Not many people encapsulate what you can achieve through determination and hard work on the playing field. Watford captain, Troy Deeney, is that kind of football player.
He’s a pure athlete, but his appearance won’t turn heads. He doesn’t splash the cash like other Premier League players can be seen to be doing.
"It really opened my eyes to what's really important in life."
Deeney served time in Prison in 2012 for an altercation outside a nightclub, but the man who told the Daily Mail, 'Going to prison was the best thing that ever happened to me’ has gone on to write himself into Watford folklore, captaining the side to a first promotion to the Premier League since 2006, scoring 24 league goals in the process.
So how did this dream come to be realised?
Troy Deeney was born in Birmingham in 1988. A young Deeney was always in and around football and fell in and out of the youth systems at his hometown club Aston Villa, but he was released at the age of just fifteen years of age. Whilst friends took the darker paths in life, Deeney looked to master a trade in building whilst also searching for a new club.
After jumping between a few lower league clubs, he signed for Championship side Watford for a measly £500,000 at the age of just twenty-two. Not much was expected of the man. Whilst manager after manager departed, and players around him were sent out on loan or sold, Deeney was a fixture in a team fluctuating between personnel from week to week.
However, following solid progress at Watford, his life was thrown into chaos in 2012. After a case of mistaken identity, Deeney was sent to prison for ten months for ‘affray’, after kicking a student outside a nightclub, causing him physical damage.
A rejuvenation to Watford's benefit
Before his prison sentence, Deeney was an inconsistent scorer.
In the preceding season, he scored few goals. However, his form took a dramatic turn for the better in his return to football. He guided the club to the play-off final in 2013, scoring nineteen league goals in the process. In the following two seasons, he scored twenty-four and twenty-one goals respectively, the latter contributing to Watford’s promotion to the big time.
No sooner had the champagne been emptied, Deeney was left star struck as Elton John called him on his personal mobile phone to congratulate and thank the striker for all his efforts in captaining the side to glory. Deeney told BBC’s Football Focus that “people like my mum and that buzz off the fact that he calls me.”
Again, the club and the manager parted company, and a new manager came in to lead Watford into the Premier League. In many ways, Deeney is the one who leads them on and off the Pitch.
After two seasons in the Premier League, securing safety relatively early on in the season, Watford will do well to keep the striker, with arguments with current manager Walter Mazzari exposing a less than solid relationship, although, at Watford, the manager will always take second place behind Deeney.
This, despite victories against the big boys such as Manchester United and Arsenal, could see Mazzari lose his job.
His loyalty to his family and Football club is unparalleled. He speaks emotionally about his parents and has rejected moves away from Watford on a number of occasions. If there’s anything that endears a person to another person or people, it’s honesty. His confidence in himself was for all to see after his goal against stoke on Saturday. He hadn’t scored in his first nine games of the season, but he said that he never doubted he would score, and who would question a man who has proven time and again that you should never count him out.
