For Watford fans, the name Oscar Garcia isn’t necessarily going to bring back good memories, since the manager, now at Stade de Reims in France, lasted a grand total of 27 days at the helm of the Vicarage Road side.
In that time, the Hornets won one game, drew two and lost the other one, and the now 48-year-old also spent a week in hospital after suffering from chest pains.
He stepped down soon after, leaving the door open for Watford to appoint Slavisa Jokanovic a bit later.
Garcia took some time away from football to recover, something he feels he should have done before accepting the Watford job, which he explained to So Foot on Tuesday, who asked him about his two spells in charge of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
First recalling that the Israeli city was in a ‘state of emergency’ when he took over the first time round, which was then followed by ‘five days of armed conflict’, Garcia added that ‘fifty days of conflict’ took place when he returned after his time at Brighton & Hove Albion.
The stress and mixed information he was receiving about security matters led to him having a ‘really difficult time in Tel Aviv’, and ultimately forced him to walk away from his job.
He then added: “The mistake I made was to immediately wanting to bounce back at Watford, a few weeks later. Besides, it didn’t last very long because of health problems. Mentally, I was very affected when I arrived in England. I failed to regain sufficient motivation, and my health was suffering. I cut my time short to take a professional break. It was becoming vital”.
Garcia stepped away from football for over a year between September 29th 2014 and December 28th 2015, when RB Salzburg appointed him as their manager, which would end up being his lengthiest spell as a first-team manager (534 days).
