Tom Cleverley draws a distinction between being a footballer and playing football. The first means little; the second means everything.

“I just want to play,” he says. “I want to play in the Premier League, the best league. And there’s nothing like having that 90 minutes of high-intensity football, winning, and enjoying your week. You have to be out there.

“Training six days a week and not having that buzz of a Saturday is really, really tough. You ask any player. And especially if you have trained well and you’ve got no chance of getting into the team. Luckily, I’ve not had many months of that in my career but towards the end at Everton it was a bit like that.”

He also had it at the end of his time with Manchester United. But Cleverley wanted to play – had to play - and that joy of playing is back, courtesy of turning last season's successful loan move to Watford into a permanent £8 million deal, on a five-year contract, this summer.