Nathan Ellington believes it is “best” if he leaves Watford in the near future.

Ellington stated he was happy to stay at Watford but that “circumstances” meant the striker felt he should move “pretty soon”.

Watford have been slashing their wage bill this season following their Premier League parachute payments coming to an end in the summer, with the likes of Tommy Smith, Jobi McAnuff, Tamas Priskin and Mike Williamson all being sold.

Ellington is one of the club’s highest earners so it seems Watford’s hierarchy are keen to remove him from the wage bill.

"The circumstances that I find myself in, and that the club's in, I think it's actually best that I will end up moving pretty soon," Ellington told Sky Sports News.

"I'm very happy at the club; the training facilities, everything's good. The manager's happy with me, the chairman. The fans are great as well. Everything's great at the club.

"It's just the circumstances that we're in at the moment. I think it's best that I end up having to move on."

Ellington scored regularly for Bristol Rovers and Wigan and although his strike rate wasn’t quite as good at West Brom, he earned a £3.25m move to Watford in 2007.

The 28-year-old only scored four goals in his first season at Vicarage Road, when half his outings were from the bench.

The Bradford-born striker went on loan to Derby last season, with the view to a free transfer this summer.

He played regularly under Paul Jewell but when the Rams boss resigned in December, Ellington only featured another two times under new manager Nigel Clough and returned to Watford in the summer.

Ellington has yet to score this season, although only one of his eight appearances was as a starter, but he is adamant he can again reach the form he showed in his early career.

"I'm confident that if people monitor me they'll see the same signs that were there before,” he said.

"Just because there's been a few quiet years they think that I'm not the same, but I can assure everyone that I am."

Ellington went on a week’s trial at Blackburn Rovers in the summer and manager Sam Allardyce is still believed to be considering a loan move for the former Walton and Hersham man.

And Ellington said: "I think I've left a good imprint on (Blackburn's) minds. It's just how I do now while I'm at Watford, or wherever I am, how I do in the season.

"I think they could assess the situation further when the time comes."

Click here to read the Watford Observer's interview with Nathan Ellington from two weeks ago, when he had some harsh words to say about for Derby County manager Nigel Clough, Reading boss Brendan Rodgers and Colchester United's Aidy Boothroyd