“I turned down Watford” – Manager reveals he’s snubbed Hornets

Janne Andersson has revealed he turned down Watford while in charge of the Sweden national team.

The 63-year-old refused to take over the Watford job when the current Championship side were in the Premier League.

He started his coaching career at lower division side Swedish Alets IK in 1988. Since then, he had spells at Halmstads BK and Laholms FK between 1990 and 1998.

After taking a break for two years, the Swede returned to Halmstads BK as an assistant manager in 2000 and took over the role as a head coach in 2004. A short spell at Örgryte IS in 2010 and then a five-year period at IFK Norrköping.

The Swede had his entire coaching career in his own country before taking over the national team in June 2016. He was in charge for over six years and stepped down from his role in November 2023.

Watford made concrete approach

Janne Andersson hasn’t returned to the bench since leaving the national team. In April 2025, he announced his retirement from his coaching career.

He’s now written a book, titled ‘Da var då’, in which he covered about Watford’s firm attempt to bring him to Vicarage Road. Fotbollskanalen have relayed his comments.

The Hornets approached him in December 2019, after parting ways with Quique Sánchez Flores.

Watford ended up appointing Nigel Pearson as Flores’ successor that month. Prior to that, they wanted to bring in Andersson.

“You have to be happy while you can. If you lose a few games, it’s the other way around,” he writes.

“A fun thing is that I turned down the chance to become manager at Watford. They contacted me with a relatively concrete request. Then you never know if anything would have come of it.

“For me, it was never an option, but still. I thought for an hour and called back. No, I wouldn’t work to leave Sweden now and stand there in England and hold training on Monday. I was happy anyway, what we have done for the last 3.5 years is noticeable.”

Sweden appointed Jon Dahl Tomasson as his successor in February 2024, weeks after his Blackburn Rovers exit. At that time, the Dane was happy to leave his difficult situation with Rovers.

What happened at Watford during 2019/20 season

The 2019/20 season was halted due to global pandemic and was extended until July 2020.

Watford had four managers during that season.

• Javi Gracia: Start to September 2019
• Quique Sánchez Flores: September to December
• Nigel Pearson: December to July 2020
• Hayden Mullins: July until end of season

The Hornets won eight of 38 Premier League matches and were relegated after finishing 19th in the table. A year later, they returned to the top flight, only to drop down to the Championship after one season.