Troy Deeney really cares about this club, about this relegation battle, about the potential consequences of returning to the Championship and about the supporters who are desperate for that not to happen.
So, the club captain has issued a rallying call for everyone to get behind Interim Head Coach Hayden Mullins and his assistant Graham Stack as the team prepares for arguably its biggest week since promotion to the top flight was earned back in 2015.
“We’ve got to give Hayden and Stacky as much support as we can, get behind them and give them the best opportunity that they can do,” said Deeney.
The 32-year-old has experienced unfathomable highs and painful lows since he joined Watford FC in August 2010 and knows what an impact the team’s results can have in the community. So, he’s determined to do all he can in these final days of the season to have a positive impact on the eventual outcome.
“It is stressful, but I’m going into my 10th year here now so it’s a bit more personal as well,” he said. “Because I know all the people that work behind the scenes, from the kit man to the ladies that clean and serve the teas. I know all of them, I have a relationship with all of them.
“There is a lot of responsibility that comes with it, and ultimately that’s why I’m pushing myself through the pain barrier. I’m not one who’s going to sit here and feel sorry for myself. If I can help, I’m going to help.
“I only want what’s best for this club, and it sounds very cliché, but I genuinely do, because I know the good people here. As players we come and go, but it’s the people who have worked here for 30 years and have families who have grown up with it, they’re the ones that count.”
The job now is simple but not easy: pick up enough points in these final two matches to avoid the drop so the summer can be spent preparing for another season in the Premier League.
This task begins with Manchester City tonight and, while Deeney knows it’s a tough ask to take anything off Pep Guardiola’s team, he’s sure it can be done.
“If you watch the Bournemouth game [against Man City], obviously they’ve shown they can be susceptible on the counter-attack,” he said. “But, if you can’t deal with their front six, it doesn’t matter how susceptible it is because you could score two and still lose 9-2.
“We’re aware it’s going to be a tough game, but we’ll take confidence from the fact we beat Liverpool. I know since the restart they’ve come off the boil a bit, but we beat them when they were going for all the records and they were on that train that was smashing through everybody.
“We’ll take confidence from that. We’re aware we won’t have a lot of the ball, but when we’ve got the ball it’s about what can we do with it.”
