Watford has fired manager Nigel Pearson with just two games left of the season.
The Daily Mail first reported that Pearson would leave the club before the team’s final games against Arsenal and Manchester City, and sources confirmed the news to ESPN later on Sunday.
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“Watford FC confirms that Nigel Pearson left the club with immediate effect,” the club said in a brief statement. “Hayden Mullins, with Graham Stack as his assistant, will take over as interim coach for the Hornets’ last two games in the 2019/20 season Premier League.”
Pearson was Watford’s third manager this season, after Javi Gracia and Quique Sanchez Flores.
Watford is in position 17, three points ahead of Bournemouth and the relegation zone.
The former Leicester City boss joined Watford in December when the club was at the bottom of the league and received a contract until the end of the season.
He won seven Premier League matches during his tenure, including a surprising victory over eventual champion Liverpool.
Before Watford, Pearson spent six months in charge of the Belgian team Oud-Heverlee Leuven.
Pearson, during his tenure as Leicester manager, won promotion to the Premier League with the Foxes in 2014, but after keeping them in the division in the 2014-15 season, he was replaced by Claudio Ranieri. The Italian devised one of the most unlikely success stories of all time when Leicester won the league title in 2016.
West Ham beat Watford 3-1 on Friday in what turned out to be Pearson’s last game.
Michail Antonio, Tomas Soucek and Declan Rice’s goals were enough for David Moyes’s men to ensure the survival of the Premier League, but Watford is still in danger before the final games of the season.
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