Watford Managers – A Full List of Watford FC’s Managerial History

If ever there was a football club in the modern era with a reputation for being trigger-happy when it comes to firing managers, it would be Watford. But, how many managers have the club had in their history? And, which of them have been the most successful since the club came into being back in 1881?

List of Watford FC Managers in Chronological Order

*Denotes caretaker manager

To answer the question posed by the title of this article, if we include the current manager and the caretaker bosses, there has been a total of 55 managers of Watford FC. Note that this figure does not include any managers in charge of either of the forerunner clubs (i.e. Watford Rovers or Watford Saint Mary’s) that merged to become Watford FC in 1898.

Note that the first official manager was not appointed until 1903, five years after the formation of Watford FC. Now we know how many bosses Watford have had, let’s take a brief look at those who stayed in the post the longest, those who achieved success at the club and those who, well, completely failed.

Watford’s Longest Serving Manager – Graham Taylor

By far, the longest-serving manager at Watford has been Graham Taylor. He would have been even if we only took into account his first stint at the club (June 1977 to May 1987), but he’s been back twice since then (February 1996 to June 1996 and June 1997 to May 2001). Taylor took charge of the Hornets for a total of 747 games over the three periods in the dugout, with 527 coming in his first – highly successful – time in charge.

Another long-serving Watford boss was Harry Kent who took charge of the club for 484 games between May 1910 and May 1926 (and so he is the longest-serving in terms of the number of years in charge). The other bosses to have managed Watford for more than 200 games are:

• Neil McBain – 364 games, May 1929 to August 1937
• Ken Furphy – 334 games, November 1964 to July 1971
• John Goodhall – 253 games, May 1903 to May 1910
• Ron Burgess – 220 games, February 1959 to May 1963

Watford’s Most Successful Manager – Graham Taylor

As well as being the longest-serving boss, Graham Taylor was also easily the most successful manager Watford have ever employed. In his first stint at the club (when Elton John was the club chairman), Taylor led the Hornets from the Fourth Division to the First Division (then the top flight). He also wasn’t far away from winning the First Division title either: Watford came second in 1982/83 behind Liverpool, who were the dominant force in English football at the time. He also led Watford to the FA Cup final the following season, but they lost to Everton.

In his third period at the club, Taylor tasted some success as well, helping the Hornets become the third-tier champions, before making it through the second-tier play-off the very next season to ascend to the Premier League.

Watford Manager with the Shortest Reign (Excluding Caretakers) – Billy McKinlay

At the time of writing (and this could change at any moment, given Watford’s trigger-happy attitude), the Hornets have had 19 different managers (not including caretakers!) from 2013 to 2023! But who is the manager who has lasted the shortest time in charge? That unwanted honour goes to former Leicester and Fulham midfielder, Billy McKinlay. He was appointed manager of Watford in September 2014 and lasted… two games. Despite winning one and drawing the other, he was replaced within eight days of being given the job! Harsh or what?!

Here are some others with short-lived managerial careers at Watford (and remember, these were supposed to be permanent appointments!):

• Óscar García Junyent – 4 games, September 2014
• Malky Mackay – 5 games, November 2008
• Rob Edwards – 11 games, May 2022 to September 2022
• Chris Wilder – 11 games, March 2023 to May 2023
• Quique Sánchez Flores – 12 games, September 2019 to December 2019