Watford have put eight players up for sale as they continue to make cuts amid increasing pressure from the bank to settle a loan approaching £6m.

Championships clubs were alerted on Monday that Matt Jackson, Mart Poom, Damien Francis, Lloyd Doyley, Will Hoskins, Douglas Rinaldi, Steve Kabba and Toumani Diagouraga are all surplus to requirements at Vicarage Road.

The Hornets will even consider letting some of the out-of-favour players go on a free transfer as they seek to trim the club’s hefty wage bill.

Dan Shittu will also leave Vicarage Road once he decides whether to move to Glasgow Rangers or hold out for a move to the Premiership.

A percentage of the money from the sale of the big Nigerian will be used by Aidy Boothroyd to strengthen his team.

One senior player at the club believes the manager needs to buy at least three players to help evolve the team’s style of play.

“There are some players we will be letting go,” admitted chairman Graham Simpson. “There is no secret about that. It helps when you know one player is moving out so then you can plan to bring others in.

“The market is incredibly slow but we are looking at players, we are in discussions and we are beavering away behind the scenes.

“Some of the deals will come off and some won’t. We’ve indentified players we want to bring in but it does take time.”

Simpson has just returned from holiday after leaving chief executive Mark Ashton and Boothroyd to carry out “Plan B” following the aborted attempt to win promotion to the Premiership.

Coaches David Dodds and Dick Bates have been released, while other administration staff have also been shown the door.

“It’s not been easy,” said Simpson. “It’s been tough because we’ve had to let people go and that’s not nice. It’s horrible. But we run a football club, we’ve had a punt to get to the Premiership and the one thing I will never do is put the club in jeopardy. We cannot afford to run it as we did last year.

“I’ve told Aidy and Mark the cuts that need to be made and they’ve understood that.

“Aidy had a difficult season last time but he is focused and knows what he wants to do,” the chairman added.