Watford complete £5.5m deal to sign West Brom defender Dawson

Jamie Smith

Watford complete £5.5m deal to sign West Brom defender Dawson image

Watford have announced the signing of Craig Dawson, who joins the Premier League side after spending the last nine seasons with West Brom.

Dawson has agreed a four-year deal with Watford, who paid the Championship outfit a reported £5.5 million ($7m).

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The 29-year-old, who can feature at both centre-back or right-back, joined the Baggies back in the summer of 2011, signing from Rochdale in League One.

Aside from a half season loan with Bolton Wanderers in 2012-13, Dawson would spend the next nine campaigns with the Baggies, becoming a regular starter with the club during the 2014-15 Premier League season.

He remained with West Brom following their drop from the top flight in the 2017-18 campaign, starting 42 games in the Championship this previous season as the club finished fourth to qualify for the play-offs.

Dawson started both play-off semi-final legs for the Baggies, and scored in a 1-0 victory in the second leg against Aston Villa, only for West Brom to fall in the tie on penalties to the eventual play-off winners. 

With a quick promotion to the Premier League denied, Dawson has instead received his return to the top-flight via a transfer to Watford, where as he adds further Premier League experience to Javi Gracia's side, having prevously featured in over 150 games in the division.

In total, Dawson completes his tenure with West Brom having made 225 appearances for the club, during which he netted 15 goals. 

The former England Under-21 international becomes the beaten FA Cup finalists' first signing ahead of the 2019-20 season.

Heurelho Gomes penned a one-year contract extension last week, the veteran goalkeeper reversing his previously announced intention to retire.

The Hornets will be aiming to improve on season where they picked up 50 points and finished in 11th place, but narrowly missed out on a top-half of the table by a couple of points. 

Jamie Smith