Troy Deeney’s year-old podcast on Filthy Fellas has resurfaced on the internet again, and fans have reacted again to Deeney’s extreme antics during his Watford years.
Aired on 7th June 2023, former Watford star and club legend Troy Deeney revealed on the podcast the extremities he went to push a move outside Watford.
In the summer of 2016, Watford’s manager Walter Mazzarri wanted to make Deeney an instrumental part of the team at Vicarage Road after forwards impeccable 2015-16 season, where he scored 13 goals. Deeney’s contribution was integral in Watford’s 13th-place finish in the English top flight.
Yearning for a fresh challenge, Deeney expressed a desire to join Leicester City, the newly crowned Premier League champions. Watford, however, was hesitant to grant his wish, leading Deeney to resort to drastic measures and employ a series of threats to compel the club to meet his demands.
Deeney stated that he had laid out the future blueprint for what would happen in the club if his move was not sanctioned.
In a meeting, Deeney threatened to injure every player on the training pitch and show up out of shape if the club refused his move away from the club. ‘I’ll come back fat, and I will injure every player until you sell me. I promise you I will injure every player.’
Unfazed by Deeney’s demands, manager Walter Mazzarri showed no sign of surrender, which forced Deeney to take another extreme action. Deeney stated that, after the club showed no sign of backing down, he entered the training pitch one day, took off his boots, said goodbye to backroom staff and left.
‘I Go back to my car, and three minutes later, my phone’s ringing,’ he continued, ‘and they [Watford] are saying name your price, you can get it. And I was like, well, let’s play then.’
Deeney’s audacious threat finally prompted the club management to offer him a lucrative new contract, hoping to retain their star forward.
Deeney and Watford found themselves in the negotiation battle, but Deeney had something different in his mind. Despite the substantial financial incentive, Deeney remained dissatisfied. The negotiations took a bizarre turn when he demanded increasingly unreasonable terms from the club’s hierarchy.
In a twist reminiscent of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Deeney declared that ‘it was not about the money’; he already had plenty. The forward demanded the director’s car parking space whenever he arrived for training. More space for his family and friends at the stadium, with two private boxes that will have 10 seats each and a bottle of champagne every time.
The one demand that stood out from the rest was the speed bump issue. The vicarage road had a speed bump on the way to the training ground. Deeney explained that the speed bump annoyed him beyond anything.
Deeney decided that his new Lamborghini Aventador wouldn’t go through the daily ordeal, which prompted him to ask the club directors to remove the speed bump. The authorities of Watford club indeed removed the speed bump to accommodate the demands of their talisman.
The demand finally seemed to have convinced Deeney to sign a new contract at Vicarage Road, as the star forward remained at the club for five years.
Deeney scored 10 goals in the subsequent season fighting the relegation battle which ultimately kept Watford in premier league, the manager Walter Mazzarri was still sacked after the season. Deeney left the club in 2021 for Birmingham, scoring 140 goals in 12 years.
