Andros Townsend: Watford confirm interest in signing Tottenham outcast

Watford look set to reignite their interest in signing Tottenham Hotspur winger Andros Townsend after manager Quique Sanchez Flores admitted the England international would be perfectly suited to the Hornets. Reports suggest the Vicarage Road club have had a £10m bid rejected by the north Londoners, who are holding out for a larger offer in the January window.

The Daily Telegraph understand Spurs are holding out for £14m for the 24-year-old after rejecting Watford's initial offer, and have also ruled out a loan move for the former Queens Park Rangers wideman. Townsend has not featured for Mauricio Pochettino's side since October and has been forced to play for the club's Under-21 side in an attempt to put himself in the shop window.

Though Townsend has impressed for the Tottenham second string, with two goals in the recent 5-4 defeat to Chelsea, brief appearances for the club's reserves side is not expected to be enough to earn a place in Roy Hodgson's England squad for the upcoming European Championships. Flores is ready to offer the player an escape route however and believes he is perfect for Watford.

"He has the characteristics that we are looking for," the Spanish boss said, according to BT Sport. "We have players in the side who can play intelligent football but we need skill, we need velocity. We need to make a balance with these players and he has the characteristics. I don't like to talk about names but these are the kind of characteristics we are looking for." Townsend has played for Watford before, on a month-long loan in 2011.

Another player with links to Tottenham could also be set to join Watford, with unattached forward Emmanuel Adebayor also subject to interest from the newly-promoted side. The Togo international has not played any competitive football for 10 months having been released from his contract at White Hart Lane in September.

"I can understand why a lot of clubs in England want to sign Adebayor," Flores added on the ex-Tottenham striker. "He's 31, he has quality, he has experience, he has goals. So I understand that he can choose where he wants to play in the Premier League. It's not easy to come here to cover Deeney and Ighalo. They have a high performance every time and they are part of the soul of this team. It's difficult to challenge these players, so we need to be sensitive.

"We need to explain to the players on what condition they're coming to this team. I don't want any players coming here to cover strikers that think they are going to play easily, because it's not the real situation. We play with two strikers but it's difficult to take them out of the team, including in the match."