Chairman Scott Duxbury has said that agent Mogi Bayat has brought “quality players” to Watford but he has no exclusivity with the club.

Bayat was involved in the transfers of nine players to Vicarage Road between February 2021 and the end of January 2022. Supporters questioned why one agent would do so much business with one club, and also whether Watford were right to work with someone who is currently under investigation in Belgium.

“Firstly, I have to say that I’m not directly involved in transfers – that is for Gino [Pozzo] and Cristiano [Giaretta],” said Duxbury. “What I can say is that all clubs get an association with individual agents. They strike up a relationship because they deliver players the club wants.

“He has delivered the likes of Sarr, Dennis and Sissoko. I can see why you’d want to use an agent that can deliver players of that quality. He brought Dennis to us and we signed him for €2m. If he leaves, it will be for much more than that.

“He doesn’t have exclusivity, and there are many, many other players we have signed that he wasn’t involved in. But it’s natural that Gino will build relationships with agents who deliver good players.”

When I pushed the chairman on reports that Bayat is the subject of investigations into his business dealings, Duxbury responded: “All I can say is he has been responsible for delivering a lot of good players that we have signed, but Gino also has relationships with a number of other agents who have also brought good players to us. I don’t know what their personal situations are either."