WATFORD Chairman Graham Simpson has today (Thursday) issued the following response to Sir Elton John's personal statement of yesterday.

"We were all very disappointed at Watford to read Sir Elton's John's comments about the club at this time, and I would have hoped that he would have spoken to me first to voice his concerns, and I could then have put his mind at rest.

"Had Sir Elton asked me about the finances of the club, and the money received from our recent player sales, I would have explained that the maths is quite simple.

"Since we gained promotion the Club will have committed over £48m on players' wages and football costs, plus £18m on transfers making a total of £66m.

"We will have received nearly £44m from the Premier League plus £20m income from the total sales of Young, Bouazza, King, Henderson, Shittu and Ellington. This totals £64m.

"We have broken the club's record transfer fee, whilst keeping the playing squad's wage bill at somewhere near three times that of the original squad Aidy inherited in March 2005.

"During the autumn of 2007, the Board backed Aidy's judgement and threw its support behind his team building plans.This was always on the understanding, and minuted with everyone present, that if we were not successful we would cut our cloth accordingly.This is exactly what we are doing now. We will continue to manage the Club in a responsible manner whilst exploring new avenues for fresh investment. We have made no secret of our desire to sell Watford Football Club.

"In the meantime, we would like to reassure all our supporters yet again that the club remains financially stable and there is absolutely no danger of a 'catastrophe'."