What a week it has been for Watford FC!

This time last week it seemed as though Gianfranco Zola’s Hornets had turned a corner after two well-fought away draws.

With a promising match against almost bottom Sheffield Wednesday to come, it seemed like the perfect game to kick-start the fightback on home soil.

Sadly it wasn’t to be and a 1-0 defeat later, Gianfranco decided that he could do no more, resigning on Monday.

The reaction from the fans was widespread - many were devastated that the former Chelsea star had thrown the towel in whilst others were pleased the Italian had in their opinion seen the light.

I’ve spoken on the subject of managers and their short life-span before so I won’t repeat myself like a broken record, only to say that although I’m well aware that Zola made this decision himself.

It is my feeling that he should have stayed and crucially the board should have come out weeks ago and publically backed him.

Football is a strange game indeed but Zola has gone and now we must look to the future under hastily appointed manager Giuseppe Sannino.

So what do we know about this new manager?

Well impressively Mr Sannino has over 17 years of coaching experience, however the majority of this has come at clubs low down in the Italian league pyramid.

Interestingly he hasn’t held down many of his jobs for a long time. His longest stay at one club being over two years at Varese and his shortest being three months at Palermo.

Four different clubs have dismissed Mr Sannino before the end of the season, which sounds worrying, however the good news is that Giuseppe has had many promotion successes most notably leading Varese from Serie C2 to Serie B before failing at the final hurdle to make it to Serie A by being beaten in the playoffs – a heartache the Watford fans are all too familiar with.

To summarise I don’t think anyone could be disappointed with the vast amount of coaching experience that Sannino brings with him to Watford.

However with the majority of it being in the Italian lower leagues, whether he is ready to make the jump to the English Championship (a league which is seen as being of a higher standard than its Italian counterpart) only time will tell.

Whilst some fans have embraced the change and welcomed Sannino with open arms, many fans have responded negatively to the new appointment, with preferred names such as Warnock, Holloway and Di Matteo seeming to not have been considered by the Watford board.

Arguably some of these targets may not have been interested in a move to Watford however what they would have brought (which so far none of the appointed backroom coaching staff or Sannino himself can claim to have) is experience of managing in the Championship.

This English experience that many fans have been demanding has not been thought necessary by the Pozzo’s. Ultimately it seems as though the Watford fans have been asked to play the waiting game and trust the board’s decisions.