Luke Dowling has confirmed Watford signed Abdoulaye Doucoure from Rennes because they didn’t want to risk missing out on him in the summer while he views the acquisition of Adalberto Penaranda as a further statement of intent from the Hornets.

The club’s sporting director was a guest on BBC Radio 5 Live’s coverage of deadline day and during an extensive interview he spoke at length about Watford’s latest two signings. 

Doucoure joined the Hornets from Rennes yesterday afternoon. Watford initially attempted to sign the midfielder in the summer after he had been extensively watched by chief scout Filippo Giraldi.

But the 23-year-old opted to remain in France as he didn’t want to uproot his family.

However, Watford maintained their interest and Hornets chief executive Scott Duxbury and Dowling remained in contact with Rennes, the player and his agent. 

And when it became apparent other Premier League sides were increasingly keen on Doucoure, the Golden Boys made their move.

They completed a deal - which isn’t believed to surpass the club’s record fee - before sending Doucoure, who signed a four and a half year deal, out on loan to Granada until the summer.

Dowling said: “Initially we tried to do the deal in the summer and for one reason or another, more on the player’s part, it didn’t happen.

"But, and this is where scouting doesn’t stop, because it didn’t happen in the August window and it was one we still wanted to do. 

"We were  still watching him, still speaking to his club, still speaking to the player and the agent. That continues to happen.

“As we built up to this January window, we were aware there were other clubs that people will look at and say are perhaps bigger than Watford in the Premier League that were trying to do sign him.

"We just felt if we didn’t do it in this window we’d lose out in the summer.

“The thinking behind loaning him out to Granada was to continue development and get games.

"If you look at what we’ve done this year and the side Quique’s picked for us, he’s quite consistent in the amount of numbers that he uses – the same 13 or 14 players.

"We didn’t want to bring him in and then sit on the bench, sit in the stands for the last six months of the season. So that’s why he’s gone to Granada.

“Obviously it’s an easy one for us because it’s within the group, we know he’ll play, we know the style they play. That’s one of the benefits for having two or three clubs within our group.

“If it doesn’t work, you can always offload them, but ultimately if it doesn’t work for Watford and we bought a player he’s still costing the owner money.

"Whether he goes to Granada or Udinese, he’s still going to have to pay for him.

"It’s different if you sign a player and he doesn’t work and we sell him to a Napoli, we might get some money back. But if we send him to Udinese or Granada it’s still the owner’s money.”

The broadcaster’s senior football reporter Ian Dennis then addressed Penaranda, observing that he had attracted the interest of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

The 18-year-old has developed a reputation as one of the brightest prospects in European football and he broke Lionel Messi’s record as the youngest non-Spaniard to score a brace in La Liga in December.

His move to Vicarage Road is seen a coup and a mark of how far the club has progressed. 

Dowling said: “That’s one of the benefits of having the club under the Pozzo family. 

"When a talent that we all believe is going to get better and better, we are able to look at it and present ourselves to him and tell him that this will be where his future lies.

“Yes, you’re right in terms of the clubs mentioned and people perhaps have the opinion that it’s unfair that he’s gone to Watford. But what we need to realise is the player power now.

“Gino Pozzo owns Granada and he owns Watford and it’s easy for us to say come to Watford, you’re in London, you’re in the Premier League but if the player doesn’t want to go somewhere he won’t go there.

"It doesn’t matter what club we own. If a player doesn’t want to come to us, they won’t come. They hold the cards, they’ve got a contract and they can go where they want to go.

“From our point of view as a club and what we are trying to do here, with what [chief executive] Scott Duxbury’s built off the field here, I think that shows what we are doing and how we are trying to go about our business.

"It shows where we want to go in the future that we can attract a top young talent from Spain like that.”