English Premier League side Watford FC rejected a £38 million bid from Chinese Super League powerhouse Shanghai SIPG for Nigerian striker Odion Ighalo on Thursday as the Hornets are not ready to release any of their two attackers this summer.

According to Goal, the Vicarage Road residents have also recently turned down a £30 million offer from newly-crowned EPL champions Leicester City for their other striker, Troy Deeney, as club owner Giampaolo Pozzo is "determined to hold onto his star players" for at least the next season.

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Ighalo, along with Deeney, is the other half of the Yellow Army's two-pronged attack. He first joined Watford via a season-long loan from Udinese in the summer of 2014 when the team was still playing in the Football League Championship, England's second tier of association football competitions.

In October of that same year, only three months after the loan was made, Watford was able to terminate it and make Ighalo's transfer a permanent one.

The 6-foot-2 Lagos, Nigeria native then helped the Hornets finish second to AFC Bournemouth in the 2014-2015 Championship season to get promoted to the Premier League in 2015-2016.

Ighalo then scored 15 goals in 37 appearances during the last term to lead Watford to a 13th place finish in the club's first season in the English top flight after eight years.

Meanwhile, Shanghai SIPG is not finished in trying to improve their roster during the China top flight's midseason as they turn their focus on Ighalo after recently landing Brazilian winger Hulk from Russian club Zenit Saint Petersburg for the now Chinese transfer record of £46 million, as per The Guardian.

The previous record was £40 million when Jiangsu Suning snatched another Brazilian, Alex Teixeira, from Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk last February.

SIPG is currently on a five-game winless slide and in the fourth spot of the current CSL table. They are in danger of not qualifying for next season's AFC Champions League tournament if they can't finish the season in the top three of the standings.

TagsChina Football, Chinese Super League, Chinese Super League news, Watford FC, Odion Ighalo, Shanghai SIPG FC