Next Watford Manager Odds

After Nigel Pearson was relieved of his role towards last season, interim manager, Hayden Mullins, has coached the side in the final two games. Now, with the season completed and Watford in the Championship, the search for a new permanent manager continues.

Vladimir Ivic, the former Maccabi-Tel-Aviv manager, has recently left the club with his eyes set on a new challenge and a club within Europe being the ideal destination. The Serbian manager has seen large amounts of success in recent years in both Isreal and Greece with four honours in three seasons as a professional manager including back-to-back titles with Tel-Aviv.

Currently, Ivic is favourited at 5/4 odds to secure the role as head coach at Watford with many expecting an announcement reasonably soon although there has been no formal statement.

Another favourite to become the manager of Watford is current Barnsley manager, Gerhard Struber, who completed his first season as a senior manager just two seasons ago at FC LIefering.

The Austrian manager took charge of Barnsley on matchday 17 when they were in 23rd position and finished the season in 21st position, escaping relegation on the final day after beating promotion contenders Brentford.

Although, one major pitfall to Watford’s chances of signing this manager, is that they would have to pay compensation of around £1m to Barnsley. This might deter Watford away, as they instead choose an alternative who would cost them nothing to recruit. Despite this, Struber is 7/2 to become Watford’s next manager.

One of the more prominent named managers that is in contention is Chris Hughton, who is currently without a club after he was relieved of his services at Brighton & Hove Albion in May 2019.

In his managerial career, Hughton has successfully taken both Newcastle United and Brighton from the Championship to the Premier League, which is certainly going to appeal to Watford’s owners. As well this, the Englishman is hugely familiar with the Championship, league unlike many of the other candidates on this leist, and therefore his impact should be immediate.

The Hornets have an opportunity to sign Hughton after Dean Holden was chosen to become Bristol City’s new head coach over him. This is a positive boost for the former Premier League club who are now 7/1 to secure Hughton’s services.

The FC Salernitana 1919 head coach, Gian Pierro Ventura, is another who has been speculated as becoming the next Watford manager.

In the 2019/20 season, Ventura took charge of the Salernitana side who narrowly escaped relegation from the Serie B league by winning in the play-offs. This campaign had been a very up and down, although they finished the season in a more impressive 10th.

According to a respected Italian reporter, Alfredo Pedulla, Gino Pozzo has already contacted Ventura about becoming the new Watford head coach. This has received some backlash as many fans remember that he failed to take Italy to the 2018 World cup, after losing to Sweden in the play-offs. It was the first time in 60 years that Italy did not make it to a World cup.

Ventura is priced at 7/1 to become to next Watford manager.

One of the more in-demand managers, Eddie Howe, has been linked with many clubs since departing Bournemouth after eight years in charge. One of the clubs is Watford who were relegated to the Championship alongside the cherries this season.

Eddie Howe has seen incredible amounts of success with Bournemouth in recent years, after gaining them promotion in, 2015 for the first time in their club’s history. The 42-year-old then proceeded to keep them in the Premier League for five seasons with their highest position finished being ninth.

Although one primary reason why he hasn’t signed for any club yet is that in his statement to Bournemouth, he said that he was going to take "some time away during the summer break to enjoy some quality time with my family".

With Howe taking a well-deserved escape from football, there is speculation of how long that will be. The former Cherries boss is now priced at 10/1 to sign as Watford’s next manager and Howe could be an outsider to consider for Watford's next manager.

Another manager who is in contention to become the next Hornet’s manager after the departure of Nigel Pearson is former Wigan Athletic manager, Paul Cook.

Paul Cook has recently stepped down as Wigan manager after the club was dropped into the Relegation Zone due to being handed a 12 point deduction from the FA. Wigan who finished the season on 59 points, failed to win against the court case as the club falls into administration.

The Lactic’s shared Cook’s statement, in which he said that he was ‘with a heavy heart’ had decided to leave Wigan. The recent free agent is now being priced at 10/1 to become the next Watford manager.

When Nigel Pearson was sacked, one of the first significant links was Claude Puel who had been managing french side St Etienne since October last year. Although, since he was first mentioned, he has become less of a favourite.

At St Etienne this season, Puel took them from 19th position to 17th avoiding relegation, with highs of fifth place being reached. This was a significant drop from the season prior in which they finished fourth. It seems that the French side is happy with Puel being their manager; however, a move back to the Championship is not ruled out.

Puel has managed sides of Leicester City and Southampton and has guided them to top-half finishes with reasonable success. A possible concern though is that he was relieved of his role at both of these clubs within two seasons of being in charge.

The French manager is 12/1 to sign as the next permanent manager of Watford.

In recent years, we have seen a large number of recently retired ex-footballers become managers such as Steven Gerrard, Mikel Arteta and Andrea Pirlo. One who could join that list is John Terry.

Since October 2018, the former Chelsea captain has worked under Dean Smith as his assistant coach; however, it may be time for Terry to follow former Blues teammate, Frank Lampard, and manage a Championship side.

Currently, Terry is 12/1 to become the next Watford manager.