Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Troy Deeney

When you talk about bullying I always go back to when I was at school, a bully was a big kid picking on a little kid.

I'm genuinely a big softie, I put this front on, and I'm just a laid-back fool really.

I work harder than 90% of people.

Obviously everyone wants to play a certain way but when you get into certain moments you need someone to hold it up or if you are losing a game, go long.

When you are not having the best of moments in front of goal, just smash it down the middle.

People always say to me, 'It must be so much pressure and so difficult playing out there in front of 60,000 people.' I always say, 'No, not really.' Playing football and earning great money isn't difficult. Working three jobs and raising kids alone, which is what my Mum did. That's difficult.

I know what I can do and what I can deliver and there's not many people who can do what I can do.

As footballers that's what we do when it comes to bonuses. we don't sit there and go 'yeah can I get £20million as a bonus.' You have to sit down, 'how much money does the club make, what's their reported loss.' You have to sit and go through it all and go OK, this is what you take, we feel that we should get that if we do this.

My dad was well known on the streets, shall we say, and he had a different lifestyle, which could spill into the home setting. Being exposed to that at a young age was difficult.

My cousin Joe was just the coolest kid and I wanted to be like him. He had girls, could do whatever he wanted and he was a bricklayer, so I decided to do that.

There were bigger and better players before me and there will be bigger and better after.

How many women's football matches are selling out week in, week out, 20,000 plus? They're not.

I'm just a normal kid, really, from an inner-city background.

Even now, as a footballer I've experienced many types of racism. Whether that's abuse on the field or from the crowd, it's never easy to deal with, but social media is now the biggest platform for these cowards to share and target their hate.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in February 2012, and finding that out really messed me up.

Whenever I play against Arsenal - and this is just a personal thing - I go up and think 'let me whack the first one, then we will see who wants it.'

Going back to 2012, it was a bad year for me. I lost my dad as well, so burying him a week before I went to jail, just having all of that emotion, it just hit me hard.

I'm really a nice guy, aren't I? Not many people know that.

Certainly when I was a kid, in the early '90s, men couldn't show weakness. It was very much a case of suppressing pain and getting on with it. I remember when I was six years old, I was playing football with kids who were three years older when, one day, I fell over and began to cry. And my dad was like, 'Don't ever let someone see you cry.'

I play for Watford, it's not the biggest team in the Premier League, but I go to Antigua, I go to different countries and people go 'you're Troy Deeney.'

I saw some comments in regards to my son, people saying: 'I hope your son gets corona.' That's the hard part for me. If you respond to that, people then go: 'Ah, we've got him' and they keep doing it.

There's much more to life than football.

I don't mind women's football. I am of the business understanding though, when people say 'it should be equal pay.' If the business makes sense, it does.

To be perfectly honest, most fans see a different game to players. I am not being rude when I say that.

I still find it a bit surreal that Sir Elton John can call Troy Deeney from Chelmsley. It's quite entertaining but a bit surreal.

When you get to Spurs you know the difference between the lesser clubs and the big boys. It's a different experience.

It's heartbreaking for the people who work behind the scenes. A lot of people who are at clubs normally get affected by relegation. We feel sorry for them.

I've said for a very long time that I've got a massive respect for Joe Gomez.

To hear that someone right around the other side of the world actually knows who Troy Deeney is, is quite surreal.

During therapy I have realised that my work ethic comes from my mum, Emma. She used to work two or three jobs at a time to keep food on the table in our council flat in Birmingham. She taught me to stay disciplined, to go to Sunday school, all those things.

I loved watching Arsenal, my son's an Arsenal fan.

Everyone's got issues. There's a stigma in football that you earn a certain amount of money, how dare you have issues.

When I got to jail, it was a blessing in disguise because it made me reevaluate and check who I am as a person.

I would go on record saying that there is probably one gay or bi-person in every football team. They're there, they are 100 per cent there. I think people that are gay or from that community definitely are very worried about having to shoulder the responsibility of being the first. I think once the first comes out, there would be loads.

It's perceived that money can take care of anything but in my experience it makes everything 15 times harder because you can't act 'normal' and you're not allowed to be vulnerable or weak but we all are.

Actually, I used to think that it was normal to feel bad, like, Doesn't everybody feel like this? It was only when my drinking really got out of control that people went, 'Troy, you need to see somebody.'

Things happen in football and you have to be man enough that things come and go.

Do I give up? No.

My life has thrown up many challenges, good and bad, and nine times out of 10 I come through them.

Everyone's got bills, everyone's got heartache, and everyone's got problems.

We do not stand for racism on the pitch, in society or anywhere else it rears its ugly head.

My dad had always worked hard to make sure that I had nice stuff and he died at 47 so I just want to make sure that if something like that happens to me, my son would have everything ready.

What matters to me is that my four kids think I'm a good dad.

I just got a lot of expectations and pressure on me, but it is what it is. I've got the best job in the world, I work two or three hours a day and get paid handsomely for it.

If I scroll down my Instagram replies, the tenth one down features a racist emoji - which is not unusual. So I follow the protocol, which is to block the user and report the message under the category of 'hate speech and symbols.' Then I am told that an emoji with a monkey and a banana is not considered racist.

I remember a life before social media. I remember phone boxes, that's what I grew up on.

Whenever you play against Fred - we certainly did it - you let him get it because he has to take three or four touches. He doesn't know how to do one or two touches. Anyone that watches his game, he gets it facing the wrong way, turns, turns, chops, chops and he'll give you the ball three or four times a game.

Since coming out of jail, I still made mistakes daily. Don't me wrong, I'm not an angel by any stretch of the imagination, but my mistakes are just normal ones now like forgetting to go to the shop when the missus asks or not putting the bins out, stuff like that.

Premier League players are a lot cleverer, but they don't like being roughed up. They're not used to that.

I enjoy those physical battles and I've been on record saying Virgil van Dijk is the best defender in the world.

I'm just a regular person. I treat every person the same. I like to think that I'm respectful. I'm honest with everybody. Sometimes it gets me in trouble, sometimes it doesn't, but I'll always speak my mind.

There's always going to be setbacks.

When you get into that mould of being a super sub you can't go back.

I'm from the era before the Internet, so I know what's real and what's not so you've just got to learn to roll with the punches.

For me, when I was growing up I was told the police weren't on our side. From being stereotyped because we drive nice cars to being judged for the clothing we wear, I was told I would never be given the benefit of the doubt.

None of my friends are big posters - we're old school. We text, phone and meet up and have a beer or have a curry.

Alex Ferguson, Mourinho, Pep you can always see the vision.

When the world's moving towards being the most inclusive it's ever been, it's unthinkable that certain basic aspects of life are still so unfair for the black community.

I always break it down I am three different people. I'm Troy Deeney the footballer, I'm daddy who the kids get to see and I'm Troy which a few of my mates get to see.

You can't be an athlete and doubt yourself.