The confusing and often mysterious saga of Ignacio Pussetto’s three-year Watford career came to an end today as the club announced his contract had been cancelled by mutual consent.

There have been some surprising and occasionally perplexing signings made during the 11 years of Pozzo ownership – some players have exceeded expectations, many others have disappointed.

However, few have captured the imagination – mainly for the wrong reasons – like Pussetto, who has officially been a Watford player for 1,311 days but spent the vast majority of that time nowhere near Vicarage Road or London Colney.

The 27-year-old joined the club from Udinese on January 14, 2020, for a fee believed to be around the €8m mark.

He made his debut four days later as an 89th-minute substitute in the 0-0 Premier League draw with Spurs at Vicarage Road.

In stoppage time he made a goalline clearance to deny Spurs' Erik Lamella what would have been a winning goal. Little did Watford fans know then it would be the highlight of his time at the club…

Pussetto made seven Premier League appearances that season.

None of them were as a starter and they only amounted to 67 minutes in total – the longest was 16 minutes in the 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace before the pandemic brought a pause to the season.

At the start of the 2020/21 campaign Pussetto made a five-minute substitute appearance in the 0-0 Championship draw at Sheffield Wednesday and also made his only start in Watford colours, when he played the first 84 minutes of the 3-1 League Cup defeat at Newport County.

He was then loaned back to Udinese where he made 13 league and cup appearances before a cruciate ligament injury brought his season to an end.

The 2021/22 season saw Pussetto loaned to Udinese again, and this time he clocked up 31 appearances and scored six times.

Last summer he headed back to Italy once more, this time joining Sampdoria on loan. Pussetto made six appearances before picking up a knee injury which required surgery and ruled him out for the season.

Earlier this summer Udinese released a video on their social media channels which showed many of their players arriving for pre-season training – Hasane Kamara was one of them along with Pussetto.

But that was purely in an effort to help the player regain fitness, and he’s not been sighted since.

Now with the news that his contract has been cancelled, it appears likely that Pussetto will return to play for Argentinian side CA Huracan, where he made 48 appearances and scored 12 goals between 2016 and 2018 before he was sold to Udinese for €8m.

A little over a year ago, chairman Scott Duxbury talked to the Watford Observer about the Pussetto situation.

“We signed him, he played a few games and then Nigel Pearson decided he didn’t want to play him, and subsequently each head coach has not wanted him,” he said.

In that interview – which you can read here – Duxbury also said he understood why fans felt angry at the transfer and subsequent disappearance of Pussetto.

“I get why fans would feel annoyed,” he said.

“They see us paying that money, he hardly kicks a ball and we send him straight back. I totally get that. But the loan back to Udinese was done with commercial rationale in mind because him playing in Italy was the best shop window we had.

“We won’t be the first or last club who sign a player for a fee, and it doesn’t work out.”

When he joined Watford, Pussetto signed a four-and-a-half year deal, so the settlement would presumably involve the final 12 months of that contract.

He leaves having made only nine appearances (one start) amounting to just 181 minutes of football – and the last time he played for Watford was more than 1,050 days ago.

During his entire time at Watford, Pussetto only played 28 minutes of football at Vicarage Road Stadium – to put that into context, Tobi Adeyemo has played 39 minutes at the Hornets’ home.