Sean Dyche Promoted To Watford Manager

As predicted Sean Dyche has stepped up from his role as assistant and become the new manager of Watford. The vacancy opened up last week following the departure of Malky Mackay to Cardiff City and Dyche has since been the outright bookies favourite to take over at Vicarage Road. The 39-year-old will now start to assemble his own staff at the club as he builds towards the future and looks to take the club forward.

Dyche began his football career at Nottingham Forest before playing for the likes of Chesterfield, Bristol City, Luton and Millwall. He then spent two years at Watford from 2002-2005, making over 70 appearances and even captaining the club. Dyche then returned to Watford as youth-team coach in 2007, and his talents were obvious for everyone to see as he was then promoted to assistant manager in the summer of 2009 following the permanent appointment of Mackay. Watford Chairman Graham Taylor has spoken of the importance of continuity and how the club were keen to continue the work that Mackay started, which therefore made the appointment of Dyche a relatively easy decision.

Due to his lack of experience it will be a big challenge for Dyche and it will be interesting to see how he fairs in his first managerial role. There has been a recent trend recently of employing young, ambitious managers (e.g. Karl Robinson, Eddie Howe, Jim Bentley) most of whom are currently enjoying relative success throughout The Football League spectrum, and Dyche will aiming to follow in their footsteps.

Dyche begins his reign with a tricky away trip to Eddie Howe's Burnley. Watford are available at 7/2 to get their season off to a winning start, with Burnley priced at 8/11 and a draw 12/5. Bet365 have Watford at rather long odds of 80/1 to finish the 2011/12 season as Championship Winners and 20/1 to win promotion.