Watford will face one of their all-time greats in the opposition dug-out this season with Nigel Gibbs having been appointed as assistant head coach at West Bromwich Albion.
The defender, who made almost 500 appearances for the Hornets, is linking back up with his former Tottenham colleague Ryan Mason, who was given the head coach job at The Hawthorns earlier this week.
Gibbs, 59, is a hugely experienced coach having built upon his incredible career at Vicarage Road, which started as a schoolboy, saw him make his debut in the UEFA Cup in 1983 and stay a loyal one-club man until retiring in 2002.
Having hung up his boots he spent time coaching in Watford's youth and reserve teams until he gained his UEFA Pro Licence.
After leaving Watford, Gibbs joined Reading, initially as youth boss in 2006 before becoming assistant manager in 2009.
He worked alongside Brian McDermott at both Reading and Leeds, as they won promotion to the Premier League as champions with the Royals in 2011/12.
The former England youth international then had a couple of years as first-team coach at Millwall before moving across London to Spurs as under-19s coach in 2016.
He had brief spells at Swansea, Reading and Portsmouth before returning to White Hart Lane in July 2019 as head of player development from under-17s to under-23s.
It was during that time when Gibbs assisted Mason in his spell in interim charge of Tottenham’s first team.
A very short period in Greece with Asteras Tripolis under ex-Swansea colleague Claude Makelele followed last September, before he joined League One Reading under Noel Hunt in the first-team coaching set-up in December and helped the Berkshire outfit finish the season strongly.
Mason appointed Gibbs at the same time as adding sports scientist Sam Pooley, another former Tottenham man, to his backroom team.
Gibbs will be working with a number of staff who have stayed at West Brom after the departure of Tony Mowbray.
Those are James Morrison, who was first-team coach and ended last season in caretaker charge, statistical analyst Damia Abella who arrived in Carlos Corberan's tenure, and goalkeeper coach Boaz Myhill, who like Morrison was promoted from an academy role under Mowbray.
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