Watford will still be reeling from £12.5m transfer disaster: View | OneFootball

The puns are just too easy when you’re talking about Isaac Success’ stint at Watford, so we’ll get them out the way early doors.

He wasn’t a Success, he really wasn’t. The only success Watford got was when they offloaded him as soon as they could. There we go, puns over.

But there is truth in the above; Success moved to Vicarage Road for an eight-figure fee - believed to be around £12.5 million and a club-record at the time - and was said to be destined for big things after starting life in Spain with Granada.

Six goals in the previous La Liga season was enough for the Hornets to part with the hefty sum to make the then-20-year-old their marquee signing of the summer, but things didn’t go according to plan for player or club during his time in England, as they were all about to find out.

Isaac Success' Watford FC career stats, loan deals

The new signing had to make do with appearances off the bench in his start to life in Hertfordshire, with his first goal coming as a substitute on his fifth appearance as he levelled the scores in a 2-2 draw against AFC Bournemouth.

His flicked header to rescue a point must have had Watford fans salivating at the thought of what was to come from their new, young, hungry goal-getter, and they couldn’t wait to see what else he could deliver over the course of the campaign.

Little did they know that was going to be as good as it got that year, with that being his only goal in his 19 appearances - although only two were from the start of a match - with the Nigerian failing to rediscover his form from Spain.

The striker must have been yearning for a return to La Liga that much that he eventually got his wish for the following campaign, as he made the loan switch to Malaga; although a goalless nine games didn’t do much to help him get back to his best.

Nevertheless, Hornets fans must have been buzzing to see him back in a yellow shirt for the following campaign, and he must have felt like a new signing as he got back to trying to terrorise defenders in the English game.

Nine starts out of his 30 league appearances tells you all you need to know about how frequently he was getting on the pitch once again at Vicarage Road, with a solitary Premier League goal against Huddersfield backed up with three strikes in cup competitions.

Isaac Success and the Hornets hoodoo

Injuries began to take their toll on the striker, with matches becoming something of a rarity in his final two seasons with the club, before he made the oft-frequented move from Watford to Udinese, and remained within the Pozzo family-owned clubs.

Three goals in over 70 league matches proves it wasn’t just English soil where Success has been anything but that, and he has no goals in his first 22 appearances of the current Serie A season.

Now, we can all have our own thoughts on why the Nigerian failed to find his form on English soil, but reports from his homeland claimed evil spirits were working against him and cursed his move to the Premier League.

If a ‘juju’ has been placed on you, finding the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area must be a tricky prospect, so maybe he can be forgiven for his shot-shy appearances as a Hornet.

At 28-years-old, the striker should be hitting his pomp around now, but it looks as if his career has stalled, with Watford’s bank account being all the worse off for it. One of the many anonymous Hornets strikers to add to the list over recent seasons, but none have been as costly as him.