Watford manager Walter Mazzarri will leave the Premier League club at the end of the season.
Italian Mazzarri will depart the Hornets after just one year in charge and with the club 16th in the Premier League table with one game remaining.
Watford announced that Mazzarri would be stepping down following a meeting with the club’s board on Wednesday afternoon.
“After the board discussed with Walter Mazzarri the club’s future goals and aspirations, it was decided he will be stepping down from his position as the club’s Head Coach after the final game of the 2016/17 season,” Watford chairman Scott Duxbury said in a statement.
“We thank Walter and his staff for the contribution they have made to Watford Football Club over the past year.”
Mazzarri, the former Inter Milan and Napoli manager, has come under increasing pressure at Watford following the club’s slump in form in which they have lost their last five matches.
The 55-year-old Italian signed a three-year deal, but will leave after just one campaign.
His final game in charge will be at home to Manchester City on Sunday.
Mazzarri had been hopeful that he would be given sufficient time to turn Watford’s fortunes around. But reports of an unsettled dressing room and and their poor run of results — they have taken just three points from a possible 21 - ensures the club will be seeking yet another new manager.
Spaniard Quique Sanchez Flores was sacked by Watford last summer — despite guiding the club to the FA Cup semi-finals and comfortably retaining their status in the top division — while Slavisa Jokanovic departed a year earlier after leading Watford into the Premier League.
Indeed Mazzarri was the seventh Watford manager hired by the Pozzo family since they bought the club in 2012.
