Man Utd can learn from Elton John's champagne sack decision if they wield Erik ten Hag axe

Every year it’s the same. Bookmakers call the odds on the next manager expected to lose his job, and their speculation is more ghoulish than Halloween itself.

One week it’s ’s head on the block, then it’s . They call it the sack race, but it isn’t really a race at all.

And , often a dismally corporate statement on the club website adorned by a corner flag with the air of a harpoon spearing another decent man’s livelihood.

Seldom, if ever, is a P45 administered with any style, which makes ’s tale of the night he was sacked by worth recycling - because the turned a thankless exercise into a touch of class.

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Bassett’s reign at as Graham Taylor’s successor 37 years ago was not a success, and the Hornets chairman had resolved to act.

“It was just after and I knew what was coming,” said Bassett, who turned 80 last month. “Ron Noades (the chairman) had rung to say he’d recommended me to Sheffield United because I was going to get the sack and it was only a question of when, not if. Cheers, Ron, don’t beat about the bush, eh?

“We’d lost 1-0 at home to despite Tony Agana running them ragged - how we lost that game I’ll never know, but when I got home, expecting to have dinner with the in-laws, the phone rings and it’s Elton.

“He said he was round at (former Watford director) John Reid’s house, which wasn’t that far from where I lived, asked me to pop over for a chat and he was sending his driver, Derek, to pick me up. I’m not saying John Reid lived in big house but it had a Little Chef halfway up the drive.

“Anyway, I get there and I’m ushered into a magnificent lounge - cream leather sofas, lovely carpets, beautiful decor - and Elton says, ‘The boys were brilliant today, Harry, have a glass of champagne.’

“I thought, f****** hell, if he’s going to sack me, how’s he going to do it after that introduction?

“We sit down and he points to a cushion like a big dice, with dots on each face, and he says, ‘We’re going to have a game with that - come on Harry, if you throw one to five, you get the sack.’

“I said, ‘The odds aren’t very good, are they? But what are you going to do if I throw this cushion and it lands on a six?’

“And he replies, ‘It’s obvious, Harry - you have another f****** throw.’ So we got slaughtered drinking champagne, and when I got home at four o’clock in the morning my wife goes, ‘How did you get on?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’ve got the sack but it was a bloody good night.’

“It didn’t work out for me at Watford, for one reason or another, but Elton was an absolutely fantastic chairman to work for. As well as my severance package, he paid for me and the family to go on a three-week holiday in California.”

There was a cruel twist before Bassett - voted the greatest manager at both Wimbledon, where he was the Crazy Gang headmaster, and Sheffield United - left Vicarage Road. He said: “Elton asked me to take the team for the following Saturday’s tie at home to Hull, three or four days later, and my departure would be announced afterwards - but even then, I couldn’t get a break.

“We had signed a striker called Trevor Senior who scored goals for fun at Reading, but he couldn’t score a f****** goal for me at Watford.

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“It’s 1-1 against Hull, it’s p***ing down, Senior goes round the keeper slips it towards the empty net and turns to the crowd to celebrate a late winner… and the ball gets stuck in a f****** puddle on the line.

“I thought, ‘Well I’ll be f***ed, I can’t even win a game when I’ve been sacked.’

“I got the job at Sheffield United about a month later, and Watford sent Trevor out on loan to Middlesbrough. When we went up to Ayresome Park and got thrashed 6-0, of course he scored two of them.”

The sack - with a touch of class. More owners and chairmen should try it.

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