{"id":1152922,"date":"2020-07-19T20:44:52","date_gmt":"2020-07-19T19:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1152922"},"modified":"2020-07-19T20:48:29","modified_gmt":"2020-07-19T19:48:29","slug":"watford-sack-manager-nigel-pearson-statement","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/watford-sack-manager-nigel-pearson-statement\/","title":{"rendered":"Watford confirm shock Nigel Pearson sacking in 49-word statement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Nigel Pearson has been sacked as Watford manager following a 3-1 defeat away to West Ham United at the weekend.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Having replaced Quique Sanchez Flores early in December, the 56-year-old initially oversaw an upturn in form at Vicarage Road, with the Hornets losing just one of his first nine games in charge across all competitions.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Pearson sacked as Watford manager: Five key things to know&#8230;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pearson lost just one of his first nine games in charge after being appointed Watford manager in December.<\/li>\n<li>He also oversaw a famous 3-0 win over Liverpool just before the suspension of play.<\/li>\n<li>But since returning from lockdown, Watford have taken just seven points from eight games.<\/li>\n<li>With the Hornets just three points above Aston Villa and Bournemouth with two games to go, Pearson has been relieved of his duties.<\/li>\n<li>Hayden Mullins will once again take up a caretaker role, with Graham Stack as his assistant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Pearson also masterminded a memorable 3-0 win over newly-crowned Premier League champions Liverpool just before the temporary suspension of play due to the coronavirus pandemic, and looked to be moving Watford quickly away from relegation trouble.<\/p>\n<p>However, since the resumption of play, Watford have taken just seven points from eight games &#8212; a run which has seen them concede 14 goals and score just seven times &#8212; and with only two matches remaining, find themselves a mere three points clear of 18th-placed Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>The defeat to West Ham &#8212; which saw Watford trailing 3-0 after just 36 minutes &#8212; proved to be the final straw for Pearson.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Watford FC confirms that Nigel Pearson has left the club with immediate effect,&#8221; read a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.watfordfc.com\/news\/club\/club-statement-nigel-pearson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">short statement<\/a> on Watford&#8217;s official website.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hayden Mullins, with Graham Stack as his assistant, will take up the position of Interim Head Coach for the Hornets&#8217; final two Premier League fixtures of the 2019\/20 season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There will be no further club comment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Watford face huge tests against Manchester City and Arsenal in their final two games as they seek to hold onto their Premier League status.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>List of Watford managers in the Pozzo era:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sean Dyche (July 2011 &#8211; July 2012)<\/li>\n<li>Gianfranco Zola (July 2012 &#8211; December 2013)<\/li>\n<li>Giuseppe Sannino (December 2013 &#8211; August 2014)<\/li>\n<li>Oscar Garcia (September 2014 &#8211; September 2014)<\/li>\n<li>Billy McKinlay (September 2014 &#8211; October 2014)<\/li>\n<li>Slavisa Jokanovic (October 2014 &#8211; June 2015)<\/li>\n<li>Quique Sanchez Flores (June 2015 &#8211; May 2016)<\/li>\n<li>Walter Mazzarri (June 2016 &#8211; May 2017)<\/li>\n<li>Marco Silva (May 2017 &#8211; January 2018)<\/li>\n<li>Javi Gracia (January 2018 &#8211; September 2019)<\/li>\n<li>Quique Sanchez Flores (September 2019 &#8211; December 2019)<\/li>\n<li>Hayden Mullins, caretaker (December 2019 &#8211; December 2019)<\/li>\n<li>Nigel Pearson (December 2019 &#8211; July 2020)<\/li>\n<li>Hayden Mullins, caretaker (July 2020 &#8211; present)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nigel Pearson has been sacked as Watford manager following a 3-1 defeat away to West Ham United at the weekend.\u00a0 Having replaced Quique Sanchez Flores early in December, the 56-year-old initially oversaw an upturn in form at Vicarage Road, with the Hornets losing just one of his first nine games in charge across all competitions&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":1152927,"parent":0,"menu_order":2074,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Nigel Pearson has been sacked as Watford manager following a 3-1 defeat away to West Ham United at the weekend.\u00a0","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1152922","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - 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