It was never a relationship that was designed for longevity. But if Watford and Marco Silva was a marriage of convenience, they were nonetheless soulmates of sorts. Not in the conventional way, admittedly. But Watford show little loyalty to managers. Silva shows little to clubs. The Portuguese had tried to orchestrate a break-up when Everton made advances towards him. Instead, Watford dissolved their union, coupling with Javi Gracia with such speed to make it apparent they had been talking to him behind Silva’s back.
There may be little sympathy for Silva, who suffered from a surfeit of ambition and whose talent means he will probably be back in management soon, if not perhaps at the stratospheric level he evidently hopes to reach. His may be a case study of the dangers of treating clubs as stepping stones, but in other respects, he is no anomaly.
He was the eighth Premier League manager to lose his job this season. By way of comparison, only six were sacked during the whole of last season. It means that, 60 per cent into the campaign, 40 per cent of the men who began the season in the dugouts are gone. A certain type of manager is more imperilled: because the top six have kept faith with their coaches, more than half the other clubs have sacked someone. Take out the constants, in the 2012 appointments Eddie Howe and Sean Dyche, and two thirds of the lesser lights have fired.
_________________
_________________
There is a common denominator. While Silva was sacked with Watford in 10th place, they were seemingly in freefall, after taking five points from a possible 33. Others’ fears of relegation looked more immediate: six clubs dispensed of managers when in the bottom three while West Bromwich Albion were 17th when they axed Tony Pulis.
The day before Silva’s departure, Stoke City marked their first league game under Paul Lambert by beating Huddersfield Town to jump out of the drop zone. It conformed to a trend: new managers have often had an early impact. Only Alan Pardew at Albion has a lower points-per-game average than his predecessor, and then only fractionally.
The unlikely poster boys – ageing and unfashionable and scarcely coming off glorious triumphs in their last jobs – for the strategy of change are David Moyes, Roy Hodgson and Claude Puel. The Scot has taken West Ham United from 18th to 11th. The Englishman inherited a Crystal Palace team with neither a point nor a goal but has reached the comparative safety of 13th position rather quicker than anticipated. There were only two teams below Leicester City when they sacked Craig Shakespeare. Now there are only six ahead of Puel’s team.
It suggests that the lower half of the Premier League is moving towards a quick-fix culture, where managers are recruited on short-term assignments, charged with delivering straight away, knowing one slump is a sackable offence and in a climate where a fear of a costly drop in the Championship means any thoughts of loyalty are outweighed by concerns about the consequences if it backfires.
Watford may be deemed pioneers in that respect. Their hire-and-fire policy jars with those who believe managers deserve time to build their team and implement a style of play. Yet Silva, like Quique Sanchez Flores and Walter Mazzarri before him, made a flying start. For each, the problem was sustaining it.
Unlike Stoke and Everton, Watford had a replacement lined up when they sacked their manager. Indeed Stoke, who had only had three managers in 15 years, arguably persisted with Mark Hughes for too long whereas Watford have never seemed clouded by sentimentality. Neither, for that matter, has Silva. Perhaps they are the ultimate modern manager and club respectively.
_________________
Table (note: excludes Swansea City v Liverpool and games under caretaker managers)
Leicester City
- Under Shakespeare – 6 points from 8 games, 0.75 points per game.
- Under Puel – 25 points from 15 games, 1.67 points per game.
Everton
- Under Koeman – 8 points from 9 games, 0.89 points per game.
- Under Allardyce – 13 points from 10 games, 1.30 points per game.
West Ham United
- Under Bilic – 9 points from 11 games, 0.82 points per game.
- Under Moyes – 17 points from 13 games, 1.31 points per game.
Crystal Palace
- Under De Boer – 0 points from 4 games, 0.0 points per game.
- Under Hodgson – 25 points from 20 games, 1.25 points per game.
Stoke City
- Under Hughes – 20 points from 22 games, 0.91 points per game.
- Under Lambert – 3 points from 1 game, 3.0 points per game.
West Bromwich Albion
- Under Pulis – 10 points from 12 games, 0.84 points per game.
- Under Pardew – 8 points from 10 games, 0.80 points per game.
Swansea City
- Under Clement – 12 from 18 games, 0.67 points per game.
- Under Carvalhal – 4 points from 3 games, 1.33 points per game.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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76 nations
26 UAE teams
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Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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Graduated from the American University of Sharjah
She is the eldest of three brothers and two sisters
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
THREE
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
How%20to%20avoid%20getting%20scammed
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3ENever%20click%20on%20links%20provided%20via%20app%20or%20SMS%2C%20even%20if%20they%20seem%20to%20come%20from%20authorised%20senders%20at%20first%20glance%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EAlways%20double-check%20the%20authenticity%20of%20websites%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EEnable%20Two-Factor%20Authentication%20(2FA)%20for%20all%20your%20working%20and%20personal%20services%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EOnly%20use%20official%20links%20published%20by%20the%20respective%20entity%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EDouble-check%20the%20web%20addresses%20to%20reduce%20exposure%20to%20fake%20sites%20created%20with%20domain%20names%20containing%20spelling%20errors%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A
The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Fixtures (all in UAE time)
Friday
Everton v Burnley 11pm
Saturday
Bournemouth v Tottenham Hotspur 3.30pm
West Ham United v Southampton 6pm
Wolves v Fulham 6pm
Cardiff City v Crystal Palace 8.30pm
Newcastle United v Liverpool 10.45pm
Sunday
Chelsea v Watford 5pm
Huddersfield v Manchester United 5pm
Arsenal v Brighton 7.30pm
Monday
Manchester City v Leicester City 11pm