Birmingham City receives huge boost as Watford suffer serious set-back…

Tom Cleverley will take his seat in the Watford dugout for the first time since replacing Valerien Ismael against Birmingham City this weekend.

While Watford have been encouraged by the latest news on Giorgi Chakvetadze’s injury, interim head coach Tom Cleverley has intimated that the midfielder may miss this weekend’s trip to Birmingham City.

The Georgian was substituted at halftime in last weekend’s 2-1 home loss to Coventry City, and while the Hornets’ immediate concerns were not alleviated, Cleverley stated that he would return’sooner rather than later’.

The former Manchester United midfielder was promoted following the expulsion of Valerien Ismael following the defeat at Vicarage Road, which left Watford in 14th place, seven points above the bottom three.

They have only won once since January 14, against Rotherham. They will face a Blues team that has not won since Mark Venus replaced Tony Mowbray.

Cleverley was queried about the crucial player’s injury situation and responded. “It’s not as horrible as we had expected. There’s a lot of pain around right now, and there’s some bruising on the ankle, but we’re hoping Giorgi will be back with us soon. Jeremy Ngakia (knee ligaments) and Ken Sema (hamstring) will miss this weekend’s match.

Cleverley has also expressed his delight in being elevated from his post as Under-18s coach to the spotlight with the first team: “I’m certainly quite happy. To be honest, I haven’t given much attention to the sentiment behind it since the first thing I thought when I received the call was, ‘How do we beat Birmingham on Saturday?’

“I’m sure over the next days and weeks I’ll realise how big this opportunity is. Although I’m very aware this is only a temporary thing, I’d be lying if I said I’d not dreamt of achieving big things here.”