After sacking Claudio Ranieri, their second coaching dismissal of the season, Watford are set to appoint Roy Hodgson until the end of the campaign in a bid for Premier League survival.

Hodgson departed Crystal Palace at the end of last season after a successful four-year spell and has been out of football since, but he looks to be set for a return to the game on a six-month contract.

Ranieri was brought in to replace Xisco in October but the gamble on the veteran Italian failed to pay off and Watford decided to axe the former Leicester boss after just 13 matches.

After a run of eight games without a win in the Premier League, Watford are 19th in the table and facing a mountainous task to stay in the division.

Hodgson, however, has an abundance of experience for just this kind of task, as he famously saved Crystal Palace in 2017/18 after the team had lost their first seven matches of the campaign, eventually leading them to an 11th placed finish.

He parted ways with the Eagles at the end of 2020/21 after another safe and solid season in charge, but never clarified whether he would be simply leaving or retiring.

“I really am stepping away from football for a while, but who knows what the future will be?” he said at the end of last season.

“It is a never-say-never moment. I’ve seen so many people retire with all the fanfare blazing, only to surface again somewhere in a fairly short period of time. I’d prefer not to do that.”

It seems that he indeed will be resurfacing, and taking on one of the toughest tasks of his long career.