AIDY BOOTHROYD believes he needs "three or four" players to give Watford the best possible chance of bouncing back to the Premiership at the first attempt next season.

After relegation to the Championship was finally confirmed on Saturday, the Watford boss has wasted no time in drawing up a shortlist of the players he would like to sign in the summer.

A goalkeeper to replace Ben Foster will be top of the shopping list while moves for a left-back to provide cover and competition for Jordan Stewart, a winger - ideally right-sided - and a central midfielder to cover for long-term injuries to both Damien Francis and Gareth Williams are also likely.

Boothroyd must also decide whether he feels that Marlon King, Darius Henderson, Tamas Priskin and the out of favour Will Hoskins provide him with enough firepower before weighing up a move for another striker.

Steve Kabba is clearly not the answer and the manner in which he headed straight down the tunnel after being substituted on Saturday suggests the manager may well be prepared to cut his losses on a player he paid £500,000 for in January.

"I think we need three or four," said Boothroyd, who has the £8m from the sale of Ashley Young burning a hole in his pocket plus the £3m he declined to spend last summer.

"I'm totally clear on what I want to do. It won't be a case of chopping and changing, it will be a case of just adding to what we have got."

And chairman Graham Simpson says his board of directors - increased to five this week after Mark Ashton's promotion - will give Boothroyd the funds to spend.

"We've made it very clear we are going to back him and we mean it," said the chairman. "If we were staying up we would be spending a lot more money on players and look at wages. Aidy is aware of the money he has available but obviously it wouldn't be as much if we were staying in the Premiership."