Former Premier League striker Troy Deeney has told William Hill’s podcast, Up Front with Simon Jordan, that he thought his footballing career was over when Sean Dyche was appointed manager of Watford in 2011.
Featuring on William Hill’s Up Front with Simon Jordan, a podcast hosted by the former Crystal Palace owner who speaks to sports stars and celebrities and challenges their opinions whilst scrutinising their careers, the Watford club legend explained that he had to earn the respect of the now Everton boss: “In my second year at Watford, Sean Dyche took over from Malky Mackay having previously been his assistant, so he had spent the most time trying to stop me from being a knobhead in year one.
“I used to be cheeky and juvenile with him, and I remember when they announced him as the next manager, I thought: ‘That’s it, my football dream is over because he’s not having me one bit. I spoke to Adrian Mariappa, a genuine friend, who said that Dyche was going to test me all pre-season, so I should stop drinking, don’t quit, and if I didn’t quit, he would come round to me.
“So, we went to France, and we had a ‘gaffer’s day’. No GPS, no fitness guys would get involved, it was just him with the players. We went to a beach in France to do running and we got to a bank where he got us to do sprints. After two hours of running, we did that and got to the hotel car park and there was a cross-fit HIIT workout set up that we had to do.
“So, we got onto that and I had snot coming out of my nose. After two hours and 45 minutes, I couldn’t do it anymore. We then got back onto the beach, thinking we were doing more running, and I said to Mariappa: ‘That’s it, I’m going to quit, this isn’t for me.’
“He [Dyche] then said for us to go into the water and rest up. After that, he respected me because I didn’t quit, and I never again tried to quit on one of those gaffer’s days.”
I let Malky Mackay down
Sticking with his time at The Hornets, the man who made 389 appearances in the yellow and black shirt said that his ego was too big coming into his first year at the club and that he let his then-boss Mackay down.
“Malky Mackay did his best for me, and I’ve always said that I let him down,” admitted Deeney. “When he was at Watford, his budget was one million pounds; he spent half of that on me.
“I signed on the very first day of the season and in that game against Norwich, Marvin Sordell and Danny Graham were playing – Marvin played very well to get an assist and Danny scored two. In the next game, which was in the Carabao Cup, Marvin scored two and in hindsight, this should have been brilliant for me as I should have been able to adjust and find my way into the team, but I had just come from Walsall where I played 95 minutes even if I was crap.
“At this point, I had this massive ego and I thought I should have been playing. Malky was good to me, and I let him down, so that first year was an absolute right off for me.”
I’m a free agent, but I still want to play
Moving on to the present day, having seen his contract run out at Birmingham City, the forward is a free agent and is still hungry to continue playing.
“I still want to play,” Deeney said. “I played 30 games in the Championship last season, granted I scored seven goals which isn’t ideal, but our top goalscorer, Scotty Hogan, had 10.
“I’ve got offers in this country as well as some abroad. I got an offer to go to Melbourne Victory in Australia and looking at it, it’s a lovely part of the world, but once you go there, you’re done. I don’t think you can go there, play for a couple of years, and come back with any sort of relevance.
“Three or four years ago I did have an offer to go to Saudi Arabia for a substantial amount of money, but I think it’s moved on now with the number of players going over and the template they have. I would be interested [by Saudi Arabia] – we all like money!”
