[themaclad]

Watford have signed striker Rhys Healey following the expiry of his contract with French club Toulouse.

Healey missed much of last season following a serious knee injury but returned to score twice in four games at the end of it.

He joined Toulouse in the summer of 2020 after scoring 11 goals in 19 league games for MK Dons in the previous campaign.

The 28-year-old has agreed a two-year deal at Vicarage Road.

And he is Watford's first signing since Valerien Ismael became head coach.

The Hornets finished 11th in the Championship in 2022-23, six points outside the play-off places, and have since sold Brazilian forward Joao Pedro to Brighton for a fee of just under £30m.

Healey began his career at Cardiff City and had a series of loan spells at clubs including Colchester, Dundee and Newport County, before signing for MK Dons.

Following his move to France, he scored 15 goals in his first season and 20 in 32 games in his second as Toulouse were promoted to Ligue 1.

[themaclad]

Watford have signed Reading forward Tom Ince for an undisclosed fee on a two-year contract.

He is the club's second signing since the appointment of head coach Valerien Ismael, following striker Rhys Healey, who has joined from Toulouse.

And the 31-year-old's deal at Vicarage Road includes an option for a further 12 months.

Ince played 39 games last season, most of them under his father Paul, who was sacked as Reading manager in April.

Despite the Royals being relegated, Ince scored nine goals. One of them was from the penalty spot against Watford in a 2-2 draw at the Select Car Leasing Stadium in February.

He began his career at Liverpool, where his only senior appearance came as a substitute in a League Cup tie against Northampton Town.

Spells at Blackpool, Hull City, Derby County, Huddersfield, and Stoke City followed before he joined Reading in the 2022 January transfer window, initially on loan.

Watford will now start the new Championship season with a home game against Queens Park Rangers. The fixture has been switched to Vicarage Road because work to re-lay the pitch at Loftus Road will not be completed in time.

[themaclad]

Former England midfielder Tom Cleverley has retired aged 33 because of injuries.

Cleverley, who earned 13 senior caps, most recently played for Watford in the Championship.

He started his career at Manchester United and also played for Leicester, Wigan, Aston Villa and Everton.

Cleverley sustained an Achilles tendon injury at the start of the 2022-23 season before a thigh problem in February.

Watford confirmed his retirement on Twitter, adding: "Some exciting news will soon be announced jointly by the club and Tom."

"No-one could have worked harder than Tom did to make it back from several injuries, which he's tried to do while always providing a positive force around the players," said Hornets chairman and CEO Scott Duxbury.

"I can't speak highly enough about Tom as a person, a player and our captain. Tom is the type of professional all clubs would be delighted to have in their team."

Cleverley was part of the Manchester United team which won the Premier League in 2012-13, their most recent league title in Sir Alex Ferguson's final season in charge.

He made 79 appearances for United and had a series of loan spells away from Old Trafford - including at Watford in 2009-10 - before joining Everton permanently in 2015.

Cleverley returned to Watford in January 2017 and made 146 appearances in his second spell, including the 2019 FA Cup final defeat by Manchester City.

[themaclad]

Midfielder Domingos Quina has left Watford to join Italian Serie A side Udinese, with the terms of the transfer undisclosed.

The 23-year-old Portuguese scored three goals in 37 appearances for the Championship club after signing from West Ham United in the summer of 2018.

He had two loan spells away from Vicarage Road last season, spending time with Elche and Rotherham United.

Long-serving defender Craig Cathcart and Mario Gaspar have also departed.

Cathcart, 34, spent nine years with the Hornets but his contract expired this summer and the club have not offered the Northern Ireland centre-back a new deal.

Gaspar's contract, meanwhile, has been terminated by mutual consent.

The 32-year-old Spanish defender played 33 games in all competitions after joining the Hornets from Villarreal last July.

Midfielder Juergen Elitim, who did not make an appearance for Watford, has joined Polish side Legia Warsaw, while fellow Colombian Ober Almanza, 20, has moved back to his homeland to join Orsomarso SC on loan until the end of December.

[themaclad]

Watford have re-signed Brazilian midfielder Matheus Martins on a season-long loan deal.

The 19-year-old made six Championship appearances for the Hornets in 2022-23 after arriving from Italian club Udinese in the January transfer window.

Martins made five appearances for Brazil at the recent Under-20 World Cup, scoring twice.

He has yet to score his first goal for Watford, who begin the new season with a home game against QPR on 5 August.

Martins began his career in his home country with Fluminense.

[themaclad]

Watford have signed former England midfielder Jake Livermore.

The 33-year-old, who was a free agent after leaving West Bromwich Albion, had been training with the Hornets and has signed a one-year contract.

Livermore spent six-and-a-half years with Albion, making 206 league appearances including 17 last season.

He started his career at Tottenham Hotspur, who sold him to Hull City in 2014 after he had been on loan with the Tigers.

The last of his seven appearances for England came in a goalless draw against Brazil in November 2017.

[themaclad]

French club Marseille and Senegal's Pape Gueye have been told they must pay Watford £2.3m for a contract breach that took place in 2020.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) announced on Friday it had upheld sanctions previously imposed by Fifa, football's world governing body.

Gueye, 24, who has made 74 appearances for the Ligue 1 side, has been issued with a four-month ban from football.

But Cas overturned the one-year transfer ban imposed on Marseille.

The dispute began in 2020, when Gueye signed a pre-contract agreement with then-Premier League side Watford in April - with the club even announcing their new signing from Le Havre.

But the player pulled out of the move and joined Ligue 1's Marseille in July on a four-year deal.

In January 2022, Fifa imposed the four-month ban on Gueye and issued the fine - a decision which was then challenged at Cas by Gueye, Marseille and Championship side Watford.

Cas said Gueye and Marseille should jointly pay the fine.

Gueye argued he had been given bad advice by his agent over the wages he was likely to receive from Watford.

[themaclad]

Watford forward Ismaila Sarr has completed a move to French side Marseille for an undisclosed fee.

The 25-year-old scored 34 goals in 131 appearances for the Hornets after joining from Rennes in August 2019.

Sarr, who helped Senegal win the Africa Cup of Nations last year, joined Watford for a club record fee of £27m and played for them in the Premier League in 2019-20 and 2021-22.

He scored 10 times in 39 appearances last season for the Championship side.

[themaclad]

Kabasele spent seven years at Vicarage Road after arriving from Belgian club KRC Genk in the summer of 2016.

In a farewell message to supporters, he said: "I came here as a young defender, and now I leave as a man with two kids who have grown up as Watford fans."

[themaclad]

Midfielder Dan Gosling has left Championship club Watford following the expiry of his contract.

The Hornets said last month that Gosling was one of three players in talks about new deals and there was "no rush" to decide their futures.

Gosling, 33, leaves Vicarage Road after scoring twice in 37 games since arriving in 2021.

He made 18 appearances last season but then suffered a serious Achilles injury against Bristol City last November.

The other two players who were in talks about new deals, Tom Cleverley and Craig Cathcart, are no longer playing for Watford. Cleverley retired because of injury problems and is now an academy coach at The Hornets, while Cathcart is looking for a new club.