Michail Antonio Signs with Watford on Free Transfer
Watford have turned to one of the Premier League’s great battering rams to spearhead their season, signing former West Ham United forward Michail Antonio on a free transfer.
The 36-year-old has agreed a one-year deal at Vicarage Road after a month training under Alessio Dionisi, and will wear the number 18 shirt. The move, subject to international clearance, could see him thrown straight into the squad for Saturday’s Championship home game against Stoke City.
From broken leg to new start
Antonio’s route to Hertfordshire has been anything but straightforward.
He played his final senior game for West Ham in a 3-1 defeat at Leicester City on 3 December 2024. Four days later, his season – and potentially his career – veered off course when he suffered a broken leg in a car crash.
West Ham released him in June 2025, drawing a line under a decade-long spell in east London. He wasn’t done with the club just yet, though. Antonio returned to Rush Green to continue his rehabilitation and even pulled on a Hammers shirt again at under-21 level, making two appearances in Premier League 2 as he fought his way back to fitness.
The comeback looked on track. Then the setbacks piled up.
He trained with Leicester City last December as he searched for his next move, and came close to joining Brentford. The deal collapsed in brutal fashion: a torn calf muscle on the eve of signing scuppered his switch to the Bees.
A brief Qatari chapter
Antonio eventually resurfaced with Al-Sailiya in Qatar, where he made four appearances, the last of them in April. It was a short, low-key stint for a player whose career has rarely been quiet.
That spell ended with questions over where he would go next. Watford provided the answer.
Antonio has been working with Dionisi’s squad over the past month, building fitness and familiarity before the club moved to secure his signature. Now the deal is done, pending the formalities of international clearance for the Jamaican international.
“Watford is a big club and hopefully I can come in and bring success and help wherever I can,” he told the club’s website.
Experience for a team in transition
For Watford, this is signing number 12 of a busy summer, a clear statement that the rebuild under Dionisi is still in full swing. The Hornets sit 12th in the Championship table after six games, with a perfectly balanced record: two wins, two draws, two defeats.
They have been competitive without yet convincing anyone they are promotion certainties. Antonio changes that equation. At his peak for West Ham, he bullied centre-backs, stretched defences and turned tight matches with sheer force of will. Watford are banking on enough of that player still being there.
His arrival also brings a wealth of EFL know-how. Before his move to West Ham in September 2015, Antonio carved out his reputation in the lower leagues with Reading, Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest. Those years hardened him. They also gave him an understanding of the grind that awaits across a 46-game Championship campaign.
Now he steps back into that world, older, scarred by injury, but with a point to prove and a club eager for his edge.
If the paperwork clears in time, Stoke City’s defenders may be the first to discover how much of the old Michail Antonio remains.
