Zola Makes It 20

Article by Christopher Lawton

Twenty out of the twenty four Championships sides have now changed manager since the start of last season. Success is a short lived asset to your CV. Past glories no longer absolve you of a current crisis. So just 6 months after leading Watford out at Wembley, and 11 weeks after being up for manager of the month, Gianfranco Zola became the latest managerial casualty in the Championship when he resigned as Watford manager on Monday evening.

That he has gone is, to Watford fans, not necessarily a shock – the side has not won a match since October – but it was a disappointment. Gianfranco is such a genial and polite character in the game, in marked contrast to so many, that as a fan you can’t but want him to succeed. And perhaps therein lies the problem.

His warming personality created the impression that he was almost too relaxed; there was not enough arm waving, shouting, screaming, or anything that communicates a passion to change things. It fuelled the notion that he was perhaps tactically inept at times and did not always know his best XI. The calm, measured man on the touchline ultimately created an impression with fans of a man who knew not what to do. As a season of high expectation gradually began to slide away the home support had grown restless in recent weeks.

So Zola, as befitting his character, took the gentlemanly way out and resigned. Maybe he saved the board from a tough decision, and maybe, despite the disappointment for the majority of fans, he understood that this was the end of the road for him.

Zola will always be a popular man at Watford. He gave us a golden season that culminated in the craziest 30 seconds of many fans’ lives. For sure there were missed opportunities last season, but the ride was so unexpected that the thrill and delight from it will live long in the memory. It is perhaps apt, therefore, that the most heart warming moment of his tenure is when the mask of calmness slipped and he tumbled over on the pitch in celebration of the crazy winner against Leicester in last season’s play-off semi-final.

Focus will now turn to a replacement. The ownership model is built around a continental style set-up and that would likely rule out a string of usual suspects. Whoever comes in will inherit a squad short on confidence, but high in skill. They will find players at their disposal through the Pozzo scouting network, but not a king’s ransom to buy in talent or pay inflated wages. The season is not over for Watford, the top six is still within their reach, but the new man in the hot seat will have little time to turn it around.