Watford appoint fourth manager (and assistants) in a year
Muñoz played under Rafa Benitez at Valencia
Written by Training Ground Guru — December 21, 2020
WATFORD have made their fourth change of Head Coach and assistants in a year, with Spaniard Xisco Muñoz replacing Vladimir Ivic at the helm.
Serbian Ivic was sacked after just four months on Saturday following the 2-0 Championship defeat by Huddersfield. His assistant, Milos Veselinovic, and goalkeeper coach Christos Kelpekis were also dismissed.
Spaniard Muñoz, 40, was then appointed on Sunday, with the club highlighting the “attacking philosophy to his coaching”. He was most recently manager of Dinamo Tbilisi and guided the club to a second successive Georgian league title this year, but had only been in charge for 11 games.
Georgia are 43rd in the Uefa coefficient. Prior to Tbilisi he worked as an assistant at Spanish clubs Gimnàstic and Pobla Mafumet, although, as a player, he had a more illustrious record, having been part of the Valencia squad that won a Uefa Cup and La Liga double under Rafa Benitez in 2003/4.
Muñoz’s assistant will be Roberto Cuesta, who worked alongside him at Tblisi; his strength and conditioning coach will be Jorge Abella; and Antonello Brambilla, who arrived from Cagliari in September, replaces Kelpekis as first-team goalkeeper coach.
Since Quique Sanchez Flores was sacked in December 2019, Watford have had Nigel Pearson and Ivic at the helm, as well as Hayden Mullins having two caretaker stints. The club was relegated from the Premier League last season.
