Watford have sacked head coach Tom Cleverley after the team failed to reach the Championship play-offs.

The Hornets finished 14th in the table after taking only one point from their last five games - a 1-1 season-ending draw with Sheffield Wednesday.

Former Manchester United, Everton and Watford midfielder Cleverley, capped 13 times by England, was appointed as interim boss in March 2024 following Valerien Ismael's departure.

He was then confirmed in the post on a permanent basis the following month.

The 35-year-old was in charge for 60 games in total, winning 20 and losing 26.

Sporting director Gian Luca Nani said: "The time has come for a change and to build on what we believe is a young and talented squad that will have benefited from the experience of the Championship this season.

"It has been a privilege to work closely with Tom; to understand how he sees the game and his enthusiasm for everything here. He deserves to be recognised for this and I'm sure he will have a bright future in the game."

The Hornets are now looking for their 10th permanent head coach since Nigel Pearson was sacked in the summer of 2020 with the club facing relegation from the Premier League.

Cleverley was the first head coach to remain in charge for an entire season since Javi Gracia in 2018-19.

He was unbeaten at home in his first 15 league games as boss, but results took a downturn following a 2-1 defeat by Cardiff on 29 December and they only took five points from the next nine matches.

Reports in Spain earlier this season claimed former Villarreal head coach Jose Rojo Martin, known as Pacheta, had been in talks with Watford to replace him.

In January, the club dismissed that as "pure speculation" and owner Gino Pozzo later said of Cleverley: "We are committed to support him and look forward to the challenges ahead together."

Speaking last week, Cleverley said that hopes of achieving a play-off place had been undermined by injuries, particularly among his forwards.

"There's no difference in the number of goals we've conceded from pre-January to post-January, but the amount of goals we've scored has dropped significantly," he said.

He promised to learn the lessons of the campaign and added: "We spent 10 weeks in the play-offs [places], we showed real positive signs before the turn of the year and I think we can clearly identify where and why we've run out of a bit of steam.

"We've got an incredibly young squad, the average age is boosted up by one or two individuals, but apart from that it's largely under 25 and the majority under 21 at the minute.

"The experiences they will have had this year - some bad ones - to really develop and ultimately improve from is one of the really exciting positives from this season."

No Watford manager or head coach has lasted an entire calendar year in the job since Malky Mackay in 2010.

Since being relegated from the Premier League in 2022, they have finished 11th, 15th and now 14th.

"There will be no further club comment until a new appointment has been made," a statement on the Hornets website said.

This is going to go down very badly with Watford fans. Tom Cleverley was a really popular head coach – probably the most popular since Javi Gracia who took the club to a Wembley FA Cup final - and supporters will be upset and angry.

Cleverley was a former player who first joined the club when he was a youngster on loan from Manchester United and then came back towards the end of his career. He then became academy manager at the club before his role as first-team head coach.

Watford were seen as possible relegation candidates this season but Cleverley had them in and around the play-offs all season before they drifted away.

He also had to go through a seriously awkward situation in January where his club had to reassure him he wasn't being sacked on the day of a game when reports in Spain suggested the club had a new man lined up.

The Watford board feel like it's the right time for change and can point to a poor run of form in the last four months. But Watford fans' favourite song this season has been about not caring about owner Gino Pozzo and only caring about Cleverley.

This news isn't going to help relations between the owner and supporters.

Group A

Minizin 22
Twerton 18
Zinman 10
A.A.A. 6
Amelia 5
Themaclad 3

Decent final week of the season by Group A but with no real jeopardy at stake there was just a few bragging rights to secure.  Minizin realised this and ended up top of the weekly table with his highest score of the season.  He got a spot on Gamball and backed that up with 2 more correct scores and a CR on the Bonus to end on 22 points.  Twerton also had a good week, finishing with a strong 18 points.  Zinman took it easy in 3rd with 10 points!!

AAA and Amelia both finished mirroring their season long struggles.  That leaves the Group A leader Themaclad, he was well and truly on his 2 week holiday before he has to be back for the final!!

344 Themaclad - Qualifies for the Final
319 Twerton - Playoffs
311 Minizin - Playoffs
307 Zinman - Playoffs
236 Amelia
229 A.A.A.

So the ultimate bragging rights go to Themaclad, who not only won Group A in a canter but also scored the most points between the two groups.  Twerton held onto the runner-up spot.  Minizin wins the bragging rights of the Zins, by overtaking Senior (or should that be larger??) in the final week to take the last Group A podium spot!!  Of course the top 4 all make the playoffs so there are still more bragging rights to be had!!

Cheers
SCO


Group B

Derby          12
BaggieOne    9
SCO              8
Stairs            8
BBB              8
Lady Jane      7
Snooty          6

In many ways it wasn't exactly the dramatic final week that we sometimes see (who can possibly forget Beefy blowing a 20* point lead on the final day some years ago) but as we will see later, there was one last minute twist thanks to the gamball. As usual the bonus ball proved problematic - nobody got it right - but in total contrast to last week we had a full house with the scoreball.

The final week sees Derby on top of the table as the only player to hit double figures. He only scored on 3 games but got two of them spot-on, including the gamball. BaggieOne takes 2nd place with 4 correct results, 2 correct scores but a miss on the gamball. 3 players are tied together on 8 points (Stairs "interesting' predictions saw no correct scores but a decent overall return), Lady Jane is a point further back with Snooty in the final place.

A short write-up this week as I want to get the scores out early given that the first play-off fixture is on Friday.

So on to the final table with a late twist.

303 SCO - Qualifies for the final
293 Derby - Playoffs
290 Lady Jane
267 Stairs
256 BBB
244 Snooty
239 BaggieOne

And that twist sees Derby snatch 2nd place from Lady Jane to secure the final play-off position thanks to a 9 point swing on the gamball. Having led Group B for so long Lady J suffered a collapse WBA would have been proud of to lose out in the final week.

Zin

We will post some season stats in a separate thread.

For the benefit of Twerton, Minizin, Zinman and Derby, the 4 to make the play-offs, here are the fixtures:

Friday:
Gamball
Coventry - Sunderland

Others:
Ipswich - Brentford
Wolves - Brighton
Bournemouth - Villa
Newcastle - Chelsea
Man U - West Ham
Spurs - Crystal Palace
Liverpool - Arsenal
Wycombe - Charlton
Chesterfield - Walsall

Top 2 qualify for the finals. Ties will be decided by:
1. Most correct scores - if still level
2. Most correct results - if still level
3. The oldest player goes through- if still level
4. Highest points total in the regular season

Regular season's points in case of scenario 3:

Twerton - 319
Minizin - 311
Zinman - 307
Derby - 293

Well I thought I'd start this thread with the retained list that's just been announced. Any thoughts on who you think should've been offered new terms. Any thoughts on who should be gotten rid of, even if they are under contract?

https://www.htafc.com/news/2025/may/05/2...confirmed/


2024/25 RETAINED LIST IN SUMMARY
Released:

Jonathan Hogg
Danny Ward
Tom Lees
Matty Pearson
Ollie Turton
Josh Ruffels
Josh Koroma
Scott High
Loick Ayina
Anthony Gregory
Danny Isaac
Donnell Garrick
Oliver Riva
Zak Abbott
Fope Deru
Cian Philpott
Conor Falls
Michael Stone

Retired:

Chris Maxwell

Ongoing discussions regarding new contract:

Neo Eccleston

Returning to parent club following loan:

Tawanda Chirewa
Joe Hodge
Nigel Lonwijk
Callum Marshall

First Team squad under contract in 2025/26 (in order of total minutes played):

Lee Nicholls
Sorba Thomas
David Kasumu
Ben Wiles
Brodie Spencer
Jacob Chapman
Lasse Sorensen
Herbie Kane
Antony Evans
Bojan Radulovic
Mickel Miller
Radinio Balker
Dion Charles
Ruben Roosken
Rhys Healey
Joe Taylor
Freddie Ladapo
Tom Iorpenda

This will be the first time junior teams have the chance to compete in the Mixed Doubles discipline at World Championship level, following the success of Mixed Doubles at the Youth Olympic Games in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024. The event is being held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from Tuesday 6 May until Sunday 11 May.

The event has 29 teams competing: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, England, Spain, Germany, Hong Kong China, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Nigeria, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Sweden, Türkiye, Ukraine and United States.

Scotland have been drawn in Group B and are represented by Robyn Munro and Orrin Carson. They are the current World University Games Mixed Doubles Champions and Orrin is also skip of the 2025 World Junior Championship rink. Robyn also has a World Gold, winning the World Juniors in 2023. Their first game is against Austria tomorrow at 9pm.

England's duo is Chloe McNaughton and Matthew Waring, who are going to play in Group C. Their first game is against Switzerland at 5pm tomorrow, with their second one against Turkiye at 1am on Wednesday. Matthew is a regular international and Chloe (now living and curling in Scotland) is another top English curler.

Bristol Rovers have sacked head coach Inigo Calderon following the team's relegation from League One.

Burton's draw with Wigan on Tuesday confirmed Rovers' return to League Two following three seasons in the third tier.

His final game in charge was a 4-1 defeat by Blackpool on Saturday, a ninth loss in 10 matches to end the campaign.

First-team coach Miguel Llera has also left The Memorial Stadium.

Calderon was appointed on Boxing Day but Rovers only won six of his 26 games in charge and they finished 22nd in the table.

The former Brighton & Hove Albion defender was appointed on a two-and-a-half-year deal, with the club 19th in the table and three points above the drop zone, but he failed to steer them to safety.

The Bristol Rovers job was Calderon's first in a first-team managerial role, with the 43-year-old previously being manager of Brighton's under-18s team.

In early March, back-to-back wins against Huddersfield and Bolton saw Rovers move nine points clear of the relegation zone, but a torrid run of eight defeats in nine games followed to drop them into the bottom four.


However, the issues that Taylor's team struggled with at the start of the campaign persisted under Calderon, particularly scoring goals and away form.

Rovers' tally of 44 goals scored is the fourth-lowest in the division - with 25 scored during Calderon's tenure - and the manager's plight was not helped by the loss of strikers Chris Martin and Promise Omochere to season-ending injuries in early March.

The club also sit bottom of the table for away results, having won only three times on the road. Under Calderon there was only one away win in 12 league matches, with just four goals scored.

Calderon had consistently been honest in his assessment of the side and last month said the team were playing like "a League Two side".

"It's been difficult. We knew it was my first chance in senior management and the fact I am not getting success has been frustrating for me," Calderon said following their defeat by Reading.

"But at the same time I sleep well in terms of I think I am trying to do everything possible - you cannot imagine the hours I try to put in to make this team stay in this division. It still hasn't been enough so maybe I have to do better, 100% I have to do better."


Inigo Calderon's short tenure as Rovers' head coach has been a difficult one for him. He was so excited to get the chance of his first senior job in football management he spent Christmas away from his family in Spain to prepare.

And while there were definitely some games where he - and the team - showed some real promise (back-to-back wins over Huddersfield and Bolton in a run of five home wins in seven games) their awful finish to the season sealed his fate.

He certainly made mistakes during that time, with some of his substitutions leaving fans scratching their heads. But potentially the biggest issues he's faced weren't of his making.

Rovers' owner, Hussain AlSaeed, told us this season's playing budget is the largest in the club's history, and while plenty of the players recruited in the summer are undoubtedly talented, the blend of a lot of youngsters and a handful of very senior players wasn't right.

Then in January, with all his senior strikers having had significant injury issues, they didn't sign an experienced player as cover.

And with just five goals scored in their past 10 games, that decision probably cost Calderon his job and Rovers their place in League One.

Meanwhile, Rovers have confirmed that nine players will be leaving the club when their contracts expire this summer, including captain Scott Sinclair.

The former Swansea and Celtic forward, 36, scored 13 goals in 113 appearances in two-and-a-half seasons with the Pirates.

Midfielders Grant Ward, Luke McCormick, Romaine Sawyers and Jerry Lawrence are all departing.

Defender Jack Hunt, forward Jevani Brown and goalkeeper Matt Hall are also being released, while striker Martin, whose contract is also expiring, will continue his rehabilitation from a knee injury with the club.

A one-year contract extension has been trigged in centre-back James Wilson's deal.

Here's the thread for us to debate rumours and chat for the pre season, comings and goings
I think it's safe to say unless a miracle happens and some rich muller or yank doesn't buy us then all we are going hear from Chansiri is defeaning silence! staff and players leaving the club and not a plan insight for the pre season let alone the actual season itself
It didn't bare thinking about a few weeks ago but we are now here and knee deep in the brown stuff
Enjoy ...
https://www.transfermarkt.com/sheffield-...erein/1035
https://www.swfc.co.uk/news/2025/may/15/owls-confirm-/

Somehow we've managed to sneak into the playoffs. Beat Accrington 1-0 at the Wham stadium which we never seem to win at, it's either a draw or a loss there and Carlisle managed to hold Salford to a 2-2 draw at Brunton Park.

So we've got to play Walsall in the playoffs, a team who I would have thought would have got automatic promotion minimum seeing as they were 12 pts clear at the top of the league at one stage through out the season. Their final game of the season was a 1-0 win away at Crewe.

We drew 2-2 at home to Walsall this season and lost 3-1 away. The last time we ever beat Walsall was August 2016 where we won 2-0 at home.

Our record against them is W31 D29 L36

2 points for correct result
4 points for correct score
2 points for each correct scorer
Correct joker doubles your score   (correct score on a joker would give you 8 points)
Wrong joker result gives you minus 2
Correct Badger gives you 2 points

The prize for winning the league is one rep point.

Cup games: In the event of a draw, it's half the points if you've predicted a draw when it gets to 90 mins and the full points if it's still a draw after extra time. Half the points will be awarded for correctly predicting the winner of the match if it goes to penalties. However, if you do predict a draw and it's a match that won't be going to a replay, you can get a possible extra point by stating which of the two teams you think will eventually win.

Random score generator: I will be using the random score generator again for those who miss predicting, so we shouldn't get some people too far behind that after missing a couple of weeks they lose all interest, because I know it's not easy getting on here every week.
To be fair to everybody, this is going to be like, say if three people in one week miss their predictions, the first one in the table will be given all 0-0, the second one down the line will get 1-0 and the third will get 0-1 and so on, like if there's four missing the 4th will get 1-1, then 5th 2-1, 6th 1-2. and if there are so many missing, might as well pack in.
And if you miss two weeks on the trot, I'll stop until you come back on again. Not doing it for half a season like I did t'other year.  


At the end of the season, the winner of group 2 and the bottom of group 1 will swap places in what is commonly known as "promotion" and "relegation". It's something that most football fans will be familiar with, unless you're a fan of Liverpool or Arsenal or one of those other fashionable clubs.

The second placed player in group 2 will then have a play off with the player who finishes second from the bottom in group 1 to decide whether they will be going up, down or staying where they are.

We're going to have two seasons in one though, just to try and make it a bit more interesting and not so long drawn out. The first season will end on the Boxing Day fixtures, with the play offs being on the dates of the Twixtmas fixtures and the NYD fixtures.

The second season will start the following week, which is usually the FA Cup 3rd round, finishing on the last game of the League One season. Then another period of relegation/promotion play off games, taking in such fixtures as the EFL play offs, FA Cup Final, UEFA finals and such like.

Each group will have it's own set of fixtures. Both groups will have the Town games, with scorers to predict as before. Then it will be a split of League One fixtures and bonus matches, hopefully around ten, eleven or twelve games per Matchday.

The random badger is restricted to three goal scorers in any of the fixtures in your group.

Here's how that will appear at the end of the fixture list. All you have to do is fill in the blanks.......


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Any of those will score two points if correct. No minus points for getting it wrong.

Postponed matches will only count if the match is re-played before the next Matchday is under way. Abandoned matches will be awarded half the points for the score at the time of abandonment, so 1 point if you have the correct result, 2 points if you have the correct score.

Substitute or scorer in one of the Town games:- These will be only be allowed if you change them before the match involved has kicked off.

Prediction League Archive: https://www.sportsbabble.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=12830


So we now have a two legged Play Off between St Charles Owl and SHEP_HTAFC. The usual rules apply, but in the case of the match ending in a tie, we will have a tie breaker. That will be to predict the total number of corners in a random game chosen from the list in the 2nd leg. The closest wins. If it's still a tie, the winner will be the one who scored most points over the season, which in that case would be Shep.


Final Division One table for 2025:

1. Baggiebob(BBB) = 302 pts
   
2. neonfoxinthebox = 301 pts
   
3. Lord Snooty = 295 pts
   
4. jjamez = 283 pts
   
5. St Charles Owl = 278 pts
   
6. themaclad = 254 pts
   

1. ritchiebaby = 307 pts
   
2. SHEP_HTAFC = 300 pts
   
3. theo_luddite = 294 pts
   
4. Devongone = 268 pts
   
5. WakeyTerrier = 206 pts
   
6. Amelia Chaffinch = 193 pts
   

Thursday 8th May:
Championship Play Offs 1st leg:
Bristol City v Sheffield United (20:00)

Friday 9th May:
Coventry City v Sunderland (20:00)

Saturday 10th May:
League One Play Offs 1st leg:
Leyton Orient v Stockport County (12:30)

Sunday:
Wycombe Wanderers v Charlton Athletic (18:30)

Saturday:
League Two Play Offs 1st leg:
Notts County v AFC Wimbledon (20:00)

Sunday:
Chesterfield v Walsall (15:30)

Monday 12th May:
Championship Play Offs 2nd leg:
Sheffield United v Bristol City (20:00)

Tuesday 13th May:
Sunderland v Coventry City (20:00)

Wednesday 14th May:
League One Play Offs 2nd leg:
Stockport County v Leyton Orient (20:00)

Thursday 15th May:
Charlton Athletic v Wycombe Wanderers (20:00)

Friday 16th May:
League Two Play Offs 2nd leg:
AFC Wimbledon v Notts County (20:00)

Saturday17th May:
Walsall v Chesterfield (12:30)


*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***
*** scores for ***

Hibs welcome United to Easter Road tomorrow in another vital match in the race for 3rd place. A narrow defeat at Aberdeen last weekend shouldn't affect Hibs too much but the failure in turning opportunities into goals must be more concerning.

I'm sure that will be rectified this weekend and every goal scored and every point secured from now on will be hard-earned in a dog-eat-dog last few weeks.