Is Watford's sacking culture justified?

As Watford close in on Roy Hodgson as their 16th permanent head coach in under 10 years, are the Hornets actually right to pull the plug when things start going south?

Watford's hire-'em-fire'-em policy has won them few admirers across the English game. Before Claudio Ranieri even had a chance to take his first training session following his appointment in October, jokes had already been made about how long he would last in the Vicarage Road dugout.

This is nothing new - jibes have been aimed in the direction of the Hornets ever since their first promotion campaign in 2014/15, when they were led by no fewer than four different head coaches.

It was no huge surprise the tongue-in-cheek answers about Ranieri weren't far off the reality. Three and a half months later, it's back to square one, with Hodgson already lined up to take the top job until the end of the season.

Ranieri even foreshadowed his own demise when asked about Rafa Benitez's sacking earlier this month and saying: "Maybe you are not used to it in England but in Italy they change managers like they buy an ice cream."

You imagine Watford's Italian owner Gino Pozzo hasn't bought much ice cream at their London Colney training base this month, but his penchant for dispensing with managers is a lot less weather dependent. His exit meeting with Ranieri on Sunday was the 11th sacking he has dished out since taking over the club in 2012.

The average lifespan of a head coach at Vicarage Road in that time has been 255 days, 27 fewer than the 2021/22 Premier League season.

But across those hires and fires, Watford have twice been promoted to the Premier League and spent six of the last seven seasons playing top-flight football, a record which can only be matched by the