The decision to replace the conservative Vladimir Ivic with the unknown head coach has paid off with promotion
For Watford to have joined Norwich in bouncing back to the Premier League at the first attempt, given the benefits of parachute payments in this of all years, is anything but surprising. But if their promotion was predictable their path to this point has been unusual, verging on the extraordinary.
This is a team that halfway through the campaign ranked first in the Championship on goals scored at home (22) and last on goals scored away (five). A team that a month earlier, feeling their chances of a successful end to the campaign slipping from their grasp, sacked their manager of four months and just 22 games and identified as his replacement a 40-year-old with rudimentary English whose experience as a head coach amounted to 11 matches in Georgia. And it is, a team that instead of fading after losing their captain and talisman to injury won 10 of their next 11 matches.
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