Marco Silva's lack of loyalty to Watford ended up costing the axed boss in the most ironic way this weekend, as the Hornets disposed of a head coach midway through a season for the first time since Beppe Sannino this morning.

It was that lack of loyalty which would ultimately tear Silva's initially strong relationship with the club's board apart, and that arrogant naivity would dog him from the moment he was first questioned about the Toffees' approach.

He could have bare-face lied, said he was committed to the club and not thinking about Everton - and even if he had gone, he would have been long out of the building before hearing any of the Vicarage Road faithful's anger.

And he did not help himself by briefing the national media that he wanted the chance to speak to the Toffees, which the club heirarchy were acutely aware of at the time.

Just as he failed to stand by the club when big-money Everton came swooping, neither did they feel any reason to defend or any longer than necessary a head coach who made plainly clear he had grander intentions anyway.

His choice of words spread from the supreme self-belief that he did not need to display any loyalty to the club which had plucked him from Hull City just nine games beforehand, and that his record spoke for itself. It festered more recently in his team selections, and his public comments about injuries and transfers.

But by that point he was speaking not from a position of power, as he had when Everton first came calling, but one of desperation given the barren run Watford have been on since the start of December.

This newspaper has previously rubbished suggestions that the will-he-won't-he saga affected the club, but it is impossible to ignore given the rapid decline of his tenure since then - and the strongly worded statement released by the club announcing his departure.

Silva's agent told us a Times article in which unnamed Watford players said both Silva and themselves had taken their eye off the ball given his public comments "ridiculous", but certain aspects ring painfully true after today's decision, and what other sources have confirmed.

Problems reached a headway in recent days when one such source, intimately close to the club, told the Watford Observer they "would not be surprised if he was sacked soon", and that Pozzo and Silva had descended into a "non-existant" relationship.

The feeling within Watford was that Silva, like his predecessor Walter Mazzarri, had made things all about him - and having learned their lesson with the Italian, they weren't about to let history repeat itself.

Where Mazzarri had not felt the need to learn English, build a connection with fans or appear on the pitch after games, Silva had invoked anger by clearly lacking commitment to the club and shifting the blame onto whoever was nearest for Watford's dismal run of form.

He should be afforded a significant deal of sympathy for having to deal with an injury crisis which is not of his making, and is little more than an embarrassment for a club training supposedly top-level athletes. It is one which would make any head coach's life significantly harder.

But as the public face of the club, going toe-to-toe with the media at least twice a week, he pointed the finger for injuries and recruitment to Gino Pozzo, Scott Duxbury and Filippo Giraldi almost every week.

Those comments did not go unnoticed, and the Watford Observer understands patience had been wearing thin over his insistence in shifting blame for some time.

On recruitment, he also had a point - Watford spent a lot of money in the summer but is their squad good enough in certain key areas? No, and not by a long stretch.

But it was clear at Thursday's pre-match press conference ahead of the Leicester City defeat which would prove his last that he had been spoken to regarding that approach, and he was glowing in his praise of Pozzo and Giraldi, although Duxbury's name was a notable omission given the power he wields at Vicarage Road.

Silva's stubbornness in selection also gave opposition sides an advantage even before kick-off.

They knew they would never have to worry about facing two up front, even when his two main options, Troy Deeney and Andre Gray, are both more comfortable alongside a strike partner.

Silva's patented 4-2-3-1 works brilliantly when his players are fit, motivated and have the quality required to succeed.

But a spate of injuries, coupled with a lack of form and confidence which can be closely attributed to his response to Everton's approach, made life difficult for the 40-year-old.

And when you couple that with his naive comments in public, which had some validity but almost unanimously served to annoy either the fanbase or the board - or both - he was a dead man walking, and it was only a matter of time before the knives came out.