Tom Cleverley believes the project Watford are selling to players is clearly working after Rocco Vata turned down a new Celtic deal to sign for the English Championship club.
Despite his lofty reputation coming through the youth ranks, Vata had to be patient for senior minutes with the Scottish giants, and opted to depart this summer as a free agent.
The Hornets will pay just £200,000 in compensation for the 19-year-old, who made six substitute appearances for Celtic's first team and scored in a 5-0 Scottish Cup win over Buckie Thistle in January.
He has penned a four year contract, and former Manchester United midfielder, Cleverley, who is now head head at Vicarage Road, believes he's landed a highly-talented player and challenged Vata to hit the ground running immediately.
“It’s no secret that there was a lot of interest in Rocco, both in the UK and abroad,” the Watford boss said.
“So we have to be excited because clearly the project we are offering to players is appealing to them.
“Now we can’t disappoint, and he’s also got the challenge to secure his place in the team and fulfil the potential.
“But when you have a player who has a really determined and relentless character, they are the sort of people who generally do fulfil their potential and I see that in Rocco.”
Read more:
- Celtic vs Rangers fixture among SPFL Premiership kick-off reshuffle
- Successful Euros initiative to be rolled out in all UEFA competitions
Cleverley emphasised that it was the young forward's mindset and work habits, just as much as his football skills, that attracted him to Vata.
He also elaborated on where he envisions the Republic of Ireland under-21 international fitting into the team.
“One of the metrics high up on my list for an incoming player would be how is his character, and Rocco is an absolute workaholic,” Cleverley proclaimed.
“He’s an animal in terms of wanting to improve himself and he is so open to learning.
“He brings sharpness and pace, which is something we have lacked a little bit of in the team, and he is a top finisher.
“I expect him to go straight into the first-team squad, which will push the levels of our other attacking players and challenge them for their spots.
“As a coaching staff, Rocco is a really exciting project for us and I am very pleased we’ve brought him in.
“In our system he will play as one of the No.10s but he can also do the No.9 role,” said Cleverley.
“He has qualities to run in behind with his sharpness. But with the way we’re going to play this season I see him as being one of our attacking No.10s, or inside wingers if that’s what you prefer to call them.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here