A ‘disgrace’? Javi Gracia is Manager of the Year material

Matt Stead

Javi Gracia is not averse to change. Next Saturday marks the 12th anniversary of the start of a managerial career that has spanned ten different clubs in four separate countries. At just 48, he already has the experience of a coach many years his senior.

Javi Gracia is also not averse to changes. He has made 15 to his starting line-up across Watford’s last two matches as he attempts and succeeds in spinning two precarious plates.

As the season heads towards April, they both remain perfectly intact. Watford are eighth in the Premier League table and into the semi-finals of the FA Cup with a third 2-1 win of the season over Crystal Palace.

It is a remarkable success for a club that last finished in the top half of England’s top flight in 1987, and have reached this point of the oldest national football competition in the world once since 2007. They have combined those two feats once in their entire history.

The togetherness and unity that Gracia has engendered has been the key. Yet from the outside looking in, his rotation has been part of the problem, not the solution.

“Watford are a disgrace,” Chris Sutton said ahead of their fourth-round victory over Newcastle in January. “The Watford manager said in the week that they were going to give the FA Cup a go but he clearly hasn’t done that.”

Quite.

The Hornets had made 11 changes from their previous game, yet swatted Newcastle aside with a comfortable 2-0 victory away at St James’ Park. An apology was not forthcoming.

Nor was it when a national newspaper described his seven changes for last weekend’s Manchester City game as ‘a declaration of surrender’. That the Spaniard was forced to explain his decision to rest so many players was peculiar. “In this moment, we have 26 players available and all of them deserve to play,” said Gracia. “As you can see, they have competed well. It is good for us to compete today.”

And compete they did: Watford were beaten 3-1 by three second-half goals, the first of which was incorrectly awarded and swayed the game completely.

Kiko Femenia, Abdoulaye Doucoure and Etienne Capoue were the only players to retain their places against Palace, with the rest helping to prove his point that every single member of this squad “deserves” their chance. Capoue gave them the lead before Michy Batshuayi equalised to set up a fascinating finish.

Another Gracia decision would soon be justified. Andre Gray was introduced in the 77th minute and scored the winner in the 79th to the delight of a raucous Vicarage Road.

It is becoming difficult to make a case against Gracia being one of the main candidates for Manager of the Year. This was supposed to be a relegation battle, not a successful war on two fronts.

Watford are certainly the most unexpected of the numerous English clubs who still have two viable paths to European qualification for next season. Wembley beckons, but Gracia will keep them on track in the Premier League too. For a “disgrace” known to ‘surrender’, it really doesn’t seem all that bad.

Matt Stead