Watford say sorry after Marco Silva joke branded 'disrespectful' by Gary Lineker

Watford chairman Scott Duxbury has apologised after a tweet sent out by the club was branded disrespectful by former England striker Gary Lineker.

A tweet from Watford's official account on Monday poked fun at Lineker for a year-old post in which he described the sacking of former Hornets boss Marco Silva as an "absurd decision".

Quoting Lineker's tweet from last January, which also stated the club would "almost certainly get someone less talented", the Watford post read: "This aged well..."

Under head coach Javi Gracia, Watford now sit seventh in the Premier League table, four places and three points ahead of Silva's Everton.

While Lineker acknowledged that he may have been wrong in his assessment at the time, he took issue with the tone of Watford's tweet, suggesting it was "rather disrespectful" to Silva.

The exchange led some to call for the head of the person responsible for the "disrespectful" tweet, but Lineker self-referentially suggested that was unnecessary.

And it prompted an apology from Watford chairman Scott Duxbury, who joked that he "might be going through more Social Media Managers than Head Coaches soon".

Watford confirmed that, unlike Silva this time last year, nobody in their media team would be losing their job for the tweet.

Silva was sacked last January with the club citing Everton's approach for their manager as a major factor in their downturn in form.