The 74-year-old former England boss replaces Claudio Ranieri at Vicarage Road as the Hornets continue to look towards experience in an attempt to avoid the drop.
Here, we look at the six oldest Premier League ‘new boys’.
Oldest Premier League manager appointments: 1. Roy Hodgson, 74 (Watford, 2022)
And we all thought Palace would be his final hurrah. Hodgson has knocked himself off the top spot as the oldest new recruit in Premier League history.
There will be no sending him out for a can of striped paint; old Roy has been around the block a few times. This is his 23rd different job in football management since becoming Halmstad BK boss in 1976, and his sixth in the Premier League since being named Blackburn manager in 1997.
2. Roy Hodgson, 70 (Crystal Palace, 2017)
Roy Hodgson left Crystal Palace at the end of last season (Facundo Arrizabalaga/PA)
After being sacked as manager of the Three Lions, Hodgson spent over a year out of the game before landing the job as boss of his boyhood club Crystal Palace. He would stay at Selhurst Park for four years, leaving last summer with the Eagles established in the top flight.
3. Claudio Ranieri, 69 (Watford, 2021)
Claudio Ranieri could not halt the slide at Watford following his appointment in October (Nick Potts/PA)
Ranieri made a surprise return to the Premier League when Watford turned to the man who guided Leicester to their unforgettable title success in 2016 after sacking Xisco Munoz. Just 14 days shy of turning 70, the Italian could not improve results and was sacked having lost 11 of his 14 games at the helm.
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Guus Hiddink enjoyed two interim spells in charge at Chelsea. (Nick Potts/PA)
The former Holland boss was named interim Chelsea manager following the sacking of Jose Mourinho in 2015 and guided them on a 12-game unbeaten run, finishing 10th. Hiddink had also managed the Blues for the final three months of the 2008/09 campaign. His nomadic coaching career saw Hiddink take in stints with the China Under-21 team and Curacao before announcing his retirement last year.
5. Dick Advocaat, 67 (Sunderland, 2015)
Dick Advocaat kept Sunderland in the top flight during his time at the Stadium of Light (Richard Sellers/PA)
Took over at Sunderland in March 2015, a day after the sacking of Gus Poyet with the Black Cats one point above the relegation zone. Advocaat left after keeping them up but had a change of heart and signed a one-year contract only to resign in October. Went on to have a third spell in charge of the Dutch national team before time in charge of Sparta Rotterdam, Utrecht, Feynoord and Iraq.
6. Sir Bobby Robson, 66 (Newcastle, 1999)
Bobby Robson’s last job in management was in charge of Newcastle (Owen Humphreys/PA)
The former England boss arrived at Newcastle via spells at PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona in September 1999. He stayed five years, guiding the Toon into the Champions League twice and to the UEFA Cup semi-finals. He died in 2009 aged 76 after a long battle with cancer.
