Hugs, private meetings and a common touch - Ex-Sheffield Wednesday man describes life with Xisco

A run of 16 wins in 23 league matches since the turn of the year does the job and then some as they follow Norwich City into the biggest league in the world. Placed reluctantly at the centre of the celebrations, a 40-year-old Spaniard, suited and thrown high into the air by his adoring players at a Vicarage Road lain empty by the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Xisco Munoz - know simply as Xisco in his playing days and to his players - is clearly a popular figure having taken over from Vladmimir Ivic just before Christmas with the Hornets sat fifth. In the moments after promotion is confirmed he takes the time to thank each of his staff and every player individually before the Champagne rolls in.

When Xisco is sacked with the club 15th in the Premier League just a few months on it seems cruel and draws a disappointed reaction from his players. He left with a win percentage of 58.33%. Claudio Ranieri and then Roy Hodgson take Watford down 15 points short of safety.

Achraf Lazaar, a one-time Wednesday loanee signed by Xisco to bolster their promotion push in the February of the 2020/21 season, remembers a class act human being above all else.

HIs former boss is now in charge of his former club at Hillsborough and will continue pre-season with Wednesday as they look to build towards their own return to the Championship.

“He’s a very good coach,” Lazaar told The Star. “But you can see the person he is. He’s an amazing person, always with a smile. When you arrive into training or for a game and you see your coach there with big energy and a good spirit, that’s so good. Xisco brings that always.

“He’s very personable with all of the players, from the youngest to the oldest. Everyone is treated the same.

“I took a lot of things from my time with him. He is the sort of coach you can go to, speak to and get advice from. You want to play for him.

“He’s not the sort of manager that just throws you the shirt on a weekend. You get everything from him all through the week. This is Xisco, you know?

“He is a player. He is a coach but also, with the guys you see him almost as a teammate. His staff are the same as him; unique, all together. For them, the team is the most important thing. They appreciate that different people need different things, they give their best and they are with the players until the end.”

Training will be tough for a Wednesday squad including a few of his old teammates Barry Bannan, Liam Palmer and Dominic Iorfa, Lazaar says. It’s something perhaps evidenced by Xisco’s revelation that he had laid on a triple session within 24 hours or so before their pre-season win over Chesterfield this week.

But it is Xisco’s personable and open relationship with his players that in Lazaar’s own words will have them ‘running through walls’ in training.

“I remember him calling me to meet him,” he remembered. “I had been playing in the second team at Newcastle and maybe I was low on confidence. When I came to Watford, in the week I was maybe nervous; I didn’t say anything, I was coming in with a smile and doing my best but inside myself I was a little bit low on confidence. He saw that.

“He told me to go to his office after training, he spoke to me and he gave me all the trust and confidence. I stopped worrying so much. From there, the games I played I played well I think.”

Short stints at Spanish second tier side Huesca and in Cyrpus with Anorthosis have come and gone since Xisco’s Watford tenure, which at 36 matches stands as his longest run in management.

He’ll be hoping to lay some roots in South Yorkshire. And he’ll do it by being entertaining.

“He is a coach who wants to play good football,” said Lazaar. “He was born in Spain, he knows what football should be and he wants to attack so much. He won’t defend and defend and he knows how to attack from the front.

“The fans will love his play and how he wants to play almost tiki-taka if you like. He will need time of course.

“Xisco is young and in my career I found him one of the best managers.”