Hakan Hayrettin believes Maidstone deserve some credit for Max Watters’ move to the Championship.

Watters joined Cardiff yesterday in a deal worth up to £1 million after scoring 16 goals in 19 games for League 2 Crawley this season.

The Sussex club are in the money but Hayrettin says they didn’t have a clue who the 21-year-old was before he lined up against them for Maidstone in a pre-season friendly.

He’d been due to sign a contract with United but Crawley liked what they saw in the 45 minutes Watters played and snapped him up.

Watters ended last season on loan at the Gallagher and was a free agent after Doncaster, managed by Hayrettin’s good pal, Darren Moore, released him in the summer.

“It’s all happened very quickly,” said Stones boss Hayrettin.

“I don’t think anyone expected him to be where he is now but I did say to my mate at Doncaster at the time, I think you’ve made a mistake letting him go.

“What’s really frustrating for me is that Crawley have been given all the credit for this.

“I get that because he’s been playing in their team but they didn’t know who he was, they didn’t have a clue, and then I hear on the telly that he left Doncaster due to finances and Covid and Crawley have given him a chance, but that’s not strictly true.

“I identified him, we offered him a deal, he turned it down.

"Dagenham and Bromley didn’t see anything in him when he went on trial, so he came back and when I said we’d do a deal, within a day he’d gone to Crawley on trial and the rest is history.

“Maybe if we’d offered him a little bit more money at the start he’d have signed but that’s financial constraints from Covid and I understand that.

“Good luck to the lad. He was very nearly our player. I identified him, I brought him to the club last season.

“The truth is Crawley didn’t identify him, it was me, but Crawley have reaped the rewards of that with his goals and now the financial rewards.

“If he continues in this vein he’ll do well at Cardiff. Sixteen goals in 19 games is an unbelievable stat. I hope he keeps progressing.”

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