Belgian midfielder Pierre Dwomoh has joined Watford from Antwerp for a fee in the region of £800,000 on a long-term contract.

The 20-year-old spent last season on loan at RWD Molenbeek, and has also had spells with Braga and Oostende after moving to Antwerp from Genk in the summer of 2021.

The Under-17 international is seen as one for the future by Hornets head coach Tom Cleverley.

“This signing is one that is more of a project,” he said.

“If you look at the signings we’ve made recently then they really represent what we’re about as a football club.

“We want experienced and intelligent leadership, we want to sign players who are in their prime that are young, fit, and hungry, but then we also want to have long-term projects.

“We’ve seen the development of Kwadwo Baah, we’ve seen Yaser Asprilla come in and then be sold for a lot of money.

“The recruitment shows what we are all about. We want short-term results so, yes, we value experience and form, but we also want to develop players on a longer-term and potentially sell them for large sums of money.”

Cleverley said he felt it was unlikely that Dwomoh would feature for the first team before the end of this year.

“As a club we are all very much on board with the processes and I was talking with the owner in the week about how we have six or seven players that we view as projects,” he said.

“Players like Vata, Doumbia and Baah are at the stage where there are ready. They are part of a long-term project but they are ready to play for us right now.

“Whereas Tikvic, Almeida and Dwomoh will be longer-term projects, and we shouldn’t be too eager to see them this side of Christmas.”