WATFORD Chairman Graham Simpson has spoken of his desire to continue to make the Club self-sufficient following the news of Darius Henderson's move to Sheffield United earlier this week.

Henderson's £2m move has sparked debate amongst supporters, but Simpson explained that, for a Club of Watford's size and fan-base, it was a necessary one.

The Chairman, who last month declared his intention to step aside when a suitable buyer for the Club could be found, said: "I reiterate that this Club will never return to those dark days of 2002 and hopefully fans will have that thought at the forefront of their minds when reflecting on this deal.

"A Club of our size cannot sustain a massive wage bill without Premier League funding or additional investment.

"It's well documented that our parachute payments run out at the end of this season and we simply have to reduce our wage bill ahead of that. If we didn't we wouldn't be doing our jobs.

"Overall our football wages for the three seasons across the life of the Premiership payments will come close to £45m, despite the fact we still had the lowest wage bill in the Premier League by over £6m and we haven't even spoken about transfer fees and the continued investment in the infrastructure at this point.

"Compare this to the miracle Aidy achieved three years ago by getting us into the Premiership on a shoestring budget of £3.5m and you get some perspective.

"We will continue to make decisions that we feel reflect the current Board's intentions to run this club on a sensible and financially solid basis."