Departed sporting director Luke Dowling has backed Watford to compete for a top-half finish this season and called new signing Nathaniel Chalobah one of the bargains of an inflated transfer window, 24 hours before it finally slams shut.

Dowling left Watford suddenly earlier this month at the expiration of a three-year contract, but there had been no indication he would be waving farewell to the club amid a busy pre-season of signings at Vicarage Road.

The Englishman worked to help bring Chalobah and Andre Gray to Hertfordshire earlier this summer, and said they - coupled with the arrival of head coach Marco Silva - had left the Hornets in a position where he could leave the club as an established top-flight club.

"I look back on three very good seasons," he told talkSPORT. "I joined when we were a Champ club, but I felt Watford are established in the Premier League.

"I oversaw the whole club, the manager, the players and recruitment, and helping recruit the medical side of it, as well as having an eye on the Under-23s and academy to make sure they’re filtering and doing similar things to the first team. The roles are different at other clubs.

"With the work done off the pitch and the squad, the players brought in during the summer and the manager, Marco Silva, they are a top 12 side and I think they’ll push on further in future."

Chalobah could be in line to make his full England debut in Malta on Friday night, and Dowling was in no doubt that the 22-year-old's signature had been one of the finest pieces of business in the Premier League this summer.

The midfielder moved to Vicarage Road for an up-front fee of £5 million - while team-mate Nathan Ake cost Bournemouth four times that amount in the same window.

"I got asked yesterday what do you think has been one of the best signings of the window, and I think Chalobah is," he said. 

"£5 million at his age, and his experience,  albeit not a lot at Chelsea but he’s had a lot on loan, is fantastic.

"He has come through the system with Italy and trained for a season with Conte, he’s been around a group who has won the league.

"He hasn’t come in with an attitude of ‘I’ve come from Chelsea’. In fairness to Scott Duxbury, we wanted the boy, and we wanted it done today. From our point of view, it was good business and timing, and Scott wouldn’t let it go."