Meet Javi Gracia, the new Watford manager who stands up for his players

His former players speak of a manager who is indefatigable and loyal. ‘He had one thing above all: a plan …’

Watford’s new manager walked away from his first senior job because he felt he had failed but everyone else disagreed. The club president wanted him to stay but Javi Gracia’s mind was made. Pontevedra finished top in his first season and runners-up in his second; the problem was that in Spain’s Second Division B that’s not enough, and both times they were defeated in the play-offs, promotion denied. For Gracia, it was not good enough either so, despite his president’s protests, he left. The following year he took Cádiz up to the Second Division instead.

Three years later, Gracia took Almería to the first division but he walked again, although this time he had been pushed too. As one squad member puts it bluntly: “He went because he was loyal,: adding: “That’s hard to find in football. Leave for money? Yes. Give up a job in primera, for your players? No.” Almería planned an overhaul, denying players the opportunity they had earned; by standing up for them, believing in them, Gracia denied himself that same opportunity. When he got it, with home club Osasuna, he was relegated. And yet it is equally hard to find anyone who blamed him.

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