Nigel Pearson claims he has developed an emotional attachment to Watford and wants to be a part of a project that helps them rediscover their footballing identity.

The Hornets have gone from being nine points adrift at the foot of the table and verging on the brink of relegation to within two points of climbing out of the bottom three in just over a month under Pearson’s stewardship and the boss said he wants to be the man to help the club learn more about its own identity, despite initially having to ask himself whether or not he still had the desire to work in football.

“It’s an emotional attachment with the job as well,” he said.

“ I’ve been asked a few times already about whether I had still got enthusiasm, or the drive or whatever or what it is to continue to work and those are the sorts of questions that I’ve asked myself for sure. I wouldn’t be here if I firstly didn’t think we were capable of getting out of the situation that we’re in, but I can’t ask people to be committed if I’m not committed myself, so all those things are very important to me and I think this club has got a really strong identity and there’s potential for us to rediscover what we are as a football club. I do feel attached to being a part of that and trying to rediscover that.”

Despite his obvious impact, Pearson claims that the only thing he has done yet is increase Watford’s chances of escaping a very difficult situation.

He did not want to be drawn into a conversation about how he has changed things at Vicarage Road and insisted that change could only be assessed at the end of the campaign.

“I’ve worked very hard with the staff and the players to try and maximise what we’ve got,” he said.

“There’s no magic formula to going out there and making changes, the players have played really well in most of our games and I just think for us, I’m loathed to start speaking in terms of how things have changed, we’ll see how they’ve changed at the end of the season if we are able to retain our Premier League status and we’ve given ourselves a better chance with some results, but it really is about trying to sustain that and the players have applied themselves exceptionally well. I’m really pleased with not just their approach to games, but how they’ve approached working day-to-day on the training field and dealing with a very hectic games programme as well which has been really tough for us, as it is for everybody, but there’s lots and lots of hard work still to be done for sure.”

With Sunday’s game against Bournemouth in mind, Pearson said he would not be preparing for any differently than he would against any opponent.

For him, the match presents another opportunity for them to maintain their current improvement.

“Nothing different to any other game really in as much as we’re trying to get our own preparation right and first and foremost we have to try and play with the same sort of intensity that we’ve had in recent Premier League games and take that into what will be a difficult and important game for both teams,” he said.

“We want to go and try and win the game there for sure, but there is still a significant part of the season left and we’ve got to not really get carried away with the weekly seeing what it looks like, or if this happens, the speculation, we’ve just got to try and keep our focus very much on our performances and get our own house in order by securing enough wins, it’s really straight forward in my mind.”