Watford chief Ben Manga has backed Valerien Ismaël to be a success at the club, despite him barely lasting six months at previous clubs.
Manga has been speaking to Sport 1 in Germany about his time in charge at Watford so far, after arriving as technical director in December last year.
It’s been a busy six months for him at Vicarage Road since that point, with a busy transfer window and managerial appointments already under his belt.
He made a change in manager in March by deciding to bring in Chris Wilder until the end of the season but quickly dispensed with his services at the beginning of this month to bring in Ismaël as Watford’s new manager.
The French manager arrives after an unsuccessful spell at Besiktas, where he was in charge from March 2022 until October after leaving West Bromwich Albion in February before that.
Watford are his third club in the Championship after that spell with West Brom and an eight-month spell in charge of Barnsley.
Neither of those appointments worked out for him but Manga is confident it will be third time lucky at Watford.
“We did a profile and had a lot of conversations with sporting director Cristiano Giaretta and owner Gino Pozzo,” he said.
“In the end we decided on Valerien Ismaël because we are convinced that his style, his work and his aura will benefit our project.
“We will do everything we can to support and strengthen him so that in the end we can achieve the goal that we have all set ourselves. We want to go up.
“We don’t let things that come in from outside influence us. We’re going through with it because we as a club are convinced of Valerien Ismaël. Every club has its own ideas and visions.
“Based on this, a trainer is chosen. Ismaël made the best impression in the interviews. That’s why we chose him and didn’t listen to the media. We believe in him, and we will try to achieve our big goal of promotion to the Premier League together.”
