COMMENT: it's time to change the record and look beyond turnover of head coaches for solutions

Number crunchers have revealed the Hornets have had more managers or head coaches (including caretakers/interims) than any other club in the top four divisions since 2004.

Narrow it down to the last 14 years, since the Pozzo takeover at Vicarage Road, and it’s the same story: Watford are No.1, market leaders on the managerial carousel.

That’s no surprise to armchair ‘experts’ who lazily recycle jokes about the revolving door in WD18,  and the club’s reputation as the spiritual home of short-termism has been hard-earned.

More surprising, perhaps, is how many clubs are so close to Watford’s head count on the roll call of head coaches hired and discarded in a generation.

Huddersfield and Notts County are only two appointments (or departures) behind the Hornets, Leicester and West Brom (three) are also in the frame and QPR (four) aren’t far behind - but you don’t hear much carping from the sidelines about their managerial turnover.

It’s not a trait exclusive to one corner of Hertfordshire - but it doesn’t mean we have to carry on like this.

As a full-time appointment, Alessio Dionisi is the 23rd different face to try his luck in the Pozzo era - Quique Sanchez Flores and Javi Gracia each had two bites at the cherry - and like any new boss on the launch pad, he deserves the supporters’ unequivocal backing.

If you’d never heard of him before, so what? Nobody knew diddly-squat about Aidy Boothroyd when he pitched up in 2005, and barely 14 months later he had found the keys to the Premier League on a bottom-six budget.

Xisco Munoz? Nope, didn’t know him, either. Slavisa Jokanovic? Blink and you’d have missed his stint as a Chelsea player, but otherwise he was more anonymous than the invisible man himself. They both did a fantastic job in leading Watford to the land of milk and honey.

So let’s give Dionisi a chance. Above all, if his team is competitive and watchable, let’s give him time. Let’s give him scope to establish a football identity. And if he’s crying out in January for a striker to bury the chances which have gone begging, or a centre-back to cover for injuries or suspensions, let’s listen to him.

From this observer’s seat, either in the Rookery or the Press box, when five consecutive seasons have tailed off after the New Year, often in dreary shades of sideways and backwards, it hasn’t always been the bloke standing in the technical area who’s culpable.

In many cases, especially up to the Covid-19 lockdown, the fans largely accepted the musical chairs in the manager’s office because, ultimately, it took us to the Premier League and Wembley.

But now it’s time for the churn to stop - or at the very least to slow down. Get behind Dionisi, get behind the team. Come on, you mighty ‘Orns.