WATFORD HAVE PARTED ways with manager Javi Gracia after just four games in charge this season, with Quique Sánchez Flores confirmed as his replacement.
Gracia was appointed in January 2018 and led the club to 11th place last season, as well as leading the Hornets all the way to the FA Cup final.
Watford suffered a 3-0 defeat to Brighton at home on the opening day of the season.
They subsequently fell 1-0 to Everton and 3-1 to West Ham, before picking up their first point of the campaign with a 1-1 draw away to Newcastle last Saturday.
Commenting on the manager’s departure from the Hornets, Watford chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury paid tribute to Gracia for his season-and-a-half in charge.
“Javi has represented Watford with great dignity and will always be deserving of our fullest respect for his achievements,” he said.
Just a few minutes after announcing the Spaniard’s departure, the club were quick to confirm Sánchez Flores as his successor.
The 54-year-old returns to Vicarage Road having guided Watford to a comfortable mid-table finish during the 2015/16 campaign – the club’s first season back in the Premier League. He also led Watford to the semi-finals of the FA Cup during his year at the helm.
After leaving England, Sánchez Flores took Espanyol to an eighth-place finish in La Liga and also had a spell in China with Shanghai Shenhua.
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