Deeney: “I’m Very Motivated To Do My Job”

Troy Deeney has two personal milestones and, most importantly, one goal for the club firmly in his sights as he prepares to return to action as committed as ever.

The captain has only featured in the dying minutes of the win over Luton this season because knee and Achilles issues have kept him on the sidelines, but he revealed on Hive Live on Wednesday that he is “very close, not too long [away from a return]” and is fuelled by a triple source of motivation.

“My next game is my 400th game [for the club],” he said. “I'm 24 goals behind Luther [Blissett] in the all-time league goal-scorer record here. I'm very motivated to do my job. I still feel I can deliver in the Premier League. I played a lot last season injured and not up to speed and still managed to score 10 goals. I know what I can do. I'm never going to be short of confidence – everyone knows that. The main aim is to get fans back in the stadium and us be back in the Premier League.”

Deeney scored 21 goals to help fire the team to promotion in 2014/15 and knows his way around the second tier of English football. His return will add to an arsenal of strikers that includes seasoned marksmen like Andre Gray and Glenn Murray as well as three aged 25 or under in Stipe Perica, Ismaïla Sarr and João Pedro.

“We need to get promoted, it's that simple,” he said. “We've got some real talented players, a good base and the manager is real straight-talking, a guy I get on with. He's been great and I've been transparent, and he's been transparent. Hopefully you'll see us working together for a long time. I never said I wanted to leave. You look and say: what do you want your career to be? Do you want to be that striker who bounced around from club to club or do you want to be a legend?”

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