Although Watford have made two permanent signings and more are in the pipeline, Tom Cleverley is also waiting to land the top-flight loan signings he has been eyeing since he was given the job as head coach.

Forward Rocco Vata followed goalkeeper Jonathan Bond in joining this week, and Cleverley is waiting to be able to make his move into the loan market soon.

The Hornets boss said from the outset that bringing in hungry young players from Premier League clubs was something he intended to do, and he had his targets in place many weeks ago having identified what he needed.

“The profile of players I am looking at is largely young Premier League-standard players who would be joining us on loan from big Premier League clubs,” he said.

“I feel like those teams who have had success in the Championship in the last couple of seasons have dived into that market successfully.

“We have two or three players at top-10 Premier League clubs that we have our eye on and that we are in contact with.”

However, two major tournaments in Europe and America means many of the clubs Cleverley is poised to do business with need to wait until their senior players have returned from international duty.

“For these type of deals to materialise a lot of things have to fall into place,” he explained.

“The Euros and Copa America have meant that bigger clubs need their young players to be with them in pre-season and to go on tours and things like that.

“They need to assemble their squads before they then allow these young players to go out.

“It’s something I’ve accepted we’re going to have to be patient with and it’s likely to run into the last two weeks of the transfer window.

“But we have done all the work, and continue to do so, which means we are ready to pounce for the players we have identified as soon as we are aware they are available.”

While not discussing specifics, Cleverley indicated that this summer is likely to be busier than many of the recent transfer windows – but he also urged fans to take the vast majority of names rumoured to be coming to Vicarage Road with a large pinch of salt.

The stories that suggested Watford would pay some €10m for Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo Velho were totally without foundation, while names such as Milan’s Fode Ballo-Toure, Lino Sousa of Aston Villa, former Sheffield United midfielder Ollie Norwood and Valencia’s Declan Frith are among many linked with moves to Vicarage Road without any basis in fact.

“We’ve got top targets that I’ve identified. A couple are very close to being here, and I am continuing to work on the others,” said Cleverley.

“But I’ve seen some of the names we’ve been linked with, and I’ve no idea at all where those links come from because they are players I have not even considered.”