Micah Hyde has claimed that one of the reasons he left Watford to join Burnley in 2004 after seven seasons at Vicarage Road was because he felt the club was in a period of instability and no longer moving in the right direction.

The Hornets had been relegated in 2000 and after four unsuccessful attempts to get back into the Premier League, their commercial revenue dipped and the club was left with no choice but to trim the wage bill.

Hyde was only a few months away from turning 30 and the contract extension the club’s hierarchy intended to offer to him would have been on reduced terms, which left the player unimpressed.

“I suppose that the deal that I was hoping for and that the club was about to offer me wasn’t fantastic," he said.

"On top of it, I just felt that as a team we were also going through ups and downs.

“I missed some part of the previous season through injury. Then, the club obviously was going through changes and wasn’t in a great position and in the end I wasn’t presented with a new deal which I was hoping . Then Burnley came and offered me three years of contract."

In addition to the the club being in turmoil and the pay cut he was expected to take, Hyde said the fact that Watford were willing to entertain offers and sanction his sale made him feel undervalued.

The club, managed by Ray Lewington, had already planned for his potential departure, bringing in midfielder Johnnie Jackson on loan from Tottenham Hotspur.

“Watford offered me a new deal but even if they did not tell me, I kind of sensed that (even if I signed it) they would listen to offers and that I could go really," he said.

“Although they gave me a new deal they let the door half open for me to leave instead of just saying to me ‘You really need to stay’. It is nice to know if someone wants you to stay, but that wasn’t the case.

“But it wasn’t a case where they were treating me in any undue way, because I left on good terms, but yeah possibly (I felt unappreciated) to know that they were ready to listen offers, but after seven years it was also a time for a change.”

After such a long time with the club, the former Jamaica international said he has nothing but fond memories of his time at Vicarage Road.

Hyde was Watford’s midfield fulcrum when the club sealed back-to-back promotions under Graham Taylor and there is one particular moment that lives long in his memories.

“There isn’t really one defining moment of my Watford career, there were too many”, he said.

“But if you were to ask me what I will say is, when we got promoted that season, my son was also born.

“In April (1999), we played Bolton and we beat Bolton and I scored. Then I did a celebration that wasn’t planned. It was great celebrating the birth of my child the same season when we got promoted”