Gino Pozzo: The man behind Watford's manager churn

Watford have sacked at least one head coach in every calendar year since Gino Pozzo took ownership of Watford in 2012 It's 3pm on Saturday and Watford fans are cheering their squad as they conduct a lap of the Vicarage Road pitch. The focus of their attention is the head coach, who receives the same chant that has welcomed him all season: "Tom Cleverley, ole ole!" But the sunny conviviality of the Bank Holiday weekend has since given way to the harsh realities of the working week. The season is over andWatford have sacked another manager. Cleverley has become the club's 21st managerial departure since 2012 - but if the faces in the dugout have changed frequently in 13 years, the man in ultimate control has remained the same: Gino Pozzo, Watford's owner. The Italian, whose family also own Serie A club Udinese, has overseen a regime that has seen his club become the subject of derision for their regular managerial turnover. While initial success might have answered his outside critics, Watford have been on a downward trajectory since reaching the FA Cup final in 2019, a slide which had been arrested to some degree by Cleverley. By sacking the popular former player and captain, Pozzo may have ruptured any remaining threads of connection with Watford's fanbase. There may be trouble ahead in south-west Hertfordshire. Cleverley made 181 appearances for the Hornets, winning Player of the Season in 2009, and was the first head coach to last a full season since Javi Gracia in 2018-19 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 tasted victory in 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, 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 their 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 have been one of the youngest in the division and have shown 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 team 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. Announcing Cleverley's departure, sporting director Gian Luca Nani said: "The time has come for a change and to build on what we believe is a young and talented squad that will have benefited from the experience of the Championship this season." Cleverley therefore will not be afforded the opportunity with Watford to build on his first full season as a manager. Harvard graduate Gino Pozzo, the son of Giampaolo, who has kept Udinese in Serie A near constantly since 1986, lifted Watford to the Premier League while renovating their ground It wasn't always this way. For the first seven years under Gino Pozzo's ownership, Watford enjoyed a period of sustained success unlike anything they had experienced since the 1980s. Watford were promoted to the Premier League three years into his tenure, then spent four seasons in the top flight where relegation was barely a concern. In 2019, the club came close to qualifying for Europe through the league, while also reaching the second final FA Cup final in their history. Throughout that period, Pozzo was lauded for his efforts. On the final day of the 2015-16 season, a tifo banner featuring Pozzo's face graced the Watford home end, while fans were often heard to sing a song in his honour, to the tune of Simon & Garfunkel's Mrs Robinson. Pozzo was heavily involved in the football operation and combined smart integration with family-owned Udinese and an eye for talent, buying resalable players like Abdoulaye Doucoure, Joao Pedro and Ismaila Sarr. Meanwhile, early season managerial changes like the appointment of Slavisa Jokanovic in 2014-15 and Xisco Munoz in 2020-21 resulted in the club being promoted to the Premier League on each occasion. He may have been trigger-happy, but he was never chaotic - and prior to Cleverley's appointment Watford have only employed a caretaker in one season in Pozzo's reign, with replacements typically announced within 24 hours of their predecessor. But from 2019, whenhe sacked FA Cup final manager Javi Graciaafter four games of the season, Pozzo's manoeuvres continually failed to bear fruit. Watford had three permanent managers in 2019-20, 2021-22 and 2022-23 - twice suffering Premier League relegation, as short-lived managers and disconnected players struggled to form a bond with each other and their supporters, with each appointment tending to take the side further from their objective. As his team slid further away from contention to be a Premier League club, Pozzo remained near-silent, unwilling to explain methods that seemed to no longer be working. Watford league positions over the last five and a half campaigns, when each manager was sacked and with the season-ending position plotted In appointing Cleverley, a developing manager rather than the experienced overseas journeymen he tended to favour, Pozzo seemed to acknowledge a new model was needed for more financially straitened times. But with the side faltering in the new year, rumours began to emerge that he was seeking another change, and in turn supporters familiar with their owner's tendency to reach for the ejector button grew more vociferous in support of their manager. A fresh chant was heard in the stands - "I don't care about Gino, Gino don't care about me, all I care about... is Tom Cleverley". Before January's home defeat to Preston another giant tifo banner was unfurled - the height of the Rookery Stand and featuring three gigantic images of Cleverley. Its message of "Player. Coach. Captain." made the supporters' stance quite clear. Cleverleymay have survived that period, but Pozzo has now decided another of his interventions might secure a third Championship promotion of his reign. Recent history would cast doubt on his judgement, and with fans mobilising to protest, it seems unlikely the owner's tifo will ever fly at Vicarage Road again.