Troy Deeney interview: Watford’s captain on how prison spurred him to the Premier League
For most players it’s a motivational pep talk, a successful loan move or a dramatic moment on the pitch that is the catalyst for propelling a career to new heights.
But for Watford striker Troy Deeney, the script really begins at the moment the door to his cell in Warrington’s Thorn Cross prison slammed shut at the beginning of a 10-month sentence for affray.
At that moment in the summer of 2012, few would have predicted that less than five years later he would have scored over 100 goals for Watford, racked up 62 Premier League appearances and be giving talks on leadership to gatherings of sport industry leaders.
“The door closed and the real world had stopped,” he told CityAM at an event for the Sport Industry NextGen leadership programme.
“That might sound really drastic but that’s what it was. All my feelings and all my emotions were just caught up from that point. It was just a case of: ‘You’ve got to get through this’.
“I’d buried my dad not long before that. I didn’t have the time to sulk, cry or do all the things that I’d do if my mum died now; I’d be a mess, crying all over the place, drinking loads of beer like everyone does. I didn’t have that luxury. So as soon as that door shut it was survival mode.”
Watford have since relied on that survival instinct from their now-captain to guide them through the disappointment of a play-off final defeat, the joy of promotion to the Premier League and in their current battle to cement their position in the top tier.
Deeney was a speaker at Sport Industry NextGen which, in partnership with Barclays, identifies tomorrow’s leaders, rewards their potential and nurtures their talent. (Source: Getty)
After the Hornets suffered seven Premier League games without a win and defeat to League One Millwall in the FA Cup, two match-winning goals from Deeney in their last two games have eased the pressure and lifted them into the top half of the table.
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Under the ownership of the Italian Pozzo family, managers have tended to barely last longer than a single season at Watford and players sourced from the owners’ international multi-club network rarely stay much longer, but Deeney has been a permanent fixture in the first team and a bridge between fans and unfamiliar players.
When the club’s greatest ever manager Graham Taylor passed away last month, few figures were more visible and vocal than the 28-year-old in paying tribute.
He is nearing the kind of revered status at Vicarage Road reserved for the likes of Luther Blissett and John Barnes, if he is not there already.
Yet when he was released from prison after three months in August 2012, fitted with an ankle tag, his club barely remembered he existed amid the whirlwind of the Pozzo takeover, the firing and hiring of managers, and a massive influx of new players that took place that summer.
“As that was going on they didn’t even know who the No9 was, they didn’t care,” he says.
“They’d bought four strikers and there were already three there so when I came back I was the eighth-choice striker.
“I got released on the Monday, went in on the Tuesday. I was on tag and I just went to see if I was even allowed back, I didn’t know anything. I went and had a chat with [manager Gianfranco] Zola and he said: ‘Yeah, I know who you are. I’m just going to let you know, you’re eighth in the list’, and I laughed. He said: ‘Is something funny?’. And I just said: ‘No, no. I won’t be eighth for long.’
“I came on in the game that weekend as a sub and the week after I came on and scored. The rest is history, as they say.”
Starting and scoring. It’s been a familiar feeling for the Birmingham-born striker over the last few years and not one he enjoyed to the same extent before being behind bars.
Deeney: When I get to the end of my career and I might go, ‘You know what? You’ve done all right actually’. (Source: Getty)
If he hadn’t gone through the experience, Deeney believes he would have “just levelled out all the way across [my career]”.
It was being forced to confront himself in counselling sessions with other inmates that bred the determination and maturity he took into Zola’s office and hasn’t let go of since.
“To be eligible for a tag I had to do an alcohol course, a drugs course — even though I’ve never taken drugs — and that got me speaking,” he says.
“I used to be quite closed and have a lot of anger built in. So instead of having this conversation I’d be giving one-word or two-word answers, keeping it short.
“It was group chats. Everyone’s got a case of feeling sorry for themselves that the world owes them something. But after a while you realise that actually yeah, you’re life really ain't that bad. After I came out I continued that [speaking to a psychologist] more for a sports element, trying to make sure I can focus on the game.”
He remains friends with two of his former inmates but off the pitch, Deeney believes he can better leverage his current position to help a younger generation.
Deeney scores at Wembley in last year's FA Cup semi-final (Source: Getty)
As well as establishing his own foundation for terminally ill children, Deeney returns to his old estate in the tough Birmingham suburb of Chelmsley Wood and is happy to hand out advice to kids and offer up a rev on his Porsche or SUV.
Yet despite the turnaround of the last five years and his embracing of a captain’s responsibility, Deeney remains uneasy with a role model tag.
“As far as going into prisons and talking, I tend to steer away from it because I had a career going in and I had a career when I came out,” he says.
“I don’t think I can really resonate with a lot of people who have lived that way of the road for a long time before they went in. Me going back in a Range Rover probably doesn’t really sit right.
“It’s very difficult to say ‘look how great I am’. But when you meet people and you they say ‘you’re inspiring’ or ‘you should be so proud of yourself’ you step back and think: ‘Yeah, maybe I should’."
Beyond his playing days, Deeney says he has no immediate yearning to follow the familiar footballers’ path into the dugout or onto the pundits' sofa.
For now, his focus remains on keeping his career on the same upwards trajectory it’s been climbing for the past five years.
“The way I am, I want to do more. I scored my 100th goal for Watford and everyone was like ‘that’s so great’. But I was like ‘well, my next target is 105’. When I get to the end of my career and I might sit back and go, ‘Jesus, you know what? You’ve done all right actually’.”
Deeney spoke at Sport Industry NextGen. NextGen leaders will experience a Leadership Programme including commercial insight from Barclays, expert legal sessions from Howard Kennedy and an executive leadership workshop from Loughborough University London, and much more.