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Andre Gray has dismissed claims that Watford's players were asking Marco Silva to take them with him should he get the Everton job.

The Hornets' season has been overshadowed by Silva's links with the vacant Toffees job back in November, and his refusal at the time to commit his future to Watford and distance himself from the Everton hotseat.

An article in The Times yesterday suggested that members of the squad sensed Silva had lost focus at the time and felt that he was not as committed as he had been prior to the rumours.

Results have dropped off in the past two months, that much is true, although the first two games after the original links saw the Hornets beat West Ham and win at Newcastle. It is since then that gap between the Watford and the bottom three has shrunk.

Gray accepts that people will put two and two together and say their form is a direct result of the uncertainty, but he denies it and strongly refuted any idea that some members of the squad had indicated to Silva they would like to go with him.

"It's paper talk. I've never heard so much rubbish," Gray said, when asked for his thoughts on the claims.

"It's got nothing to do with me, it's part and parcel of football. It's just the profession we're in; players get linked, managers get linked and that.

"It has had no effect on how we've gone about training every day. The manager has not changed his ways, it's just not gone our way recently.

"We enjoy playing under him and it's just gone like that. It's easy to say this stuff because he got linked. Nothing came of it and our results have dipped, it's easy to look at it like that.

"But that's just part and parcel of football. It can go the other way and if we kept winning, nobody would say anything.

"Because of our form, people are going to start asking questions."