Brendan Rodgers is adamant he does not want to sell Tommy Smith but said he cannot rule out the possibility of the front man moving away from Watford in January.

The Hornets manager has stated though that, to the best of his knowledge, no one at the club has already told Smith he needs to be sold to balance the books.

The 28-year-old is Watford’s leading scorer with ten goals and is being linked with a move away from Vicarage Road, with Premiership side Stoke and promotion favourites Reading already being mentioned.

Rodgers said: “With Tommy, I can categorically say as the manager of the club, I don’t want him to go.

“I have a great relationship with him already, I trust his work, he is a good guy. We work well and this way of playing will bring out other things in him as well.

“I feel our rapport is good, he seems to be enjoying it. I made him skipper at the weekend when Jay (DeMerit) was out so we have a good connection and are working well.

“So as a manager, for sure, I don’t want him to go.

“He is a local guy, who lives in Hemel Hempstead, he is 28 years of age and he wants to be at the club of course. But in the climate we are in, I cannot sit here and say definitely he is going to stay here or definitely he is going to go.”

Rodgers added: “We are getting to that stage of the season where we are three weeks away from the transfer window opening and there is going to be speculation about good players and with Tommy being one of our Premiership players, because he has the qualities to play in the Premier League, then he is going to be linked with many clubs.”