Claudio Ranieri once christened himself a “dead man walking” at Chelsea before losing his job – and he is about to reprise the role with Watford.
The Tinkerman may be just hours from the sack at Vicarage Road and he is not expected to survive the Hornets' pathetic 3-0 home defeat by relegation rivals Norwich, which left them in the drop zone for the first time this season.
Owner Gino Pozzo, who has presided over 14 head coaches in fewer than 10 years, had a face like thunder after the Friday night dog's dinner against the Canaries.
Although fans pinned blame for the dismal performance squarely on the players, Ranieri has now lost 25, drawn four and won only five of his last 34 games as a Premier League manager at Leicester, Fulham and Watford.
At 70, he knows Pozzo's trigger finger is one of the twitchiest in football – and the only dilly-ding, dilly-dong in Hertfordshire at the weekend was the bells tolling for the godfather of Leicester's title miracle six years ago.
There are dark whispers of fractured team spirit and the dressing room atmosphere being toxic, with players resorting to the blame game.
And Pozzo, who backed Ranieri in the January window by landing three new signings to boost the Hornets' survival bid – Samir, Hassane Kamara and Edo Kayembe – is deeply unimpressed that his investment has led so quickly to another imminent change in the cockpit.
Seven points from a possible 39 is no basis for survival in Pozzo's tombola – Ranieri's predecessor Xisco Munoz walked the plank after collecting the same number of points from as many games.
The mid-season winter break gives Watford scope to appoint their third head coach of the season, but the board do not escape criticism for Watford's tailspin into the bottom three.
Their decision to refuse permission striker Emmanuel Dennis permission to go to the Africa Cup of Nations - because the Nigerian FA missed a deadline to notify the club – has backfired badly.
Top scorer Dennis has yet to add to his eight goals and five assists in 2022, and against Norwich he capped a distracted display by collecting a late red card.
Ranieri laid into unnamed “selfish” players after the damaging defeat, raging: “They don't play for me. They play for the club, for the fans, for everybody. Not selfish, I don't want these kind of players.”
Captain Moussa Sissoko, one of few consistent performers this season, has apologised to fans for the shambles, saying: “We want to say sorry to the fans because we knew how important it was was but lost our discipline.
“We are now in the bottom three so it’s difficult, but we will keep working. We must work, fight and not give up, because it’s not over. We aren’t doing enough and should do more.
“We have to work at the training ground and work on what we need to improve. We need to take points.”
