Heurelho Gomes believes he belongs in the Premier League and only dropped into the Championship to help Watford secure promotion.

The 33-year-old attended the 2010 World Cup with Brazil and has featured in the Champions League for Tottenham Hotspur and PSV Eindhoven.

But he was frozen out at Spurs and his nine appearances on loan at German side Hoffenheim last year were his only competitive outings between November 2011 and his arrival at Vicarage Road this summer.

The lack of game time has not dented Gomes’ confidence though. He said: “I believe that I belong in the Premier League. I am playing here [in the Championship] but I belong to the Premier League. That is why I came here; to help the club and everybody here get to the Premier League, including myself.”

He continued: “[But] we have to stay focused on this season. It is a dream for everyone to be in the Premier League next season but I believe the most important thing is being focused on this season.

“We are together and we are trying to do our best to make promotion possible at the end of the season.”

Gomes, who has a one-year contract with the club having the option of an additional 12 months, has missed just one Championship game since his arrival and that was due to injury in the warm-up at Middlesbrough.

After two-and-a-half years in the cold at White Hart Lane, Gomes is enjoying the warmth of Vicarage Road.

“I am enjoying it very much. I missed playing. It (the move to Watford) has been very good for me,” the goalkeeper said.

Gomes won over a large proportion of the Hornets faithful within 20 minutes of his debut. His enthusiastic celebrations are reminiscent of a rampaging full-back, not that of an isolated goalkeeper.

He explained: “I have always done it because you need to celebrate like that; it is the most important moment in the game. I cannot celebrate with my mates so I celebrate with the fans. I really enjoy it.”

Gomes quickly became an influential voice in the dressing room upon his arrival. He is one of several senior players at Watford and the passionate goalkeeper believes they have a vital role at the club’s London Colney training base.

He said: “Everyone has their say but the senior players like Keith (Andrews), Troy (Deeney) and Lloyd Dyer [have done a lot].

“I believe it is important for us to be close to the young players as well. We have a lot of young players here and they need to understand how important it is to be together because they will not play all the time but they have to be focused on the situation so when we need them, they are prepared.”

Left-back Daniel Pudil recently explained that the managerial changes at Watford, which saw the club have four different head coaches in the space of 37 days, brought the players closer together.

Gomes, pictured, said: “We tried to speak as players and explain how important it is that we all stick together, regardless of who the manager is and the whole situation around us.

“The most important thing is to be focused on what we are trying to achieve this season. That is what we have tried to do and what we have been doing so far. Hopefully we can keep doing that until the end of this season.”

Slavisa Jokanovic is the latest incumbent at Vicarage Road. Jokanovic hasn’t attempted to reinvent the wheel upon his arrival in Hertfordshire and that pleased Gomes.

“When he first came here he told us he would not make big changes,” the former Cruzeiro shot-stopper said.

“He knows the kind of players we have here and I think it was clever of him to not want to change a lot.”