Troy Deeney has opened up about a heated encounter which he remembers as the ‘worst thing’ he ever did on the football pitch.
Deeney spent 12 years as a Watford player, becoming captain during his spell at the club and contributing to two Premier League promotion campaigns.
The 36-year-old has since turned his hand to punditry since retiring from football and has now joined the talkSPORT team as a regular.
He recently joined talkSPORT duo Sam Matterface and Alex Crook to discuss an incident which saw Preston North End striker Milutin Osmajic bite Blackburn Rovers defender Owen Beck.
Osmajic has since accepted a charge of violent conduct from the FA.
As the trio discussed the story, Deeney was asked what the ‘worst thing’ he had ever done on a football pitch was.
And the former striker recalled one incident in particular with Wales international and former Liverpool and Stoke City midfielder Joe Allen which he remembers clearly to this day.
“I choked Joe Allen out,” he told talkSPORT. “That wasn’t my smartest move.
“I got a four-game ban for that, I think. In my defence, though, he started it.”
He explained the story: “In my situation, it was a massive game for us [at Watford]. If we beat Stoke, I think we had to get one more win and we were safe. Like the magic 40 points.
“We were 1-0 up at the time. I remember all day he was just like chirping at me, and then it was a foul. It was nothing really.
“Joe’s a lot smaller than me, so he’s put my his head into my chest and like pushed and I’ve kind of pushed him off.
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“But then I realize he’s really going. So I’ve just like squeezed his cheeks in my hands and just kept squeezing him. We both got a yellow card on the day but then I got a retrospective [ban].
“But I remember Tom Cleverley telling me afterwards… Joe’s in there like laughing about it, but saying if [I] hadn’t let go of him, he would have passed out.
[He said], ‘I was a few seconds away from passing out’.”
Deeney admitted Osmajic will now be living with the regret of letting the red mist take over, and the consequences it will have behind the scenes at the club – just as he did at Watford.
“That’s all on me that,” he went on about his clash with Allen.
“The worst part is it’s not even the action – so this player for Preston, he’ll be angry at that, but he’ll be now feeling it for the next three or four weeks.
“He’s got to watch his team play knowing that you’ve fallen to the bottom of the pile and have to start again,
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“Now the manager doesn’t trust you, players don’t trust so you have rebuild that all again.
“I was the captain as well. There’s other times when you’re telling people to calm down and they’re looking at you, like ‘yeah, good one because that’s what you did’.
“But you know you have to just be honest and and wear it. it’s not always a not always a nicest But so long as you always tell the truth you’ll be fine.”
