Watford were founding members of the Third Division in 1920 which lasted for one season, as in 1921 the Football League expanded to four divisions. Watford were placed into the Third Division South, where they remained until the de-regionalisation of the Third Division in 1958. Having finished in the bottom half of the league in 1957/58, the club were admitted to the newly created Fourth Division for the following season. In their second season in the fourth tier, Watford achieved their first Football League promotion under Ron Burgess, with fourth place being good enough in 1959/60 for promotion.

Watford remained in the Third Division for much of the next decade until Ken Furphy guided them to their first league title in 1968/69. The Hornets made little impression on the Second Division, managing to hold themselves in the league for three seasons, but only managing a best position of 18th, before suffering their first Football League relegation in 1971/72, with George Kirby at the helm. Watford didn’t make a great return to the third tier, and suffered a second relegation after another three seasons – returning back to the Fourth Division for 1975/76 under the management of Mike Keen.

In 1976, lifelong fan Elton John took ownership of the club, and within a year had brought in Graham Taylor as manager, who had won the Fourth Division two seasons earlier with Lincoln City. In Taylor and John’s first season together, Watford won the Fourth Division title and began a meteoric rise up the Football League ladder. The Hornets achieved back-to-back promotions when they finished runners-up of the Third Division in 1978/79. Three seasons of continual improvement in the Second Division, concluded with Watford claiming another runners-up spot and promotion to the First Division in 1981/82.

Watford initially took the First Division by storm, finishing in second place in their first top flight campaign, only beaten by the dominant Liverpool side of the 1980s. Luther Blissett was the division’s top scorer with 27 goals, before departing for Italian giants A.C. Milan. The second place finish meant qualification for the 1983/84 UEFA Cup, where Watford reached the third round, in the clubs only foray into European football to date. They finished the season with a place in the 1984 FA Cup final where they lost 2-0 to Everton. Back in the league, Watford had four mid-table finishes under Taylor, before he left to take on a new challenge at Aston Villa who had just been relegated out of the First Division.

Taylor’s successor, Dave Bassett only lasted half a season before he was sacked with Watford bottom of the table, his replacement Steve Harrison could not salvage the situation and Watford were relegated from the top flight. The Hornets spent the next eight seasons in the second tier: Colin Lee, Steve Perryman and Glenn Roeder came and went, before Taylor returned to the club as manager in February 1996. Taylor now arrived as a former England manager, but with Watford rooted to the bottom of the table. The task left to Taylor was too great, and Watford slipped into the third tier for the first time since Taylor had led them out of it 17 years earlier. Taylor did manage to salvage a small consolation for Hornets supporters, as he turned the club round enough to ensure rivals Luton Town were the only club to finish below the Vicarage Road side.

Taylor stepped aside to allow Kenny Jackett to take the reigns at Watford for the 1996/97 season, where Watford were disappointingly mid-table. Taylor became the clubs manager for a third time for the start of the 1997/98 season, which saw Watford storm to the Division 2 title and promotion. The following season back in the second tier, Watford had a late surge at the end of the season, claiming 22 out of the last 24 available points in the campaign to sneak into the Play-Offs. Taylor navigated Watford through the Play-Offs with promotion back to the top flight secured with a 2-0 Wembley win over Bolton.

Two promotions in two years showed Watford up in their first Premier League campaign in 1999/2000, as the club were bottom for most of the season, and were relegated with just six wins all season. However there were some famous victories over Liverpool at Anfield and Chelsea at home. Watford started the following season brightly and were one of the favourites to return to the Premier League, but after failing to recover from a mid-season slump, Watford tailed off to finish mid-table. Taylor retired at the end of this season, although came out of retirement less than a year later to take charge at Aston Villa for a second time, wanting to give the Premier League a proper go. Taylor only lasted a season and a half with Villa, before resigning after an unsuccessful 2002/03 campaign.

After Taylor departed Watford for the final time, he was replaced by former Chelsea manager Gianluca Vialli, who invested heavily in a number of experienced names. Following Watford’s failure to get anywhere near promotion in 2001/02, Vialli was sacked after just one season in charge, and in the wake of the collapse of ITV Digital, the club spent the next few seasons dodging administration under Ray Lewington. After almost three seasons in charge Lewington was given the boot after a disappointing run of form, despite taking Watford to the League Cup semi-finals.

This sparked a run of inexperienced appointments, with the club still managing its financial situation carefully. Little known Aidy Boothroyd was the man to replace Lewington, and after ensuring safety at the end of 2004/05, the ambitious 36 year-old set his sights much higher for the following season. Against the expectations of many, shoe-string budget Watford had a memorable season, finishing third and, like under Taylor seven years earlier, winning the Play-Offs, with a 3-0 convincing win over Leeds United. However, again, like Taylor, Watford struggled in the Premier League and were relegated after finishing bottom of the table the following season.

Watford scraped into the Play-offs again on their return to the Championship, but exited at the semi-final stage on this occasion. A poor start to the 2008/09 saw Boothroyd leave the club by mutual consent, to be replaced by the relatively unheard of Brendan Rodgers, who impressed and steered the club to safety. Rodgers left controversially to join Reading at the end of the season, which led Watford to recruit internally for the next couple of appointments.

Former player Malky Mackay was Watford’s next manager, the Scotsman who had been caretaker manager for five games between Boothroyd and Rodgers, made the step up to the top job for the next two seasons, where Watford had two bottom half finishes. Mackay left for Cardiff City in the summer of 2011, and another former club defender Sean Dyche kicked off his managerial career, guiding the team to an impressive mid-table finish with no funds.

In the summer of 2012 Watford secured their financial status when the Pozzo family took over the club. The Pozzos own Serie A side Udinese, whose finishing positions this century could be likened to that of an Everton – never winning the league, but often doing well enough to reach some form of European football. With the Pozzos has clearly come the hire-and-fire style that is associated with Italian football. The Pozzo family decided they wanted their own man and brought in another former Chelsea striker – Gianfranco Zola to take charge at Vicarage Road. Equipped with an influx of Udinese owned players, Watford were promotion contenders all season, missing out on automatic promotion on the last day of the season, and then again in the Play-Off final with defeat to Crystal Palace. The following season started poorly, and led to Zola’s departure, replaced by another Italian – Beppe Sannino, who could only finish Watford in mid-table.

The 2014/15 season was easily the craziest season in terms of managers that Watford have had. Sannino started the season brightly, but left the club five games in amongst dressing room discontent. Former Brighton manager Oscar Garcia was appointed his successor, but only managed one game in the flesh and resigned after four games citing ill-health. The club named Billy McKinlay the next manager at Vicarage Road, but he only lasted two games, before being replaced by another former Chelsea player, Slavisa Jokanovic, in confusing circumstances. This meant that by October Watford were onto their fourth manager of the season. Jokanovic managed to lead Watford to automatic promotion and a return to the Premier League after eight seasons in the Championship.

No sooner had Jokanovic delivered promotion were there murmurings that he was going to be replaced as manager. Rumours turned to fact as Spaniard Quique Sanchez Flores took over the helm. Flores had a successful start to the season, as unfancied Watford were as high as seventh around Christmas and reached the FA Cup semi-finals. However poor performances and results in the second half of the season saw him replaced by former Inter Milan and Napoli boss Walter Mazzarri for the 2016/17 season. Like Flores, Mazzarri guided Watford to Premier League safety but his future was often questioned after poor performances, particularly in the second half of the season, and his refusal to speak English in interviews. It was no surprise when it was announced before the final game of the season that he would be relieved of his duties come the season’s close.

Watford took little time in appointing Mazzarri’s successor – Marco Silva, who had impressed despite just being relegated with Hull City. Silva had a good start for Watford, with 15 points from his opening 11 games, however it all turned sour quickly when Everton showed an interest in taking the Portugeuese coach to Goodison Park. Silva did not deny interest in the Everton role, and results dropped off, leaving Watford to sack Silva in January 2018. Silva went onto to be appointed manager of Everton later that year.

Javi Gracia was quickly announced as Silva’s replacement, another Spaniard who was largely unknown in England. Gracia had a slow start but kept Watford up in 2018, before impressively winning the first four league games of the 2018/19 season, leaving Watford joint top of the Premier League. The good start inevitably slowed, but Watford were in the top half of the table for almost all of the season, dropping to 11th on the final day – still a Premier League highest finish for the club. Watford’s focus had been taken off the league for a couple of months with their FA Cup run that culminated in a second FA Cup final for the club, following in Graham Taylor’s 1984 side’s footsteps. Like Taylor’s team, the 2019 Watford side were defeated in the FA Cup final – losing 6-0 to Manchester City.