Valérien Ismaël could be set for a new contract just one month into the new season.
The former Bayern Munich and Crystal Palace defender entered his third managerial role in England this summer, taking over from Chris Wilder with hopes of spearheading Watford’s return to the Pre
The ex-Barnsley head coach made an instant impression at Oakwell, leading the Tykes to a remarkable fifth-place finish in the 2020/21 season with his relentless, high-pressing system helping the Yorkshire outfit on their way to their highest league position since 2000.
A subsequent move to recently relegated West Bromwich Albion, however, produced a vastly different outcome. The French boss started life in the Black Country brightly, winning six of their opening games in a ten-game unbeaten run.
A revitalised Albion side utilising the high-pressing system while looking defensively resilient, results began to fall away into the new year with a toxic end to his time at the Hawthorns ending in February 2022 before taking over Turkish giants Beşiktaş to the end of the season – an appointment which produced a similar reaction.
A new chapter, meanwhile, sees Ismaël return for round three in the Championship with some encouraging performances, if not results, to kickstart his tenure in Hertfordshire. Recent developments, however, could result in a significant moment in Watford’s recent history.
mier League.
Appointed this summer, the new head coach has enjoyed a full pre-season getting to grips with his new squad as well as bringing in a plethora of new talent amid high-profile departures João Pedro and Ismaïla Sarr.
While not confirmed by the club, it was reported by the Athletic Ismaël was given a three-year contract with various clauses this summer, however, just aGino Pozzo’s time at the club has seen Watford become notorious for their trigger-happy sackings with 19 permanent appointments since his arrival in 2012, so Ismaël must certainly be making an impression to make the Italian businessman act such in a different manner. few games into the campaign, could be handed another.
It is believed the 47-year-old has impressed the hierarchy with the team’s performances and his work behind the scenes while having an active involveme
Such performance has seemingly been the highlight, however, with defeats to Stevenage in the EFL Cup as well as Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers leaving the Hornets wanting more with their lack of a cutting edge proving costly.
The last two outings, however, have demonstrated there is quality up top, recording a 3-3 draw against Coventry City before sweeping aside high-flying Birmingham City 2-0 at Vicarage Road, capitalising on the man advantage to strike twice through Mileta Rajović and Ryan Andrews in added time.
nt in the club’s recruitment this summer.
Coming off the back of an 11th-place finish, Watford will be eager to assert themselves into the play-off picture despite the absence of high-profile personnel this time round.
While results have been somewhat uninspiring, it has been a case of fine margins in many of their early encounters with encouraging signs to their new style that they are clearly still adapting to.
A resounding 4-0 win over Queens Park Rangers presented the perfect start to the campaign with a display of attacking dominance blowing the west London side away in the first half.
With it being still early days though, it is difficult to say wheth
er Watford will build on such performances and string together a consistent run of results to amount any form of push towards the top end of the table.
While it is a breath of fresh air from Watford to see an emphasis on a long-term plan and structure in place to mount a serious Premier League return, giving head coaches new contracts just a few games into the season is not the logical next step.
The nature of the business highlights how performances and results are not guaranteed and can change overnight, meaning an unwanted poor run of form in the event of a new contract would result in another difficult decision for the Watford hierarchy to make and would result in an unnecessary financial hit.
As previously mentioned, despite not knowing the exact length of his current deal, Ismaël will not be going anywhere any time soon so the idea of rushing to give out new contracts so early is almost too proactive in this case.
Alternatively, if Watford continue to turn impressive performances into results, they should look to revisit this decision further down the line when there is more evidence to back up their case.