Watford players want homegrown manager after club sack Sanchez Flores again
Watford players want a British manager to replace the sacked Quique Sanchez Flores.
The Spaniard saw his second spell at the club ended on Sunday, following a 2-1 defeat at relegation rivals Southampton.
It followed a tumultuous period for the Vicarage Road club, which saw his side suffer the second-biggest defeat of the Premier League season - an 8-0 defeat at Manchester City in September.
The Hornets, who sacked Javi Gracia earlier in the season, currently find themselves six points from safety and in dire need of change as they seek to appoint their third manager of the campaign.
As reported by the Daily Mail, players at the Hertfordshire club are frustrated by the almost constant managerial turnover over the past decade.
Since sacking Aidy Boothroyd in November 2008, Watford have appointed 14 permanent managers at the club - with Sanchez Flores taking the reins twice in that period.
But nine of the last 10 appointments - with the exception of Scottish coach Billy McKinlay - have been foreign choices, a trend which the players are said to want bucked with a homegrown appointment. The report adds they want the next man in the role to have ‘high motivational skills’.
The Premier League strugglers have not ruled out the prospect by any means, as Chris Hughton and Paul Clement have both been spoken to about the vacancy, while Sam Allardyce is said to have support inside the club.
One stumbling block, however, is said to be Watford’s reluctance to buy a manager out of their existing deals - leaving them predominantly with those currently out of contract.
Sanchez Flores became the third Premier League manager to leave his club in two weeks, following the sackings of Unai Emery and Mauricio Pochettino at Arsenal and Tottenham respectively.
In the meantime, former Crystal Palace and West Ham midfielder Hayden Mullins will take charge of Watford training.
Following his final game in charge, Sanchez Flores said he was ‘sad if he can’t help the team’.
The 54-year-old former Atletico Madrid manager added: “This is the way I choose. I can't regret for that. When they came to my house to say 'you can help us', if I stay in my comfort zone, it's not me.
“The worst thing for a coach is when you can't feel that you have the full control of the situation and when the team is at the bottom you don't.”
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