Troy Deeney's decision to sign a new Watford contract last summer has been vindicated following Hornets' promotion. Now it's time for the striker to step up to the Premier League

Watford owner Gino Pozzo’s decision not to sell the striker last summer despite Premier League clubs offering in excess of £10 million, Deeney opting not to manufacture a move away from Vicarage Road – like he did at Walsall – when Pozzo rejected the advances and stretching back even further, the Italian standing by a man he had not even met following Deeney’s imprisonment for affray; the decisions and the men that made them were all vindicated.

Deeney’s past, present and future – and that of the Hornets – could have been so different had any of the parties opted for something different over the past three years.

Instead, Watford are back in the big time, the Pozzos are due to receive wealth not possible at their other clubs and Deeney is set to captain a team in the Premier League.

Vindicated seems the perfect word when it comes to the 26-year-old and his relationship with Pozzo – one he used himself following the Golden Boys’ promotion to the top flight.

“My main focus this season has been making sure my decision to sign a deal at the start of the season was vindicated and making sure we went up,” Deeney said.

“If I scored ten goals and went up, the job was done in my mind. Thankfully I’ve scored 21 and we have gone up so it has been a good season all round.”

Pozzo’s stance on Deeney last summer was clear; Watford would not be selling their captain unless a club offered a sum too good to turn down.

Initially that figure was believed to be around £10 million but after a scintillating first half in the opening game of the season against Bolton Wanderers, when Deeney and strike partner Matej Vydra showed the potency that had fired the club to the verge of promotion a season before, things changed. Deeney would not be leaving. Full stop.

It was a gamble on Pozzo’s part. A striker’s value in the transfer market fluctuates more than any other position. Poor form or a serious injury could see the Pozzos lose millions.

But equally – and as it has turned out – the Hornets owner was well aware what promotion would be worth to his family. He also knew they had a better chance of achieving it with their Birmingham-born leader heading the charge.

Deeney did have a card he could have played though, one he had used at Walsall. Had the captain and most influential voice in the dressing room handed in a transfer request and started to become a disruptive influence then that may have altered Pozzo’s stance.

But Deeney remained professional and a compromise was agreed; stay at Watford and be rewarded handsomely with a new four-year contract on significantly improved terms.

Loyalty is a word best avoided in professional football but the term was used by a journalist when Deeney was asked if promotion had been a reward for his loyalty to the club? One suspects the reporter had not been fully aware of Pozzo’s stance last summer.

The striker replied: “I think it (Deeney’s loyalty) goes hand-in-hand for the loyalty they showed me when I went away [to prison] for a little while. They did not have to keep me but they chose to.

“I have had the chance to leave on numerous occasions so I thought I would reciprocate it really. They looked after me and I wanted to look after them by not trying to force a move for less money than they wanted so unless someone came up with a figure they wanted I was going nowhere.

“Thankfully I sat down with Gino, he saw I was not in a rush to leave and gave me a new deal. As they say, the rest is history.

“I said in August if I score 20 and we go up then I will be well known in these parts and I’ve scored 21 and we have gone up, so I had better be getting a statue now,” he joked.

‘Last-chance saloon’ Had the Golden Boys not secured promotion then in all likelihood Deeney would have been plying his trade away from Vicarage Road next season – and as the striker can testify, he would not have been the only one.

“This season it has just been a case of the job has got to be done this season or many of us will be moving on – I think that was made very clear from the start of the season – so this was kind of last-chance saloon [for the current squad].

“We reported a week earlier than most for pre-season and from day one it has literally just been ‘let’s get out of this league and all the other nonsense and distractions will be left out of the window. As long as this group of players work hard day in, day out we will get to where we need to get to’.

“We have had a few distractions along the way but we have managed to stay together and we are there now.”

It has been far from plain sailing though. Slavisa Jokanovic is Deeney’s seventh manager or head coach at Watford and his arrival just eight days after Billy McKinlay’s appointment resulted in heavy criticism from the wider footballing world.

Four head coaches in 37 days was “quite funny really when you look back”, according to Deeney, and he stated “it wasn’t a problem” for the players – if anything it galvanised the squad.

He admitted to wondering “how long is this clown going to last for?” following Jokanovic’s arrival and at the end of the season awards confirmed the pair metaphorically bumped heads; with both keen to show they were ‘the main man’.

The duo get on well now though, with Deeney saying: “I think since Slavisa has come in he has been very clear with what he wants to do and what is required to get out of this league and thankfully it has all come together.

“The four managers in a month was obviously a little bit of a distraction but as I have said from day one, the belief in the group has been there and we have stayed together. Managers can change but you have still go to do your job. If we do our job it does not really matter who is in charge because we are very good players, we work hard and we feel on our day we are probably the best in this league.”

Jokanovic’s arrival in October was clearly a significant moment in the campaign but Deeney says the turning point in the season was when supporter Nic Cruwys was hospitalised on March 7 after a vicious attack by Wolves fans.

It brought the club and their fans even closer and the impact was felt on the pitch.

The mutual appreciation between Deeney and the Vicarage Road faithful is clear for everyone to see and the Hornets’ skipper had a message for the club’s supporters.

“We appreciate it is a lot of money and it is difficult to keep forking it out in these economic times so thank you,” the former trainee bricklayer said.

The players and fans’ joint objective was achieved on April 26 after the Golden Boys beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 and other results went their way.

Like a few of their games in the preceding weeks, Watford could easily have failed to secure all three points at the AmEx Stadium and Deeney admits the aftermath of their penultimate game of the season was the first time he truly believed promotion would definitely be secured. “It seemed made for us to go up,” he said of that win.

Deeney had been at Walsall when the club won League Two in 2007 but only featured for six minutes in the final month of the campaign, having arrived halfway through the season and spent a couple of months out on loan, so did not consider himself part of the squad.

So he was one of many Watford players who were hoping to pick up their first league title heading into the final game of the season.

It ultimately ended in disappointment, with Sheffield Wednesday’s injury-time equaliser denying the Golden Boys the winners’ medals, but Deeney believes captaining Watford to promotion to the Premier League is his “only sporting achievement of significance” – bettered only by the birth of his two children and getting married.

Belief but not arrogance Deeney has always been a confident character and big personality so many may be surprised to read the following: “The funny thing for me is that in the last month or six weeks I have only just started to realise – without sounding big headed – how good I actually am. It is only from speaking to other players, managers and whoever else I bump into, and from what they have told me, that I have started to see it a little bit.

“Now it is a case of having the confidence to do it in the Premier League without crossing over to arrogance. That will be the big thing.”

But make no mistake, Deeney knows the size of the challenge he and his teammates face in the top flight.

Scoring goals has not been a problem for the Golden Boys in recent years but it will be much tougher in the top flight. And it is at the other end where they have had problems.

Deeney highlighted Crystal Palace’s defensive organisation as an example of what they need to aspire to if they are to give themselves the best chance of staying in the Premier League.

But he believes the current crop are “easily the most talented, most hardworking and most professional group I have worked with in my life”, and said: “We have shown we can score goals in this league but in the Premier League you will probably get three or four chances a game so you have got to be ruthless. [But] I think we can hold our own.

“I think we have players who are more suited to the Premier League; people like Almen Abdi who are technically very, very good. In the Championship he gets kicked left, right and centre so he will have more protection in the Premier League.

“These are the sort of players we have who can go and really express themselves and I think people will be surprised with how good they actually are.”

Deeney insists he does not feel pressure when it comes to stepping out on a football field. “Hard work starts at home, this is easy,” he said, with his tongue only slightly in his cheek.

And one of his targets next season is returning to the spot as his son Myles’ number one player.

Deeney was speaking prior to the final game of the season when Myles, who is six at the end of this month, was mascot and the striker was unimpressed that his beloved boy was more excited about meeting goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes than walking out with his dad.

“I’ve gone from first favourite to fourth this season so I need to sort that out,” Deeney joked.

Consistent high standards After a few weeks of family time with his wife and school sweetheart Stacey, Myles and daughter Amelia, who was born late last year, Deeney plans to start pre-season early with personal trainer Jamie Reynolds, who also works with a host of leading athletes including England internationals Fabian Delph and Jack Wilshere.

He wants to give himself the best chance possible to succeed against some of Europe’s best and believes he has already shown he can hold his own against the likes of internationals Vincent Kompany and Martin Demichelis in FA Cup matches.

Out of the games with Premier League opposition, Deeney was most impressed by the strength of Chelsea’s rising star Kurt Zouma earlier this season – comparing it only to former Hornet Danny Shittu – but says fellow Blues defender John Terry is the player he is looking forward to facing most.

Deeney has changed significantly over the years but he insists his approach to matches next season will remain the same, even if the calibre of opposition improves significantly.

He said: “People say you must be looking forward to playing Liverpool or whoever and I just revert back to the FA Cup games we have played – Manchester City twice and Chelsea – and although it was a great experience I did not do anything different in the days leading up to that, if anything I just got more phone calls with people wanting tickets.

“It is just another game. I really don’t want to sound negative but it is just a game of football. Obviously it would be fantastic to lead the team out in front of however many thousand at Old Trafford or Anfield but if I don’t perform then it doesn’t matter because I won’t be able to do it the next week because they will put someone else in.

“My end goal is to perform on a week-to-week basis and now we are in the Prem, I won’t be able to drop my standards lower than eight out of ten. If I do then there will be somebody else in the team. I know what is required.

“When we talk about these holidays coming up, it will not be a case of eating and drinking whatever I want. I will be chilling out for two weeks and then I will have six weeks of working hard [before pre-season] and I will be back bigger and stronger than I have ever been.”