Nathan Ellington has apologised to the Watford fans but described claims he only joined the club for money as “nonsense”.

Ellington became Watford’s most expensive signing when he joined the club for £3.25m in August 2007 with the club hoping the striker would help fire the Hornets back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.

But the 29-year-old will almost certainly not play for Watford again after agreeing his third loan move away from Vicarage Road since joining the club three-and-a-half seasons ago.

When asked if he had a message for the Hornets fans, Ellington replied: “I just want to tell the fans that I am sorry I did not get to show them the Nathan Ellington they saw at other clubs.

“I think the circumstances contributed to it but I wish them all the best. Watford are doing really well and I wish Malky Mackay and my friends there all the best.”

Former chairman Graham Simpson described the signing of Ellington as “a momentous day in the club’s history” at the time, but the striker’s Watford career never really go going and he was loaned out to Derby County the following summer, where he was expected to sign permanently.

Ellington only made five starts in his first four months at Watford and did not play a full 90 minutes until Boxing Day in his debut season.

“I lost match fitness, I was on the bench too many games in a row and when I had the chance to come on, the way we were playing wasn’t nice to watch and it wasn’t nice to be involved in,” Ellington told the Watford Observer this week.

“The combination of not playing good football and also not being match fit equates to me not doing well. Then I went on loan the next season.

“It is only really towards the end of the first season at Watford where I was given a few games, but I wasn’t match fit to show what I could do for 90 minutes.”

Ellington was Watford’s highest-paid player and among the fans, became almost a symbol of what had gone wrong at the club as the cutbacks started and the club’s debt increased.

But the former Wigan Athletic front man dismisses suggestions he held the club to ransom over his wages and only moved to the club for money.

He said: “I was on near enough what I was on at West Brom and my money had been halved from the Premiership at West Brom, so the talk about me going to Watford for money is all nonsense.

“I was nearly on the same money at West Brom so I didn’t come to steal money from the club, I came to play, but unfortunately I didn’t get to play as much as I would have liked and things happened the way they did.”

He continued: “I think when people make it known who the most paid player is and the club has big money troubles then everyone looks at it and starts thinking: ‘Nathan hasn’t done well, he is on the most money, we paid a lot of money for him’.

“But a lot of the fans also felt I wasn’t given a proper go at trying to make it at the club either. So quite a few understand the ins and outs of what happened but some will listen to what has been said and go with it.

“It is not nice but what can you do about it afterwards? All you can do is try and put things right in an interview.”

Derby paid Watford £1.5m to take Ellington on loan with a view to the striker signing permanently the following summer. But Paul Jewell’s replacement, Nigel Clough, only played Ellington twice in the second half of the season and the Rams scrapped the proposed transfer.

Ellington returned to Watford in the summer of 2009 and made 18 appearances for Mackay before the club’s financial position meant he joined Greek side Skoda Xanthi on a year-long loan.

Ellington said: “Everything was great under Malky, I have not got anything negative to say about Malky, any of the staff or the players. It was great to be around them, train and be involved in the team.

“I was happy but I knew I had to move on even though I was happy with how it was going.”

That loan ended on January 1 this year but the structure of his move to Watford meant the club would have to pay West Brom thousands of pounds each time he would appear for the Hornets.

Ellington says he did not know the deal was structured that way when he joined the club and claims such agreements can “kill a player’s career”.

He said: “I do not know why people agree those kind of deals. I didn’t know anything about it as those kind of things happen between club and club.

“I have heard a lot of talk going around saying that I knew everything and was trying to take all the money from the club and things like that but there are a lot of things where I do not know what happens.

“Those kind of deals can easily kill a player’s career so I am just happy to be out of that situation at the moment and at a club where I can hopefully help them get out of trouble and get my career back on track at the same time.”

After a bout of illness following his return to England, Ellington joined Preston North End on trial and after scoring twice for the Reserves, did enough to persuade new boss Phil Brown to sign the striker.

And despite failing to hit the heights of his younger days following his move to Watford, Ellington is adamant he can still cut it in the Championship.

“I am definitely confident I can still do it in the Championship,” Ellington said.

“I have been training with the lads and I feel as sharp as I have ever felt. I am getting fitter and fitter by the day.

“I am working with the manager closely to try and get my fitness back to where it used to be and I am very confident that I can reproduce the good form I showed in the past. There is no doubt in my mind.”