Joao Pedro is developing at Watford, not only as a player, but also as an adult, with the striker already taking on extra responsibilities in the dressing room, despite being just 20 years of age.

In a revealing interview with Gringolândia, an international football podcast from Brazilian publication Ge, he spoke about becoming an important voice at the club and about growing both mentally and physically since making the move to England.

After he first arrived at the club in January 2020, life has thrown a lot at Joao Pedro with relegation, a global pandemic, six different head coaches and a promotion all for him to deal with, but his appetite to fully acclimatise in that short time has impressed club staff.

Having hired both a full time personal trainer as well as an English teacher to live with him during the period of national lockdowns, he is looking much stronger, and is also able to help out some of his teammates, including new arrival Samir, for whom he acts as a translator, while he is also helping new young players fit in with the rest of the squad.

"I'm satisfied with what I've been doing, with the opportunities I'm having too. This year we've been talking a lot and I think that because I've been here for three years, I'm getting more voice in the locker room, talking to the kids," he said.

"It's funny because what [Heurelho] Gomes did for me, I'm having to do for [Samir] now. I have to translate. Although I don't speak English well, I understand a lot. So, I'm having to translate for him, the coach tells me to pass it on to him. We get along really well.”

It took a season in the Championship for Joao Pedro to be given a consistent chance in the team, with brief cameos all he was offered during his first season at Vicarage Road due to his inexperience being seen as too much a gamble during a season in which the club, ultimately unsuccessfully, was battling with relegation.

However, he is now showing himself to be a player capable of performing well in the English game, which he believes he is physically adapting to, having worked hard to develop into a more robust figure than the lithe teenager that made his debut against Tranmere Rovers two years ago.

"I didn't have a lot of consistency in games, but from what I was showing in training, I knew it was just a matter of time before I started playing," he said. "I saw my evolution, even though I was young and also skinny, I knew my time would come. That it was a matter of time. The other season, I played 40 games and scored nine goals. And now it's time to continue and always seek to evolve.

"When I arrived here, Watford did a number of tests on me and they made a program for me.

"As I hadn't been playing, I could go to the gym more often. So, I had some midweek work that I had been doing. And the quarantine helped a lot with that. When I play, I lose weight very fast, but gaining it is difficult. With the quarantine, I stayed at home and ate better.

"In the first quarantine I had, which was long, I gained seven kilos. And I've kept it on ever since."

Joao Pedro reflects on that season in the Championship with fondness.

It was the season in which he truly announced himself as a Watford player, with his first goal coming against rivals Luton Town on his 19th birthday.

While he does have grand ambitions for the future, he realises that for now he has to work hard as a Hornet in order to make those dreams come true later on in his career.

"My time in the Championship was very important because it was where I had more consistency, where I evolved more and understood more about English football," he continued. "And I was able to re-adapt myself, take the good and the bad and improve myself. Nowadays, playing in the Premier League, I can do my best.

"I think that haste is sometimes the enemy of perfection. In my life, those who have followed me from the beginning know that I went through difficult times, I didn't play for two years, and that made me see life in a different way.

"From that bad moment, I gained a lot of experience and learnt that this is football, and things like this will happen. For some it's faster, for others it takes longer. Of course I have the ambition to go to a big team, play in the Champions League, play for the Brazilian national team. Every player has that, but that's a consequence of my work. I have to do my best no matter where I am."

Where he is currently is 19th in the Premier League, six points adrift from safety and looking at the realistic possibility of a second relegation in only three seasons with the club.

However, he remains confident that, through unity, Watford can claw themselves to safety this season.

"I have complete confidence in us, I know we have a good squad and we can fight head-on," he said. "We have to be united in this difficult time, focused on the goal and leaving distractions out of the field."