TROY DEENEY is at the highest point of his career — but has not forgotten
the friends who helped him through the dark days he spent in a prison cell.
Watford skipper Deeney will run out against Manchester United as a Premier
League footballer with all the trappings of his highly-paid life, including
a red Bentley.
In the crowd will be the striker’s two guests, fellow prisoners when he did
time for affray.
Deeney, 27, walked out of jail three years ago and since then has earned the
freedom of Vicarage Road.
The Brummie scored 20 goals a season three years in a row and helped Watford
to automatic promotion in May.
The lunchtime showdown with United’s stars will show how far Watford — and
their No 9 — have come.
Deeney is a frank and open character who does not avoid talking about his time
in jail, or the men he met there.
He says of his matchday guests: “They are friends — the people who helped me
get through and get motivated when I didn’t really want to be.
“I knew what I was going to do from that moment. I knew that going to jail
wasn’t going to happen again, no matter what.
“People could push me to the limit but it wasn’t going to happen again.
“If somebody told me when I was sitting in a prison cell that I’d be driving a
red Bentley, wearing an expensive watch and captaining my team against
Manchester United, I’d have said: I know.
“That’s what I said and you can ask the people coming to the United match, my
cellmates. I told them it would all come true.”
Now United must keep Deeney and fellow hitman Odion Ighalo under lock and key
in today’s lunchtime showdown.
The Red Devils have been under fire from their own fans, with some condemning
the team as boring.
But realist Deeney said: “Manchester United boring? That’s a perfect example
of why football is funny.
“When they had David Moyes in everybody seemed to be unhappy. Now they’re
fourth, two points off the top, and everyone’s still complaining.
“The Man United I knew back in the day would usually kick on after Christmas,
so if that happens again then everyone will say that LVG is the next Fergie.
“You know at some point they will get it right. When they do, someone’s in for
a good hiding, hopefully it’s not us.”
Deeney has scored the same number of league goals as Wayne Rooney this season
— two.
The England man is ruled out of today’s game through illness.
But Deeney added: “If I finish on the same number of goals as him, I’ll have
had a brilliant season.
“Wayne Rooney is a victim of his own success. He was 16 or 17 when he burst on
to the scene.
“Now he’s just turned 30 and everyone is saying he’s past it. He still has
loads of football in him.
“But it’s not just him — it’s all the talent United have. We’ll have to make
sure that we do things properly. If not, they’ll teach us a lesson.”
Watford have been getting valuable lessons from head coach Quique Flores, who
gets the credit from Deeney for the Hornets’ solid, mid- table start to the
season.
The striker revealed: “The gaffer’s put some decent rules in place.
“The one he’s brought in that’s a bit new to most of us is that nobody can
leave the lunch table until I say so. I like it — it’s a little bit of
power. Now I’m a very slow eater!”
But Deeney and his mates would just love to spring a surprise and make United
their main course this lunchtime . . .