Gino Pozzo: The man behind Watford’s churn in the dugout

Pozzo can offer Watford’s form in his defence.

The Hornets started the season well, sitting around the play-off places, but since the turn of the year were the worst side in the Championship, taking 23 points from 23 games.

The club won just one of their seven games in January, and while February was more positive, they took three points from only two of their 12 games from the start of March.

Pozzo may have felt it his responsibility to make changes he thought necessary rather than wait for the point where consensus would suggest a sacking was acceptable.

Indeed he employed the tactic during Watford’s successful Premier League run, harshly removing Quique Sanchez Flores and Walter Mazzarri at the end of seasons once top-flight status had been secured, but after a poor end to the campaign.

But Cleverley’s sacking comes in a different context, with the club at the end of its first season without parachute payments following Premier League relegation in 2022.

Wesley Hoedt and Yaser Asprilla, player and young player of the season respectively, along with Canada international Ismael Kone, were all sold in last summer’s window, while the club will expect to sell their two significant assets, Imran Louza and Giorgi Chakvetadze, in the coming months.

Incoming investment has been minimal, with Pozzo, once one of the richer owners in the division, now outgunned by a new generation of wealthy proprietors.

Cleverley’s side has been one of the youngest in division and boasts some significant holes, with no replacements for Chakvetadze and winger Kwadwo Baah after their seasons were ended by injury.

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Malian Mamadou Doumbia has been their starting, and sometimes only, available striker in the second half of the season.

Appointed in March 2024, initially as interim head coach, the then 34-year-old Cleverley had only led the club’s under-18 side for eight months, having retired from playing at Watford in summer 2023.

Having guided the club to 15th in 2023-24, he has moderately improved their fortunes – by a position and a single point – while also winning praise for reconnecting with a fanbase that soured on the squad and those in charge of it.

That has not proved to be enough.

“The time has come for a change,” said sporting director Gian Luca Nani in a statement announcing Cleverley’s departure.

“To build on what we believe is a young and talented squad that will have benefitted from the experience of the Championship this season.”

Cleverley, however, will not be afforded the opportunity to build on his first full season as a manager.