Watford are going down, in a mess and need a complete reset.
A decade after owner Gino Pozzo took over a mid-table Championship club from discharged bankrupt Laurence Bassini, 15 head coaches later they are heading back to the brambles and nettles. Ten consecutive home defeats equals the top-flight record set flight set by Birmingham and Sunderland – and that sequence is a disgrace.
In the insect derby between Hornets and Bees, Brentford - promoted with Watford last May - were not very good, but they stung more in both boxes. Thomas Frank's side lost nine out of 11 games before Christian Eriksen's first start. Since the inspirational Dane's integration into the starting XI, they have won five out of six and they are now safe.
But among long-suffering patrons at Vicarage Road, the mood is turning sour, with executive chairman Scott Duxbury feeling the heat. Gross debt, including Pozzo's financial support, has climbed to £139 million. Senegal winger Ismaila Sarr and top scorer Emmanuel Dennis are unlikely to be around next season to keep the bean-counters happy.
And this is not Roy Hodgson's mess. If he had been appointed last October instead of Claudio Ranieri – a charming man and Leicester legend but a poor choice – it might have been a different story. Although there have been no formal discussions, the chances of seeing Hodgson, who only signed a short-term contract and turns 75 this summer, in the Championship next season are slim.
It would be kinder to hand the former England coach his carriage clock before the lid closes down and line up Sean Dyche or Diego Martinez to restore factory settings in the summer. Dyche, sacked by Burnley on Good Friday, was the Watford manager in 2012, when he knew he would be cast aside by Pozzo's new regime to make way for Gianfranco Zola. He was waiting to learn his fate when he looked up at the Sky Sports tickertape to discover he had been axed. It may be time to roll out the welcome mat instead of pulling the rug from under his feet.
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And Martinez, who made Granada punch above their weight in Spain, was on Watford's radar when Ranieri walked the plank. He would fit the Pozzo model: Foreign, available and progressive. Whoever is in charge next season, there needs to be a wholesale change of mindset and personnel.
After Christian Norgaard's opener and Dennis levelling with his 10th goal of the season, Joshua King shovelled a glorious chance against a post in added time and Imran Louza somehow spooned the rebound wide. Pontus Jansson's 95th-minute winner, from Eriksen's perfect set-piece delivery, left Hodgson laughing at the cruelty and Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster admitted: “That is our season in a nutshell right there, but we only have ourselves to blame. I'm a guy who always likes to have a smile on his face, but it's a mask you have to wear sometimes.”
Bees messiah Frank, asked to contrast Watford's insatiable appetite for change in the cockpit with Brentford's longer-term outlook, gave a diplomatic answer. He said: "I can only say what I believe in - I believe massively in clubs where there is a clear strategy, everything is aligned from top to bottom and, no matter what, you stick to that.
"That is why we have been so successful and I'm almost 100 per cent sure that if our bad form had continued and we couldn't turn it around, I would still have stayed in my job. We would have tried to build again, a bit like Norwich did with Daniel Farke. Of course there are various reasons for changing a manager and also things we don't know, like what's gone on at Burnley, but I believe massively in consistency.”
