When a head coach is asked about where he would like to bring in new signings and replies by mentioning defence, midfield and attack, then it’s an obvious sign the squad is still short of where it needs to be.

A week before Watford start the new Championship season at Millwall, Tom Cleverley pointed at all three outfield areas of the pitch as he discussed what he felt the club needed to do in the final few weeks of the transfer window.

So far goalkeeper Jonathan Bond, left-sided defender Yasser Larouci, midfielder Moussa Sissoko and forward Rocco Vata have come in, and the club has confirmed it has given its visa wildcard for the 24/25 season to Mali youth international striker Mamadou Doumbia.

However, Ismael Kone has been sold, it looks like Yaser Asprilla is going to follow him out of the exit and it’s clear the Hornets squad needs further reinforcement.

“That is sort of out of my hands,” Cleverley admitted.

“Obviously we’re a bit stretched at centre-half at the minute, we’re a little bit stretched in central midfield and everyone would like to add quality at the top end of the pitch.

“I think every Championship manager would say the latter.

“Listen, we’ll have to see what happens but my job is to work with the quality that we have got, and the pleasing thing today was we looked hard to beat again.”

Earlier in the summer Cleverley had expressed his desire to get business done as early as possible.

However, Larouci didn’t feature in the friendly with Brentford having only joined last week from Troyes, and the French season starts a week later than the Championship so their preparations are probably behind those of the Hornets.

Meanwhile Doumbia has not played in any of the friendlies due to the wait on deciding whether to give him the wildcard or not, so while he has been training he’s not been involved in any of the games.

Therefore, Cleverley looks set to go into the first game with two new outfield players ready to play, a goalkeeper most likely to be on the bench, and two more new signings who may not be ready to feature.

“It’s not for the lack of hard work from myself and everyone on the board,” he said.

“It’s just not that easy and it seems to be a slow market because of the tournaments and that has knocked everything back.

“Premier League loans get knocked back because their players are late returning.

“It’s not for the want of trying, definitely.”