Jay DeMerit has revealed that he decided to stay at Watford following their relegation from the Premier League in 2007 as an act of gratitude towards a club that helped him make the jump to the elite level.

The Hornets plucked DeMerit from non-league side Northwood in 2004 and the trust in the American centre-half was fully repaid as he established himself at the heart of the backline until he left in 2010.

Yet despite being in high-demand and having had the chance to extend his stay in the English top-flight elsewhere in the wake of the Hornets’ relegation, thanks first and foremost to an impressive campaign from a personal perspective, it never crossed the American defender’s mind to ‘abandon the sinking ship’.

He said: “I liked the fact that I was growing into more of a leadership role for the team, which was something that I earned and enjoyed also.

“Then I was really enjoying my time at the club. Watford is a family-focused and community-focused club and for someone who comes from a small community-focused city like Green Bay in the US, there was always a feeling of ‘home’ for me at Watford. That played into consideration when I had to decide (whether to stay or to go).

“Also knowing that we had a good team and that there were still a lot of good players there and that we could try and get back up, those were the main reasons I stayed. But you know, again, I don’t believe you should chase money. Watford presented me with a fantastic opportunity and I wanted to make sure I paid that back to the club.”

DeMerit cites a lack of cutting edge up-front following striker Marlon King’s season-ending knee injury and inexperience within the team as the key reasons for Watford’s immediate relegation.

Only twelve months previously he had spearheaded the Hornets to the Premier League after breaking the deadlock in the playoff final against Leeds in Cardiff, but as he reiterated, it’s one thing to play in the Championship but it’s yet another to do so in ‘the best league in the world’.

“The first thing that really tripped us off was Marlon King getting injured,"he said

"He was a fantastic forward for us for a couple of years, he gave us a lot of confidence and we knew how to play with him.

“It was just the second or first game of the Premier League season when he tore his knee. From then on, we tried to find new scorers and things like that but we didn’t have that confident player that we always knew up-front.

“And I think that hurt us because as anyone knows, if you don’t score goals in the Premier League it’s very hard to stay in the league.

“Trying to buy a couple more players, that again takes a bit of time to gel with the new guys and it just didn’t really work.

“In second, it was just a step up for a lot of us because there were a lot of players that hadn’t had Premier League experience and that also shows at that level.

“If you looked at the teams that were there, like the Chelseas and the Manchester Uniteds you could tell that they had the players, they had the mindset and all those things.

“As a new team coming up we had to create those things because we didn’t have them. The Premier League really unforgiving and they don’t really care if you are a new team. It’s the best league in the world for a reason and having to cope with all those challenges was tough for us."

De Merit locked horns with a number of world-class players in the Premier League and although the 40-year old is in awe of the likes Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Steven Gerrard, he said that Didier Drogba was harder to defend against than them and by far the trickiest opponent he came up against in during his spell in English football.

“Drogba was the one (who gave me the toughest time).We also ended playing Chelsea in the FA Cup (in 2010) and Drogba was always hard to mark if you were a centre half.

“If you mark, say Rooney, he’s a little bit smaller and I can kind of deal with him physically and stuff like that but with a guy like Drogba, who is bigger than you, stronger than you, faster than you, he can shoot from two yards, he can shoot from twenty-five yards, he is good in the air, it was tough. Those types of guys for me were always the most difficult.

“But I really enjoyed that season. In the Premier League you can’t really take a day off because in every game you play against some of the best players in the world. I think that competition really ‘proved’ me as a player: how to play against those guys and it allowed me to work out my consistency as a player, which is important.

“That was only my third season as a pro and I still had a lot of learning to do. All things considered for me the joy of getting promoted was bigger than the disappointment of getting relegated.”