Stefano Okaka has revealed just how close he came to leaving Watford and says his long-term future at the club remains undecided.

The burley centre-forward fell out of favour with former Hornets head coach, Marco Silva and spent much of the first half of the season on the bench.

He looked destined to leave the club in January as he openly stated a desire to depart and attracted interest from around Europe.

Now, Okaka has gone on record to reveal deals to leave Vicarage Road broke down on the final day of both the summer and January transfer windows.

“In August I was very close to [joining] Sevilla but I would have stayed at Watford if things had been normal,” Okaka told gianlucadimarzio.com.

“However, with Sevilla it was not successful because we couldn’t find an agreement on the last day of the market.

“The same thing happened in January with Galatasaray, always on the last day. Now we are waiting for the end of the season and we will see for next year.”

Okaka has enjoyed a better relationship with Javi Gracia than he did under Silva and the Spaniard has returned him to his squad and used him as an impact sub.

Being back among the action has lifted the 28-year-old’s spirits and he believes he has been able to reward Gracia with good performances.

He said: “A new coach has arrived who is playing me more and I think I managed to help the team when called in.”

Okaka’s aim now is to finish the season in as strong a vein of form as possible and make up for time lost while Silva was at the Watford helm.

“I want to finish the season in the best possible way because unfortunately I lost a lot of the championship despite having started a well by scoring against Liverpool,” he said.

With the international break in full-swing, Okaka and his Watford team mates will have to wait until next weekend to return to action when they entertain AFC Bournemouth at Vicarage Road.

Seeing his native Italy in action of course brings up memories of the four caps Okaka has so far collected for the Azzuri.

His quartet of Italy outings have yielded one goal and the former Sampdoria and Anderlecht man retains hopes of impressing manager Gian Ventura and returning to the national side.

“I dream of returning to the national team,” he said. “I know Ventura would have held me in hiugh esteem if Italy had gone to the World Cup and if I had continuity with Watford.