Salernitana defender, William Troost Ekong has finally shared his reasons for leaving Watford FC.
Ekong sealed a loan move to the Serie A strugglers in January with the option to make it permanent.
He revealed to The Athletic that he was underappreciated at Watford and had to leave even though it was a really tough decision to make.
“This was the hardest choice I’ve had to make in my career,” he explained. “Every time I’ve had a great opportunity to go to a club, which was a progression in my career, it’s always been a no-brainer. But it was a difficult choice because I feel invested at Watford and I wanted to be part of the squad again to get promoted — I know what that felt like.”
Salernitana did their best to give me a great opportunity to try to improve every aspect — playing time, economics and an opportunity to play in a good league. You have to consider it,” he said.
“I got a phone call saying the clubs agreed on something and it was favourable for everyone and that Gino (Pozzo, Watford owner) was happy with the deal. He also said it was everyone’s intention for me to stay here and the new Salernitana president (Danilo Iervolino) said the same thing.”
At the end of last season, having not featured for the second half of the season, it was a conversation I had with the club about what I wanted to do,” he says.
“They were always very good on it and expressed that they wanted me to stay and I fought my way back into the team. I was enjoying my football initially under Rob Edwards and in games under Slaven Bilic up to the World Cup break.”
“Then I came back from the World Cup break in and out the team. I wasn’t 100 per cent sure about why that happened, but that’s football. So then you start wondering again about what else is possible and different clubs were sniffing.
“We got to January and it wasn’t necessarily in the plan but when I heard about the interest and the chance to come back to Italy to a club that’s ambitious and with a very good squad, I saw it as a great opportunity to play football again.
“I was ready for a new challenge. I also felt slightly undervalued at Watford and then you have to decide on your career.”
