"An appalling thought" - Gino Pozzo urged to avoid making controversial Watford FC decision | OneFootball

FLW's Watford fan pundit discussed whether Tom Cleverley is under pressure after a recent dip in form

This article is part of Football League World’s 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Watford owner Gino Pozzo has been told that sacking Tom Cleverley at this stage would see a reaction amongst supporters that has never been seen before.

It's well-documented that the Hornets are ruthless when it comes to sacking managers, and Cleverley is the club's 20th permanent manager since Pozzo took over in 2012.

Watford supporters are used to the constant chopping and changing at Vicarage Road, but they've made a bright start to the season under Cleverley, although they are winless in their last three league games and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Manchester City on Tuesday night.

Despite this, they sit in eighth place, just one point from their play-off places, a return that most of the Hornets' faithful would have been delighted with prior to the season starting.

However, a run of games without a win, coupled with Pozzo's reckless approach to sacking managers means that Cleverley's job could actually be at risk.

Gino Pozzo told sacking Tom Cleverley would be deeply unpopular

Our Watford fan pundit, Justin Beattie, believes that sacking Cleverley would be a really poor decision, and believes that fans would turn against owner Pozzo like never seen before.

Speaking to Football League World, Justin said: "Winless in three matches wouldn’t normally mean anything, but we are talking about Gino Pozzo here, who is notoriously quick to pull the trigger on managers who he perceives as failing.

“I think there’s been a considerable Pozzo out movement in the fanbase over the last few years and that seems to have quelled in recent times, because it feels that Tom Cleverley has been backed and obviously the good start to the season, finding ourselves just outside the play-offs as we head into October is far higher than any of us anticipated before the season started.

“If Pozzo was to pull the trigger on Cleverley, I think he’d see a reaction that he’s never seen before.

“On the whole, Watford fans are tolerant and fairly placid, but they all seem to have bought into the Cleverley idea and for that to be disrupted so early on after a really decent start would be an appalling thought for most Watford fans.

“I think the hierarchy haven’t learned from their mistakes, and if they had, we wouldn’t still be worried at this stage of the season that Tom Cleverley’s job could be under threat.

“I would say to Gino Pozzo, think very carefully before you do this, because you are going to find a lot of people turning quite hard against you if you make this decision.

Sacking Tom Cleverley would be a ridiculous decision by Gino Pozzo

Watford may have struggled for results in recent weeks, but it's been a positive start to the season under Cleverley, especially when many people tipped them to struggle this season.

Most Championship clubs endure peaks and troughs over the course of the season, and there's no reason why Watford can't turn things around and get them back to winning ways.

Despite a 2-1 loss to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, it was a positive evening for Cleverley with his side coming away from the Etihad Stadium with a respectable result and were perhaps unfortunate to lose after Kwadwo Baah had a goal disallowed in the first half.

There were plenty of positives that Watford can take from that into Saturday's fixture with Sunderland, and it seems absurd that the possibility of Cleverley being sacked is even being mentioned.

This is the 35-year-old's first senior job in management, and he's been an upgrade on some of the tried and tested managers Watford have used in recent seasons.

To sack him after a slight blip would be a serious error from Pozzo, and would be hugely unpopular amongst the club's fanbase.