Chinese team offered Odion Ighalo “crazy money” to leave Watford

Odion Ighalo confirmed he turned down an eye-watering offer to move to China in the summer, opting instead to try and establish himself in what he describes as the best best league in the world.

Gino Pozzo was prepared to accept a club-record fee, from Hebei China Fortune, for an outgoing player at the start of the summer window, believing the Nigerian was the next rough diamond he had picked up for next to nothing and polished into a multi-million pound asset. But Ighalo, at 26, felt he was not at the same stage of his career as Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba were when they moved to China and stayed put. Hebei China Fortune signed Edu, the Brazilian, instead.

“They offered me crazy money, ” Ighalo told the press after Saturday’s game, “but I don’t think it is a good league for me. It is not always about the money, the Premier League is a good league for me and I am happy that I have signed my five-year contract.”

His agent, Ladi Salami, probably wish he had negotiated his new Watford deal after his client’s match-winning goal against Swansea as he would have been in an even stronger bargaining positioning. But most of the playing contracts at Vicarage Road are incentivised and Ighalo will no doubt have picked up a nice goal and win bonus.

“Just because I have signed my contract, I still want to keep working hard, improving every day as a striker,” he said. “I wake up every morning, pray to god, give my best. Only god knows where I will be in five years time.”

Five years ago he joined Granada on loan from Udinese and was making his debut for Nigeria’s U20 team. Now he is Watford’s top-scorer in the Premier League, albeit with two goals. It is, however, two more than Troy Deeney who operated in a deeper role on Saturday to relieve some of the goal-scoring pressure and burden on his broad shoulders.

“In training you can assess the feeling of the players,” Sanchez Flores told Hornets Player. “Deeney is playing well but there is an obsession with the goals, so we put Ighalo closer to the goal as his feeling close to the goal is good.”

It worked a treat as, for the second time this season, Deeney teed up Ighalo for a decisive strike.

“This is not the pattern the manager is using but today we played closer together,” Ighalo said. “Yes, I don’t think I am a striker that always fights in the air, I am more a box striker, and get opportunities to strike.”

As we said after the Everton game, Deeney should not be judged on his goal return this season given the system Watford play and the step up in opposition.

“[Deeney] is a great striker, always working hard, and the opportunity will come for him and he will take it because he is good striker,” Ighalo said. “Yes you get worried, as a striker. It is not easy, it is more difficult… than the championship, and you have experienced defenders, so you have to work extra hard. We are just glad we have our three points, it is a big relief for me and the strikers. We have been working hard, and it’s a big relief for the team and me as a striker, so we are very happy about it. If you don’t take your chances you will pay for it, so today we did our best and we got our three points.”

Sanchez Flores, a classic training ground coach rather than suited and booted manager, used the international break to work on Watford’s play in the final third of the field. Sessions on Monday and Tuesday were based around support play and shooting drills.

“We just stepped up our training, as a team, we know we have the quality as a team, we have just been unlucky in front of goal,” Ighalo said. “So we step up the training, put a bit more effort in what we are doing and I think it paid off today. As a striker I don’t care how the goal is scored I just want to put it at the back of the net, so I am happy that the ball went to the back of the net, that is the most important thing.”

Read our detailed analysis of Saturday’s game below.

'Relief for QSF. It was starting to sound like the time when Bassett replaced GT' http://t.co/SR1Rsg6gFb #watfordfc pic.twitter.com/RA0pdiZFg4 — WD Sport (@WDSport_) September 13, 2015

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