The Watford boss has smiled at speculation linking Tommy Smith with another return to Vicarage Road but admitted “you can never say never”.

The Hornets fans’ favourite has made 12 Premier League appearances for Queens Park Rangers this season but most of those have been from the bench.

The loan signing of Manchester United’s Federico Macheda has led to suggestions that the 31-year-old is dropping down the pecking order at Loftus Road, fuelling speculation that he could go back to the club where he first made his name and went on to make more than 300 appearances in two spells.

“If you noticed he missed one game, that was the first one he hasn’t been in for ages at QPR and all of a sudden he gets linked with us – it was truly amazing,” Sean Dyche said yesterday.

“I think Tom’s going along reasonably well, I think he’s well thought of at QPR.

“You can never say never on these things but there’s no actual moment or connection where it’s all going to fall into place.

“Who knows but there’s certainly nothing to be read into that – at this moment anyway.

“I think someone on a website somewhere saw that he didn’t play and said ‘right, back to Watford’, but it’s not quite as simple as that.”

While around half-a-dozen of Watford’s younger players have had their loans elsewhere extended, or moved on fresh short-term deals, this week, the club have still yet to receive a bid for any of their first-team stars.

“It’s ongoing, we monitor it as wisely as we can but eventually it comes down to someone bidding or not bidding – we’re hoping not bidding, obviously,” said Dyche.