Watson remains Liverpool's longest-serving manager, spending a total of nineteen years at the club.

[6] Acting as a general manager for both clubs, Watson helped Newcastle West End secure a lease of St James' Park, before resigning in December 1887 due to a crush at a game between Shankhouse, who had been loaned St James' Park, and Aston Villa.

Watson's Sunderland were declared the "Team of All Talents" by William McGregor,[9] the founder of the league, after a 7–2 win against Aston Villa.

Liverpool's longest-serving manager, during his nineteen years in charge he won the league on two occasions, in 1900–01 and 1905–06.

[11] In late April 1915, after returning from a visit to Newcastle to celebrate his 56th birthday, he contracted a chill which developed into a fatal bout of pneumonia.