Last January, when Marco Silva was still in charge at Hull City, trying to keep the now Championship club in the Premier League, one of his January targets was Frank Acheampong.
The Ghana international was at Anderlecht, and his dream was to move to the Premier League with the ideal opportunity presenting itself, only for the Belgian side to say no.
It annoyed him, but he stayed, won the title, and then got the green light to get a move away from the Jupiler Pro League.
That’s when Watford came knocking, and the chance to fulfil his dream once again came up, but, for the second time, it slowly disappeared in front of his eyes.
We covered the rumours sending him to Vicarage Road, as Bournemouth also made it clear they were interested, and, speaking to Sport/Foot, Acheampong revealed why he ended up going to China with Tianjin Teda instead of the Premier League.
He said: “Watford were very interested. Marco Silva, the agent who wanted to sign me at Hull City, offered me to Watford and the interest was there, but everything was going too slowly for my taste, and I didn’t want to wait any longer.
“On one side, I had Watford, where my transfer was on stand-by, and on the other, I had a Chinese club with whom everything was sorted. In life, when you get a chance, you need to seize it”.
We’re not sure why or how Marco Silva became an agent last summer, but we get the gist of what Acheampong was saying.
The Watford manager wanted him, but we wouldn’t be surprised if it all happened around the same time Richarlison, originally a left winger, became available.
We reckon they made the right choice.
