Aidy Keen To Use Ash Cash Wisely

Watford manager, Aidy Boothroyd has vowed to start putting in place the necessary foundations to propel the Vicarage Road club from a middle-of-the-road Championship outfit to one that can realistically compete in the top flight.

Following promotion at the end of last season, Watford has struggled to compete financially with the big boys, and despite defeating Blackburn Rovers on Tuesday evening find themselves still rooted to the bottom of the Premiership, seven points adrift of safety with just 15 games remaining.

However, following the sale of Ashley Young to Aston Villa for a club record £8m, which could rise by a further £1.65m should certain targets be met, Boothroyd now has a large sum of money available to help move the club forward.

Outlining his strategy for the future the Bradford born boss revealed,

"We have a huge chunk of money which I have got to use sensibly for the short, medium and long term.

I'm an impatient fellow and that is my biggest strength and my biggest weakness. I want us to be a top-10 club and thrive in the Premiership and we are not thriving or a top-10 club. We are far away from that.

It takes time unfortunately. I would rather have had kept Ashley than had all this money but he has gone and the money is there so I have got to make sure it is used wisely to bring in players who can get us out of this mire that we are in.

January has been absolutely mad and a real experience for me and I'm sure the last week is going to be worse not better.

But people are beginning to panic now so I will be careful. I won't make any daft signings. I will make sure they will be right for the club and right for the team to take it forward.

Maybe it could be a big-wage loan signing, maybe it could be somebody for the future, a younger player, but hopefully it will be someone who has been there, seen it and done it.

Players who have been and done it in the Premiership and are in the prime of their careers are not going to come to us. We have got to look at the next level of potential recruit, which is someone with proven quality but who has maybe lost his way a little bit.

Or it could be someone we couldn't afford last year but can now because we are in a better position to pay wages.

We can't compete with 95% of this league but it is about putting building blocks in place for the next level. That is what is important in our going from a medium-sized club in the Championship to one that can hold its own in the Premiership.

That is how we have got to think but that takes time unfortunately."