Highlights

• Watford’s quick signing of Rob Edwards signalled the possible beginning of a new era for the Hornets team.
• Despite fan protests, Edwards made a decent start with some wins, but was criticized by the club for his sacking.
• Luton Town’s success and rise under Edwards following his sacking at Watford proved to be a painful outcome for the Hornets and their fans.

Watford have quickly signed current Luton Town head coach Rob Edwards ahead of the 2022/23 season.

Roy Hodgson had been through a pretty disastrous period and with Edwards meeting fans for the first time on the penultimate matchday of the 2021/22 season, he had plenty of time to put his stamp on the Hornets squad.

This seemed to be the beginning of a new and potentially exciting era, with CEO Scott Duxbury telling the Watford Observer back in June 2022 that the club would “absolutely support” Edwards.

This was a strong statement considering the high turnover in the club’s coaching staff under Gino Pozzo.

Xisco Munoz, Claudio Ranieri and Hodgson were all brought in to lead the Hornets to success in the 2021/22 season, but none of them could succeed.

With that in mind, it seemed the right move to provide stability under Edwards and give him time to make his mark on the Hertfordshire team.

Many players came – and many left – during the summer transfer window, and there was considerable movement at Vicarage Road in the summer of 2022.

Rob Edwards’ time at Watford

Things didn’t always go to plan for Edwards during his reign in Hertfordshire, but he also didn’t really get a chance to prove his worth before he was sacked.

Given all the transfer activity, it was impressive that the club remained unbeaten in their first five league games of the season, picking up wins over Burnley and Sheffield United, two teams that were promoted at the end of the 2022/23 season.

After that, results did go downhill somewhat, with angry fans taking the Hornets players to task after their 2-0 away defeat at Blackburn Rovers in mid-September, his penultimate game as manager.

And to end a difficult period, they achieved a 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland, a result that could not be described as disastrous even though the Black Cats had only just been promoted from League One at the time.

Edwards’ record after the first round of matches was not great and the club had also been knocked out of the Carabao Cup. Despite this, many people criticised the club’s decision to sack the Englishman after the match against Tony Mowbray’s team.

Luton Town and Rob Edwards had the last laugh after Watford’s dismissal

In November 2022, less than two months after Edwards left Vicarage Road, the Hornets’ arch-rivals Luton Town were looking for a new manager following Nathan Jones’ move to Southampton.

At this point, the Hatters were on the up after a poor start to the season and needed to sign the right man to get them back into the top six.

Despite his very short tenure in Hertfordshire, Edwards was given the chance to succeed Jones after leading Forest Green Rovers to League One at the end of the 2021/22 season.

And he was able to continue Jones’ excellent work by beating the Hornets at home while the Hatters remained unbeaten in their final 14 games of the season.

With this run they secured a place in the top six, with Luton ultimately finishing in third place.

Watford, on the other hand, finished in 11th place after failing to achieve success under Edwards’ successors Slaven Bilic and Chris Wilder.

The Hornets saw Luton beat the Black Cats in the play-off semi-final before beating Coventry City on penalties at Wembley to secure a place in the Premier League.

Anything is possible this season and the Hornets could even finish ahead of the Hatters at the end of the season because nothing can be ruled out. But promotion alone will have hurt Hornets fans who deserve much better.

The decision to sack Edwards was hasty and comes back to haunt the Hertfordshire team, which could have enjoyed real success under Edwards.