrowed time at Vicarage Road and could be sacked soon.
The result leaves Gracia’s side rooted to the foot of the Premier League after defeats in all three of their matches this season and means the Hornets have now lost seven straight in all competitions dating back to last season.
It is the first time Watford have done that in two decades and, with the club’s owners not known for extended bouts of patience when it comes to the head coach’s position, Gracia is a clear favourite to be the first Premier League boss sacked.
He is preparing for the Hornets’ Carabao Cup second-round tie against Coventry City on Tuesday night, but it is the Premier League clash with Newcastle that precedes the international break which will be looming large in everyone’s minds at Vicarage Road.
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Although Gracia signed a new four-and-a-half-year deal last November, his current stint of one year, seven months and five days in charge is longer-than-average for head coach tenures under the Pozzo regime.
Predecessor Marco Silva lasted under eight months, Walter Mazzarri got a season – as did the man before him Quique Sanchez Flores – and Slavisa Jokanovic took them up before losing his job after nine months at the helm.
After the West Ham defeat, Gracia suggested the ‘dynamic is not good’ with his Watford side and left journalists and fans to speculate on exactly what that could mean.
The loss of Troy Deeney to injury won’t help but are one or two of Watford’s key performers from last season not at the same levels for reasons which Gracia can hardly be responsible?
Abdoulaye Doucoure, who played a part in getting Watford’s afternoon off to the worst possible start when he fouled Manuel Lanzini in the area after just 59 seconds, didn’t get his move away in the summer as the Hornets rejected a significant bid from Everton.
And Gerard Deulofeu has not produced anything like he did last term when he scored 10 Premier League goals and assisted five more while also grabbing two off the bench to take Watford to the FA Cup Final.
Seven of the Wembley starters began Saturday’s game with two more of Gracia’s line-up having been used off the bench in the 6-0 defeat to Manchester City so continuity is certainly not an issue for the Spaniard.
