Joel Ekstrand wasn't surprised by his release from Watford.

Ekstrand wasn't surprised to be released by the Hornets as he “knows the situation at the club" and says that Watford wouldn't have been the right place to resume his career.

“I'm realistic," he told the Watford Observer. “I didn't play for the whole season. My main thing now is to play and I don't think Watford would have been the right place for me with their ambitions now – there are some good defenders which have come in.

“I need to play somewhere where I have a better chance of playing and that's how my thoughts went. I think the club agreed a little bit. It's never that we were fighting over this and that."