Rocco Vata leaves Celtic for Watford
Celtic youngster Rocco Vata has left the club to join Watford.
The Parkhead side were keen to hold onto the 19-year old and had offered him a new deal to stay at the club.
However, Vata has decided to join the English Championship side instead for what is expected to be a compensation fee of £200,000.
He has signed a four-year deal with the Hornets retaining an option to extend it by a further year.
Vata predominantly featured for Celtic's B team in the Lowland League last season, but also made two top team appearances under Brendan Rodgers.
The Republic of Ireland under-21 international has also scored five goals in just three appearances at that level.
Speaking in January about Vata's future, Brendan Rodgers said: "There’s been a lot of noise around Rocco but any young player has to earn the opportunity.
"I’ve given many young players opportunities in my career.
“But I like Rocco, he has qualities. He is strong, he’s aggressive, he wants to get goals. When he came on he got his goal and he had other opportunities.
“That will be up to him. He’s a talent.
“It depends what the mentality is with him and his representatives. You get some young players whose representatives will tell you if they are not playing in the first team, starting, they don’t want to stay. You better go then, because you have got to earn the right.
“He is 18, I don’t need players ready at 18 unless they are real, real special talents, but by 20-21 they need to be ready. But you can see he has tools and this can be a really good place for him to develop.”
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