Watford owner Gino Pozzo has made "a real statement" with 42-year-old Tom Cleverley replacement | OneFootball

Eyebrows have been raised over the arrival of Pezzolano at Vicarage Road

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 are not known for their conventional managerial appointments, and there has been 21 of them to be exact since Sean Dyche's departure in the summer of 2012, but not many people saw the hiring of Paulo Pezzolano coming.

The generally impatient Hornets owner Gino Pozzo decided to part ways with previous head coach Tom Cleverley three days after the 2024-25 Championship season concluded, and that was despite the fact the Italian publicly backed the ex-Man United midfielder in January when reports emerged that Spanish coach Pacheta was being lined up for his job.

Pozzo clearly expected better than a 14th-placed finish though despite the disparity between transfer fees recouped and spent over the course of the season, so he sacked Cleverley - and didn't waste much time to bring in his successor.

"Intrigued" Watford FC verdict issued on Paulo Pezzolano appointment

Just one week after Cleverley's controversial dismissal, Watford's hierarchy appointed their new coach in the form of the aforementioned Pezzolano - a name that won't be familiar to most English football fans.

The 42-year-old Uruguayan was labelled as a "promotion specialist" in Watford's official announcement, having taken Torque in his home nation from their second tier to the top flight, and he did the same in Brazil with Cruzeiro, as well as Real Valladolid of Spain in 2024.

Valladolid was Pezzolano's last job in football, lasting 18 months at the La Liga outfit before being sacked in November 2024, and despite the fact he has no experience whatsoever of English football, the South American's appointment has been met with intrigue and some surprise excitement from FLW's Hornets fan pundit Justin Beattie.

"This appointment feels like a real statement from the Watford owners," Justin told FLW.

"Pezzolano's got a track record of getting teams promoted, and it seems that the message is 'It's Premier League or nothing' now.

"The club in their statement points to past successes with managers like Jokanovic and Munoz, and it looks very much as if they're hoping Pezzolano's the next one to lead that charge and get us promoted to the Premier League.

"He's known for working with young players and building a clear style, but to go back to my original point, this doesn't look like this is a long-term project with vague goals. I think the owner clearly expects a serious promotion push, and I think Pezzolano knows that's exactly what he's walking in to.

"So, an intriguing appointment, and this does feel very much like all or nothing now in terms of putting everything on this new head coach for promotion and nothing less will do."

Paulo Pezzolano will be on a hiding to nothing Watford if he gets off to a slow start

Given how popular Cleverley was with most Watford fans, the decision to sack him last week did not go down well with most, and because of that, his successor is always going to have big boots to fill.

On paper, Pezzulano is an intriguing replacement because of the fact he has multiple promotion wins, and has worked in numerous countries, but English football is a different ball game.

As Justin elludes to, Gino Pozzo clearly has a vision of promotion in 2025-26 back to the Premier League, and the fact he's only given Pezzulano an initial one-year contract is quite telling that it may not be a long-term vision.