Marco Silva has made an instant impression on Watford ’s multi-lingual melting pot — by demanding that everyone speaks English.

After the language barrier of predecessor Walter Mazzarri speaking to the media through an interpreter and relaying instructions through trusted players in training, the new Hornets head coach insisted there will be no more cliques based on foreign tongues.

Watford’s current squad features 20 nationalities speaking 12 different languages, but Portuguese Silva has brought an end to the full house of Italian Mazzarri’s lingo bingo.

The 40-year-old, who took over as the ninth head coach in five years at Vicarage Road earlier this month, said: “Will the players be speaking in English? Yes. The main language is English, I have come here to speak English.

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“Normally, I talk in front of everyone in English. Sometimes I need to speak to Spanish players a bit in Spanish, but that is not perfect.”

Fortified by a good-luck call from Hornets life president Sir Elton John, Silva - who turned 40 a fortnight ago - snubbed Crystal Palace and Southampton to sign a two-year contract at Vicarage Road.

The average shelf life of a manager in Watford owner Gino Pozzo’s reign has been just eight-and-a-half months, and none of the club’s last six head coaches have last more than a year, but Silva has no qualms about taking on the job.

He said: “It’s not important for me to think about that – I don’t spend my days worrying about it. I respect the other managers who did a good job here. The club decides what they want, and I’m not the right person to talk about that.

Silva parachuted into Hull in January and almost worked a miracle by keeping them up (
Image:
AMA/Getty)

“Our target is clear: We need to prove we are a Premier League club, and then the ambition is to do better than the last two years. If I didn’t think I could last two years, I would have signed only for one. But in football you need to work day-by-day, and if you count the years on your contract that’s often your first mistake.

“I spoke on the phone with Sir Elton – he’s an amazing person and I hope he will come here for the first match against Liverpool next week. He just said the normal things like ‘Good luck’ and ‘You are a fantastic manager’ – I think he says that to everyone!”

Silva expects to be without skipper Troy Deeney for the opening week of the campaign.

Although the striker is back in light training after a recent groin operation, the curtain-raiser against Liverpool is likely to come round too soon for him to make the cut.

Rock-star Watford super fan Sir Elton hopes Silva won't go breaking his heart (
Image:
Getty)

But the man who arrived at Hull midway through last season with the Tigers needing snookers to stay up, and took their relegation fight to the penultimate game, wants to make Vicarage Road a fortress.

Until Hull’s 2-0 defeat by lame ducks Sunderland, Silva had presided over 41 home league games unbeaten at four different clubs, and he added: “I don’t like to talk about the past, but it was a big issue last season (for Hull) to take points away.

“Now I have to focus on the future, but in the Premier League it makes sense that when you don’t win at home there is more pressure to win points away.

“I don’t care whether I was underestimated or not. I respect everybody’s opinion, but what is most important is the opinion of the people who work with me: the players, my board, the supporters. Everywhere I have worked, I have enjoyed the support of those people.”