Tom Cleverley has revealed that chats with Sir Alex Ferguson and Ben Foster which convinced him to take up the Watford loan offer.

“Sir Alex said Malky Mackay is a good man and good to play for,” said Cleverley. “He said it is a good club with good facilities – the training ground and stadium – and good fans, so Sir Alex definitely made Watford look inviting to me. There were a couple of clubs that came in for me. Sir Alex Ferguson told me about Watford on Friday and I liked the sound of that and I spoke to Malky on Friday night and things moved really fast from there. Saturday I knew I was coming down and I came down Sunday night and just trained once before starting tonight [Tuesday], so it has been a whirlwind few days but the end result has been good.”

Ben Foster, who spent two seasons on loan at Watford, also had favourable things to say about Cleverley’s loan move.

“I spoke to Ben on Friday morning and asked in general what the club is like, where did you live and what are the boys like and he was really complimentary of the club, so he swung my head towards Watford,”
he added.