Friday 13 May 2016 10:31, UK
Watford are the only ones risking regret by parting company with Quique Sanchez Flores, writes Adam Bate...
"As a coach, the most important thing is quality, not quantity, and this is true of everything in life. How long do you stay married? Twenty years very sad? Or two years very happy?"
In a recent interview with The Guardian, it was this line from Quique Sanchez Flores that now stands out following Watford's announcement his time at the club has come to an end. As with many divorcees, people will be quick to rally round offering support. But the truth is that Flores doesn't look like a victim - and he doesn't feel like one either.
This is the 51-year-old Spaniard's eighth job in management. He's only been sacked once. That was by Valencia, the club he'd represented for a decade as an accomplished full-back, and a decision he still regards as "not deserved". Despite his best efforts, Flores is likely to be somewhat more relaxed at his stint at Vicarage Road being cut short.
Of course, that merely reflects Flores's character. By football's standards, he's a polymath. He wrote tactical analysis pieces for Marca during his time in Spain and has a fine reputation as a pundit. He's a Coldplay fan who reads biographies of Steve Jobs, novels on spirituality and has traded walks on the beach in Valencia for runs on Hampstead Heath.
Like his son, Flores's father also played for Real Madrid - a right-back too - and was a team-mate of the great Alfredo Di Stefano. Indeed, Flores is his godson and the Real legend was a regular visitor at Christmas. An aunt, late flamenco dancer Lola Flores, is an icon too. He has been surrounded by artists all his life but has turned Watford into a workmanlike success.
The remit was a simple one: to keep the team in the top flight. But achieving it required savvy, and there was little time to adapt. With Watford having the most diverse squad in the Premier League (Flores has fielded players with 18 different nationalities this term), it was essential to keep things simple. Anything else would've been lost in translation.
That's precisely what he did, galvanising a disparate bunch through solid organisation. A disciple of Rafa Benitez - Flores "spent nights analysing his zonal tactics at Valencia" - he utilised a "compact block" and maintained short distances between defence and attack. It's served Watford well. For the first time, they have survived a Premier League season.
Moreover, for much of the campaign, they flourished. Remarkably, the Hornets were only one point off the Champions League places at Christmas. Only the top seven have conceded fewer goals and they've already kept more clean sheets than any newly-promoted team either this season or last.
Minimising risk has been a feature of Flores's pragmatic approach. "It is not the fight of the humble teams to have more of the ball, rather to protect themselves," he said recently. Only four sides have made fewer mistakes leading to goals and with Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney causing problems at the other end, that's been more than enough to get results.
Watford had an identical defensive record to champions Leicester as recently as February and would surely have picked up more points since, were it not for the focus on the FA Cup. That journey took Watford to Wembley and a narrow semi-final defeat to Crystal Palace but four defeats either side of the quarter-final victory at Arsenal summed up the problem.
With the cup dream over, attention has shifted to the dip in form in the Premier League and Flores could hardly be surprised to find himself under such scrutiny. After all, the Pozzo family, Watford's owners, had five managers during the course of last season's promotion campaign and were happy to dispense with Slavisa Jokanovic, despite him taking the club up.
Flores backed himself and can't be accused of not throwing himself into the job. His son is at the academy and a nephew is on the payroll too. But leaving is unlikely to hold any great fear: "My CV is very good and I don't feel I need to justify anything," he says. "I know what I deserve. I'm completely calm and happy. My target now is to enjoy the rest of the season."
And why should he worry? Diego Simeone's subsequent success with Atletico Madrid may well have overshadowed Flores's earlier achievements, but this is a coach who won both the Europa League and the European Super Cup with the club in 2010.
This is a man who has a "special relationship" with Sergio Aguero and David Silva; someone who David Villa describes as "one of the most helpful in the development of my career". David de Gea even gave him a pocket watch - "an antique, golden on a chain" - upon his departure from Atletico.
Deeney and the rest might not have anything that extravagant lined up. They're used to swapping coaches at Watford. And the club might even find a better one, although the qualities of the man who is leaving make it far from inevitable. Flores on the other hand, can be sure of receiving better offers. No wonder he's relaxed about it.
