WATFORD manager Quique Sanchez Flores has described in-form Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo as "a wonderful man", after he told the media last Saturday.
The Hornets' reluctance to sell the forward in the summer, when a £10m bid from Chinese club Hebei China Fortune was made, has paid off for the club and the player, who scored twice in the 2-0 win over West Ham at Vicarage Road on Saturday.
Ighalo scored 20 goals in 38 appearances in the Championship last season and turned down the chance of a big-money move abroad to sign a new five-year contract with Watford.
And the 26-year-old has transferred that form to the Premier League, with his double in the win over West Ham on Saturday taking his tally to seven goals so far this term.
Flores said: "Ighalo took a very important decision to stay at Watford. It was a brilliant idea.
"He is a wonderful man who stayed here because his future here at Watford is really big. He is already an important player for us."
Ighalo opened the scoring shortly before half-time when he got a toe onto Nathan Ake's cross, although the ball was helped on its way by Hammers defender Aaron Cresswell.
But if there was any doubt over that goal, there was none about the second after the break when he controlled Ikechi Anya's ball into the area and crashed his shot high into the West Ham net.
A second win on the bounce lifted Watford up to ninth in the table, and Ighalo is more than happy with their progress.
"We know (West Ham) are a very good team but we stuck to our game-plan and what the gaffer told us to do, and it really worked," he told Hornets PlayerHD.
"We really pushed ourselves and we took the chances that came, so we are very happy about the game.
"I'm happy about my goals, but I'm most pleased about the team performance. We played very well and we deserved the win and the three points.
"We've been performing great this season and we've been working hard together.
"The team have been pushing. We run for each other, we fight for each other, and it's been great."
