Slaven Bilics Watford sacking: The inside story of his 163 days and 26 games

Slaven Bilic lasted 163 days and 26 games at Watford: appointed September 26, 2022, sacked March 7, 2023. For a third season out of the last four (it also happened in 2019-20 and 2021-22), the decision was reached that a third head coach would be needed.

Former Sheffield United and Middlesbrough manager Chris Wilder has been given a short-term deal until the end of the season. He was appointed at 5:05pm on Tuesday, just 17 minutes after Watford announced Bilic’s sacking.

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It was yet another reminder of the ruthlessness at Vicarage Road.

Gino Pozzo hadn’t been at the training ground or attending games as much as normal recently due to personal reasons. He returned to the fray on Monday and promptly sacked his 18th manager in 11 years. Not face to face, the order had been given for sporting director Cristiano Giaretta — who had built up a good rapport with Bilic — to carry out the sacking at around 4pm on Tuesday.

Former Croatia, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion boss Bilic is due to receive approximately £400,000 ($475,000) as payment for the remainder of his contract.

It was, perhaps ambitiously, announced as an 18-month deal when he was appointed. But there was a mutual break clause inserted giving either party the option to walk away in June once what all involved hoped would be a Premier League promotion-winning campaign was over. There is a further compensation sum of approximately £250,000 due to four of Bilic’s coaches and support staff: Leonard Sovina, Dean Racunica, Danilo Butorovic and Julian Dicks.

Saturday’s disappointing goalless draw at home to Preston made it just one win in eight and was the final straw for owner Pozzo. Watford are 10th in the Championship, English football’s second tier, following relegation last season — four points off the play-off places with 11 regular-season fixtures to go.

Bilic seemed prepared for the worst after the Preston match, when he acknowledged his future was “not in my hands, or my control, or my decision”.

He was feeling pessimistic about his position on Monday when everyone had a day off. The head coach, his staff and the players returned to the training ground on Tuesday, when meetings took place, but the bad weather disrupted training.

“They are a good group of people, they are listening to plans, they are sticking to plans, they want to do it,” Bilic said of his squad in what proved to be his last news conference at Vicarage Road.

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He had expected better from his team in a game that he’d hoped would kickstart a run towards a top-six finish, but there was a distinct lack of cohesion in the first half of his final game. He admitted it was “pretty poor”, despite a marginally better showing from Watford in the second half. Bilic felt the players had trained well in the build-up, but it didn’t translate into a cohesive performance.

Something happened in the week preceding Preston’s visit, which is known to have surprised and upset the squad. When the players checked they had been paid their wages for February, they had been deducted approximately £300 each. The reason? Pozzo had decided they needed to pay more for the food they were being provided by the club.

It’s an issue that may seem insignificant in terms of monetary value to footballers on five-figure weekly salaries but the principle of it frustrated them. Coaches were similarly deducted £150. One source, who didn’t want to be identified to protect relationships, called the decision “inexplicable”.

Watford declined to comment on the matter when given a right of reply request by The Athletic.

In 2019-20, when this recent three-managers-a-season trend started, off-the-field issues appeared to cause a visible drop-off in performance levels.

Then, the disconnect was over bonus payments, and the club began that Premier League campaign by failing to win any of their first 11 top-flight games.

By the November, when they got that initial victory, Javi Gracia had long departed the dugout and Quique Sanchez Flores’ second spell in charge was less than a month from ending. Nigel Pearson became the season’s third permanent manager in early December and gave securing Premier League survival a decent shot but, like Roy Hodgson (last season’s third incumbent), could not achieve the target of keeping Watford up and was fired with two games of that pandemic-extended campaign to go having fallen out of love with the project.

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This time, some of the squad were left confused by the decision to dispatch with summer appointment Rob Edwards — who is now pushing for the Championship play-offs with Watford’s local rivals Luton Town — after only 11 matches in all competitions. However, the hugely experienced Bilic’s opening spell before the World Cup break appeared to rejuvenate the mood. Six wins out of 11 had them well placed in fourth as club football hit the pause button.

Things changed at Watford during the month-long hiatus that followed, with the appointment of Ben Manga as technical director alongside a sizeable new influx of scouts. Giaretta was retained in his role of sporting director, and a power struggle developed.

One moment before the 2-2 draw away to Reading on February 4 highlighted the hierarchical divide — Manga and head of scouting Helena Costa, another new arrival, stood in one dugout pre-match while Giaretta occupied the other as the squad got acclimatised to the surroundings after arriving at the stadium.

Throw into the mix an injury crisis, which at one stage included 15 first-team players, and the need to negotiate a transfer window and the atmosphere changed — and results suffered.

Although scrutiny of Bilic’s tactics, substitutions and in-game management is warranted — something he was prepared to debate in his news conferences — relationships had become strained behind the scenes.

On January 6, Nigeria’s national team manager Jose Peseiro was invited to watch the team train without Bilic being given what he considered adequate warning, which angered the 54-year-old Croatian. Separate issues regarding the sanctity of the dressing room on matchdays also caused friction.

Although seven players came in during the January window, Bilic outlined different priorities and appeared surprised that defensive positions were favoured over his priorities in midfield and attack. He wanted to sign Facundo Pellistri from Manchester United on loan, and the Uruguay winger’s agent visited the training ground on January 20, but a deal never got over the line.

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Bilic did play a role in securing the loan signing of Henrique Araujo from Benfica, and the young Portuguese striker’s representatives, including agent Jorge Mendes, were surprised to hear the news of his departure on Tuesday.

None of Pozzo, Giaretta or chairman/chief executive Scott Duxbury is quoted in the statement that announced the end of Bilic’s brief time at Vicarage Road. Manga was given that dubious honour. Words have been used as a stick to beat previous members of the hierarchy when they have come back to bite them, such as Duxbury’s now-infamous pledge to back Edwards “through hell or high water” when he was appointed in June.

“We are all ambitious to succeed this season, so something new is needed quickly while the opportunity of promotion is still real. With the January transfer window over, to change coach is the only option available to re-energise for the final games ahead,” said Manga regarding the switch away from Bilic.

Wilder, who won automatic promotion to the Premier League with Sheffield United four years ago and narrowly missed the play-offs with Middlesbrough last season, has been given 11 games, starting with a run against a trio of the division’s relegation strugglers in Queens Park Rangers (20th), Birmingham City (19th) and Wigan Athletic (24th and last), to give Pozzo his desired bounce after another roll of the dice.

After those games comes an April 1 trip to Kenilworth Road to face Luton and Edwards, with whom yet another chaotic Watford season started back in July.

(Top photo: Simon Galloway/PA Images via Getty Images)

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