Lewis McGugan has slammed Watford for his treatment of him admitting he lost his enjoyment for the game during the last 18 months at Vicarage Road.
The attacking midfielder completed his permanent move to Sheffield Wednesday on Thursday after two successful loan spells at Hillsborough last season.
The move ended a difficult spell for McGugan at Watford with the former Nottingham Forest ace finding himself in the wilderness at Vicarage Road with the 26-year-old admitting it was hard to take how he was treated by the club.
"At the end I did not feel wanted by Watford and I don't know why that was," McGugan told ESPN FC.
"I went to Sheffield Wednesday last year and it put a smile back on my face and I started to enjoy the game again.
"I was playing games again for a manager who had faith in me and the fans were incredible to me.
"It was nice to feel wanted again and I could feel that support every time I played, while at Watford I did not feel they wanted me around there."
McGugan admits his situation at Watford changed upon the departure of Gianfranco Zola with the Italian playing a huge role to persuade the Nottingham-born star to leave his hometown club Nottingham Forest for Watford in the summer of 2013.
He scored 12 goals in his first season at Watford, to finish as the club's second highest scorer, but the departure of Zola in December 2013 saw McGugan pushed out of the first-team picture.
McGugan is at odds to understand why he found himself out of favour following Zola's departure, but concedes his position has not been helped by the managerial upheaval at the club with the midfielder having had six different managers since joining Watford.
"Obviously I had a very good first season under Gianfranco Zola, but after he left for whatever reason I hardly played for Watford again," added McGugan.
"From finishing as the club's second top scorer the previous season I was not involved and things started to unravel.
"The upheaval in the change of managers does not help anyone and it seemed my face didn't fit, but it came from nowhere after the success of my first season at the club.
"The club have a way of working and it is one of those things, but things didn't work out the way I expected them to especially after my first year under Zola.
"I knew I was fighting a losing battle if I stayed at Watford because I don't think they really wanted me around the club so there was no point prolonging the agony."
McGugan admits it was stressful as his move back to Wednesday dragged on since the end of last season and he is unhappy at how Watford held up the move.
"Obviously it has been frustrating that the move kept getting delayed and it seemed when it got close Watford would move the goalposts a bit and we were back at square one again," continued McGugan.
"It is difficult and stressful as you want to know where you stand so that you can prepare for the new season, but I have been professional and went back to pre-season training and got my head down.
"Thankfully the move is now sorted and I can get back to enjoying my football again."
McGugan is relishing the prospect of returning to Wednesday having quickly established himself as a fans' favourite at Hillsborough, and he is desperate to to repay the faith the club and fans have shown in him.
"I love the Sheffield Wednesday fans and I want to repay them for their support," added McGugan.
"The deal has been dragging on for quite a while now, but I want the fans to know that it was Watford holding it up and not me as my part was sorted quickly.
"The Sheffield Wednesday owners are ambitious and they want to try and get the club back to the Premier League.
"As a player you want to be part of an ambitious project like that and that it why I am definitely keen to go back to the club."
McGugan's agent, Rob Segal, also aimed a swipe at Watford for the way they handled the player's transfer, accusing them of making things difficult.
"It's been unnecessarily difficult with Watford giving us permission to speak and have a medical at Sheffield Wednesday and then literally changing the agreement to cause maximum chaos.
"I can see why they change managers every year!"