There is a bad moon rising over Vicarage Road.

Fevered speculation among anxious Watford supporters have set grapevines humming, spawned emergency spaces on Elon Musk’s x, and given birth to defiant hashtags.

Rumoured sightings of the inauspicious orb bode ill for Watford’s current managerial incumbent, Tom Cleverley. Concerned fans have taken to social media urging the club to #backtom.

It’s barely 80 days since a gigantic banner was held aloft in the Rookery End celebrating Tom Cleverley at Vicarage Road. He was lauded as ‘one of our own’, as a player, captain and now manager of the club.

Yet in the brief amount of time it took Filias Fogg to circumnavigate the globe, Cleverley’s position now appears under threat.

While the genesis of such foreboding remains murky, there’s little doubt that the stars are not aligning for the popular head coach.

The Hornets are in a poor run of form. At Cardiff they were only spared a fifth defeat in six outings by a late goal from Vakoun Bayo. Watford have struggled on their travels all season. Worryingly for Cleverley even home comforts have deserted his team of late.

It was lowly Cardiff City who snapped the Hornet’s unbeaten record at the Vic. High flying Sheffield United then immediately inflicted a further loss at home.

With the much vaunted fortress of Vicarage Road finally breached, questions are now being asked about the solidity of those foundations.

None of this will have been lost on Watford’s impetuous owner, Gino Pozzo. Patience is a virtue rarely ascribed to the trigger happy Italian. The owner disposes of managers with the alacrity of a Roman emperor dispatching christians in the colosseum.

Tom Cleverley is his nineteenth full time managerial appointment at Vicarage Road since Sean Dyche was sacked by Gino back in 2012. When the self same Sean Dyche departed Everton last week, his replacement David Moyes became the Merseyside club’s 26th permanent manager since 1939.

Many Watford fans will be having flashbacks to the last time the club had a bright young English manager.

Prised from Forest Green Rovers, Rob Edward’s appointment was meant to signal a cultural shift in Pozzo’s reign. This time the club were in it for the long haul.

“We will be supporting Rob Edwards come hell or hight water” claimed chairman Scott Duxbury, shortly before having his credibility shredded when Edwards was sacked just eleven games later.

A further harbinger of doom for Cleverley is the distinct lack of reinforcements to his depleted squad in this January’s transfer window.

While competitors are busily retooling in an arms race to make a final push for promotion, at Watford FC the quartermaster remains firmly ensconced in their cabin.  What are they doing in there?

Before the season even started the club were shorn of their player and young player of the year. Now team captain Daniel Bachmann is ruled out for three months while lacklustre striker Daniel Jebbison is back at Bournemouth following his disastrous loan spell at the club.

With Dwomoh injured, Sissoko a shadow of his former self and Bayo still an enigma, gaps are plain to see. 

Cleverley has repeatedly and publicly aired the need for fresh blood to augment a squad that was initially tipped for relegation. A squad that he has somehow propelled to the verge of playoff contention.

So far the response from the club, bar some familial business with Udinese, has been only the sound of crickets.

On Saturday Watford visit Derby County. For Tom Cleverley, an away win cannot come soon enough.