Young players that have come from the Academy or those signed early in their careers who have then developed at Vicarage Road will form the basis of the way forward.

That was the message from chairman Scott Duxbury as he mapped out the plans for the future that have been drawn up in conjunction with new manager Rob Edwards.

“Every decision will be Rob’s and we believe in him,” Duxbury stressed. “His team, his formation, his choice of players. We are confident Rob can deliver us a sustainable and successful football club.

“He has had the opportunity to assess the players we have, and in particular those young players who were here last season or were out on loan.

“Rob wants to look at the likes of Joseph Hungbo, Mattie Pollock, Tom Dele-Bashiru, Domingos Quina and Yaser Asprilla.

“In the past we had become obsessed with trying to sign players who did a job in the short term but as much as continually changing coaches had to change, we also had to change the way we develop and then play our young players.”

Hungbo, 22, earned rave reviews during a season-long loan with Ross County in the Scottish Premier League which saw him score seven times in 33 outings, while 20-year-old defender Pollock joined the Hornets from Grimsby Town last summer before spending the season at Cheltenham Town where he made 39 appearances.

Quina made 26 first-team appearances for the Hornets after joining from West Ham in 2018, but the 22-year-old midfielder spent last season on loan initially at Fulham and then at Barnsley.

Having joined Watford as a 20-year-old two summers ago from Manchester City, Dele-Bashiru had just broken into the first team when an anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained in an away game at Reading ended his campaign. Last season he went on loan to the Royals and played 38 times.

Asprilla may only be 18 but the Colombian international midfielder is highly regarded as a very special talent. He played last season back at former club Envigado in Colombia.