Watford striker Davis wants promotion that secures £15m move

Having signed on loan from the Midlands club, Davis has had the start to his Watford career interrupted by the need to get match fit and a spell out with a serious illness.

However, with a first start and a goal under his belt, the 24-year-old is adamant that the Hornets will be handing over that £15m, rather than staying in the Championship, whereupon Watford would have first refusal on him but no commitment to buy.

“We can achieve promotion, easily,” he said. “It’s not been the best of starts, but we’ve played some tough teams and still managed to pick up points despite the performances not being there.

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“The new arrivals like me are now settling in, and we have players like Tom (Cleverley) and Imran (Louza) who will play a massive part when they come back from injury.

“If we stick together then, yeah, we’ll achieve promotion.”

Davis broke his duck with Watford’s opening goal in the 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road on Saturday, and said he was glad to get that first one out of the way.

“When you come in as a striker there’s that pressure to score goals and get one early for the club. Scoring on Saturday took the weight off my shoulders and gave me confidence. When you’ve scored you can’t wait for the next game and another opportunity to do the same.”

It was a really well-worked goal too but Davis didn’t know how good it was until he watched the highlights later on.

“I didn’t see the pass from Yaser (Apsrilla) and I didn’t even know Hasane (Kamara) had made that run, but I just knew when the ball went out there that I had to get myself in the box.

“It helped that the keeper got a touch as that put the ball straight into my path. If he hadn’t then it might not have run as well for me, but the touch from the keeper meant I didn’t even have to break stride.

“I didn’t really know how much room I had as it came to me quite quickly and it was a snap shot. I knew the centre back was in front of me because I’d tried to get across him and couldn’t. So I knew that anything that came past him left me with a tap in.”

When the ball arrived at his feet close to goal, did he ever fear he might end up on a football bloopers video?!

“No, no worries! It was coming onto my right foot so I just had to watch it onto my boot. I was confident!”

However, he didn’t get the full satisfaction of scoring and winning.

“We felt after the game it was two points dropped,” he said.

“We’d gone in front twice and then they had the offside goal, so we’d had a warning that we needed to tighten it up. Having scored, I desperately wanted to win the game.”

Everyone has seen or read about the fly-on-the-wall documentaries on Amazon Prime, which shows Premier League players losing it in the dressing room after defeats. Was it like that after Saturday?

“It can be like that, definitely. It wasn’t so much of that on Saturday, everyone was trying to be positive,” said Davis.

“But at Blackburn, there was some of that kind of stuff, yeah. We want to win and when you don’t, being frustrated is a good thing to feel.”

It’s well documented that head coach Rob Edwards knew he was signing a player that was lacking fitness due to having minimal pre-season work, but often people struggle to understand how a player can be fit – but not match fit.

“When I came here, I’d not played any pre-season games. I was running by myself, maybe training once or twice a week, and I wasn’t match fit,” said Davis.

“The gaffer knew that I wouldn’t be able to play much straight away, so we tested it out at Birmingham and I wasn’t right. Then I had to take a back seat and wait a couple of games, just to get to a point where I was right to play.

“There is a big difference between being fit and being match fit, and you can only really get to that match level by playing in games. I’d not played a game before I came here. I had to get myself fit and then ease myself into games to get that extra level without doing too much load.

“It’s important that people realise that you can train all you like, but when it comes to games it is completely different. That may be hard to for people to understand but it’s how it is. You can get so far but then you need to play in games to get up to match speed.”

Watford's number 7: Keinan Davis (@MJGgraphics) (Image: @MJGgraphics)

Not instantly playing in the Watford team led to a Villa fan group on social media claiming Davis was frustrated at the lack of opportunities to play – so he replied.

“One day, and I don’t know how it popped up, but on my phone on social media I saw that someone on a Villa fans group was saying I was frustrated here. How would they know?!

“So I just messaged the person who had posted it and said ‘did I tell you that I was frustrated, why are you writing this?’. I wasn’t happy at all because it wasn’t true.”

Another social media fallacy that did the rounds, and one that the striker was very keen to correct, was that he wasn’t actually ill when he missed a week of training shortly after he made a brief debut in the draw at Birmingham.

“I was ill. I mean, I was in hospital for two days with a serious throat infection! It wasn’t a cover-up for anything, nothing sinister like that. I was in hospital, and I was too ill to train. I don’t know where this stuff comes from.”

After the game with Sunderland on Saturday, there were also questions as to why Davis couldn’t have stayed on the pitch for the last 10 minutes instead of being substituted.

“To be fair, after 30 minutes I was blowing!” he said.

“I was thinking ‘bloody hell, there’s still 15 minutes to half time!’ But then you get your second wind and it becomes a bit easier.

“There were patches in the game, especially for me with my fitness level and not having played full games since April, where things get on top of you a bit. For me to get to 80 minutes was a good sign for me and the coaches.

“It was my first start, I got to 80 minutes and then in the next game I can push on and hopefully play the full 90.”

With two weeks between matches, Davis can now focus on getting himself back to peak fitness.

“The international break means I can rest a bit in between work, but also get more into my legs. In training I’ll be replicating what I do on a matchday. For me, that’s what is important. Because I haven’t played many games, the more game-related work I can do in training, the better.

“The plan is for me to be in a position to play the full 90 minutes at Stoke in our next game. That 80 minutes on Saturday was good and now I have the time to get that volume of work into my legs.”

Having shook hands, stood next to him and then sat face to face with Davis, I can confirm he is, as youngsters might say, a bit of ‘a beast’. Is that a fair description?

“Yeah, I get that a bit!” he laughed.

“To be fair, it comes naturally. I don’t really do upper body work because I’ll get too big and heavy, and then I won’t be as powerful. I want to be fast as well as strong. I do a lot of core and leg work, but I don’t do much on my upper body at all.”

His fellow Villa loanee, Kortney Hause, has also added significant physical presence to the Watford team.

Davis celebrates with fellow Villa loanee Kortney Hause in the background. Pic: PA (Image: PA)

“Now Kortney, he is a machine! He is built crazy!” said Davis.

“Actually, he doesn’t do much work on his upper body either because he’s like me, he is quite big naturally. But he is a big lad, yeah.”

Even in a handful of appearances, Davis has shown Watford fans he can cause problems for the other 23 teams in the Championship.

“I fancy myself against any defender, especially in this division,” he said.

“When I’m at full fitness and I know my strength and speed is right, and I’m mentally ready, then I feel that I am a proper handful for anybody in this league.”

One of his obvious abilities is to ‘pin’ his defender and be able to shield the ball when it’s played to him.

“It’s not easy to pin the defender as you have to watch the ball but also be aware of where your defender is. It’s important to get your body in front of the defender as the ball is coming down. It’s not easy at all, but once you get the hang of it and you’re in the flow and have confidence, then those things play a big part in it too.

“I think having that combination of power and pace is what makes me different to a lot of strikers. I can play with the ball at my feet, I’m good in the air but I can also hold the ball up.

“It’s a case of combining the natural strength I have with a determination to want the ball. You have to have that will to get to the ball.”

Born in Stevenage, Davis started his career with his hometown club – but being so close to Watford, did he ever have any contact with the Hornets as a youngster?

“I played at the Watford training ground for Stevenage Under-18s, when I was only 15. We played Watford quite a lot and they used to batter us! But that was as close as I got to having any links with Watford before now.”

He then played for non-league Biggleswade Town, and is very aware that any connection to Bedfordshire is never a good one for a Watford player!

“Yeah, I’m aware of the Luton rivalry – I’ve not had comments about me having played for a team in Bedfordshire so far.

“It’s a big game, the Luton game. As players we’re aware of it 100%. You hear people talk about it, you see comments on social media. I’m very familiar with every game that we have coming up, but especially that one.”

It was at Biggleswade that Davis was spotted by Villa, and he made the move from non-league football to the professional ranks very quickly. It was a big step despite the relatively small distance.

“I’d never taken the train or anything like that before I moved to Birmingham,” he admitted.

 “I just used to hang around in Stevenage. My friends would go to London but I’d never go with them, even if it was just to the shops.

“So going to Birmingham as a 17-year-old was crazy really. A week before I was in college and working, and then I was signing for Aston Villa.

“My first Under-17 manager was Kevin McDonald, and then I went into the Under-18s for a couple of games, then straight into the Under-23s. Two months after I signed I was on the bench for a Premier League game when Remi Garde was the manager. He left, then Roberto di Matteo came in. We had a fair few managers.”

Believe it or not, Davis was a winger for most of his youth career before he listened to some advice at Biggleswade.

“When I was playing at Biggleswade, I didn’t really do much of holding the ball up. That wasn’t really my profile then, I tended more to drift out onto the flanks and try skills and stuff.

“I was never a striker as a kid. I was always a winger. The coach at Biggleswade said I should play more through the middle, and I was even trying to tell him that I was better on the wing. But they said to stay up front and I listened to the advice. Obviously that was good advice as it paid off.

“Then when I got to Villa, I’d had a growth spurt and they helped mould me into the player I am now, holding the ball up. I learnt that side of the game from when I joined Villa.”

Last season Davis was a key figure on loan at Nottingham Forest, helping them achieve promotion via the play-offs. With first-hand experience under his belt, what is essential for a team that wants to get promotion?

“For me, the key thing is team spirit. You need to have everyone pulling in the same direction. Last season, every player at Forest, and anyone we signed, they only wanted one thing: to get promoted.

“It didn’t matter who they were, they wanted promotion. We had players on loan who wanted to show the club they were on loan from that they’re good enough to play in the first team and get promoted. If an academy player came in, they wanted to stay in the first team and get promoted.

“One of the most important things is any successful team is team spirit and togetherness.”

Davis also said that it is far from easy to achieve what Forest, Fulham and Bournemouth did last season.

“It’s not an easy division to get out of because just about any team can beat anyone else. What helps is if you can get on a run, an unbeaten run or better still one where you win five or six games on the spin. That can move you so far up the table.

“Obviously what you have to avoid is losing too many games close together. It can be a very up and down league with teams climbing and dropping. If you can get on a winning run, or even a run of games where you don’t lose, that’s really important.”

Having won the play-off final at Wembley, was that experience one he’d recommend or would he say going up automatically is better?

Davis celebrates Forest's win at Wembley. Pic: PA

“Oh automatic promotion, every time! The play-offs are so tense,” he said.

“The two play-off semi-final games are more intense than the actual final. It gets really serious all of a sudden because the regular season is over, and you’ve got two games home and away, and you have lots of team meetings. You spend time talking about the bigger reasons why you are doing this, for ourselves, our families, the fans, the club.

“So I’d definitely say going up automatically is better, though winning the play-offs does mean you win at Wembley. It’s great if you win, but it’s harsh if you don’t.”

When the chance to join Watford for the season was offered to him, Davis said the attacking threat the Hornets can pose was key in his decision to move to Vicarage Road.

“The quality and ability of the attacking options at the club was one of the key reasons I wanted to come to Watford. I wanted to play with those sorts of players.

“(Ismaila) Sarr and Joao (Pedro) are Premier League class. You can see their quality when you see them play. That’s especially the case when they play together.

“(Yaser) Asprilla has got real quality. If you’ve seen his pass for the first goal at the weekend you’ll know that. You need great technical ability to be able to see and deliver a pass like that.

“Once we get all of us on the pitch together then the chances and goals will come. I’m quite happy for them to set me up for more tap-ins! They can do the work and running, and I’ll just be there to tap it in!”

As well as the players, Davis cited working with head coach Edwards as another clincher.

“Rob Edwards being coach here played a massive part in me coming too. People at Villa who know Rob spoke well of him, plus Kortney was with him at Wolves and said to me he’s a straightforward and honest guy.

“He’s on the same page as me, he likes to play football the right way. He’s never rushed me. As a striker when you move to a new club, if the results aren’t going well then there’s often a temptation to say ‘we need him in the team now’.

“But I came here not fully fit, then I got ill, and yet I’ve never felt any frustration on his part. He’s been patient with me. He’s never tried to hurry me up, he’s been very relaxed and let me take the time I needed. He’d rather wait and me be in and stay in, than rush me and then have me out again.

There has been understandable frustration, though, at the slow start to the season in terms on performances and results. That’s led to some questioning whether Edwards is already under pressure.

“We don’t want a change of coach, definitely not,” said Davis.

“It’s not been a simple time because we’ve had players that were almost leaving, Kortney and me have come in, and then there have been other changes behind the scenes.

“The gaffer needed to be given full control. He needed to be able to move things around. Now he’s got the opportunity to show he can take us up.”

There’s no doubt that the persistent rumours about some of his new teammates possibly leaving during August had an unsettling effect.

“As players we were glad to see the back of the transfer rumours,” said the striker.

“The gaffer wants to pick a certain type of team to play the way he wants, and he needs players to do that. If as key player goes you have to replace them and that can change the dynamic of the whole group.

“Once the transfer window closed we were like ‘ok, that’s cool, we can crack on now’.”

In the opening 10 games of the league season, Watford have operated with various shapes. Does Davis have a favourite?

“I don’t really mind the formation we play to be fair, though I do prefer to play up front alone with other players around me. When you play in a two, it can be hard to build a relationship and avoid making the some runs or being in the same places.

“If I have the choice, I do prefer to lead the line alone. That’s what I want to do now. Get on with playing and winning.”

(Thanks to @MJGgraphics for use of their artwork)