Watford Championship Odds: Relegation a real possibility for Hornets

I’m certainly concerned about Watford as we head into the 2024/25 season. They’ve got an inexperienced manager at the helm in the form of Tom Cleverly and he is the 14th different boss to start a season in each of the last 14 years. 

That’s a remarkable statistic that tells its own tale of a club that is being mismanaged by the Pozzos, and this season they could find themselves worryingly close to the bottom three. Below you can find my season preview for the Hornets, as I take a look at the Watford Championship Odds.

Last Season: 15th

Top Scorer: Mileta Rajovic (11)

Transfers In: Rocco Valta – Celtic (£150k), Moussa Sissoko – Nantes (free), Mamadou Doumbia – Black Stars (undisclosed), Yasser Larouci – Troyes (loan), Antonio Tikvic – Udinese (loan). 

Transfers Out: Ismael Kone – Marseille (£10m), Ashley Fletcher – Blackpool (free), Ben Hamer – Sheff Wed (free). 

First Game: Millwall (A)

Prediction: 20th

Championship Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Championship Odds page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices.

There’s a lot to be concerned about when it comes to Watford this season. Cleverley replaced Valerien Ismael as a caretaker last term, and was then handed the job on a permanent basis, despite performances not drastically improving under his tenure. 

He’s hugely inexperienced when it comes to managing a football team at this level, and that plays such a massive part in the Championship. If you compare him with the other managers in that bottom part of the league, he comes up slightly short, while the squad hardly fills me with confidence either. 

They’ve already lost Ismael Kone, while it also appears that Imran Louza, Wesley Hoedt and Yasser Asprilla will all depart before the window is out. That marks a massive downfall in quality between this season and last, and they only managed to finish 15th last term, so they were hardly pulling up trees even with those stars. 

Football Odds

Gino Pozzo was trying to sell shares in the club earlier in the window to try and raise funds for new players, which set alarm bells ringing in my head, while the arrivals in the form of Moussa Sissoko and Rocco Valta are not going to move them forward in my eyes. 

They don’t have a lot going for them right now, and there is a genuine possibility that they get relegated this season, but I have them just avoiding the drop. 

Georgian star Giorgi Chakvetadze should play a major role this season, and while Cleverly is unproven, he might also surprise a few people with his tactical nous. Ryan Andrews is an impressive teenage midfielder while Antonio Tikvić could be a decent loanee at left-back.

Edo Kayembe and Tom Dele-Bashiru may have something to offer while physical forwards Mileta Rajovic and Vakoun Bayo will have to step things up a notch if they are to avoid the drop. I’ve become less and less convinced that they will stay up while writing this, but I just feel somehow, they will scrape over the line. 

It won’t be pretty, and serious changes are needed at the club, but I’ve got Watford finishing in 20th. 

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