Premier League club Watford have announced that manager Walter Mazzarri will leave the club after Sunday's final game of the season, when they meet Manchester City at home. The 55-year-old Italian manager leaves his post two years before the expiry of his contract and lees than a year after having joined the club. Watford is owned by an Italian family, Pozzo, and they have changed eight managers since taking over the club in 2012. Walter Mazzarri has managed to keep Watford in the Premier League, but they have lost their last five matches.
Club chairman Scott Duxbury has announced that the board had a discussion with Mazzarri about his "goals and aspirations" before deciding to end the collaboration. Mazzarri had managed Sampdoria, Napoli and Internazionale Milano in Italy before joining Watford on July 1st 2016. He replaced Spaniard Quique Flores at Watford, even though Flores saved the team from relegation and reached the semi-finals in the FA Cup. Slavisa Jokanovic, the manager that led the team before Flores, was the man in charge when they obtained promotion from the Championship.
Walter Mazzarri won won 11 of his 37 Premier League matches at Watford but seems to have lost support from the players after relegating club captain Troy Deeney to the substitute bench lately. Moreover, the fans were not very pleased with the fact that Mazzarri conducted his press conferences through an interpreter and also delivered his instructions on the training ground and in competitive matches through the help of other people because he doesn't speak English.
Russian coach Leonid Slutsky is the favourite for the job according to the bookmakers, he is 6/4 at Bet365 to become the next Watford manager, while former Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri is 2/1 to get the job.
06/04/17, 10:06:50 PM
