Genuinely pleased he got his move home. He'll probably score a fair few goals with some new found adrenaline and hopefully a few against the Scum on the 12th Feb!
Best of luck Troy. Hope someone steps up to fill those #9 boots this season. King, Fletcher, Dennis, JP or Cucho. TBH I wouldn't have minded him coming on for 10 min at the end v Spurs.
Well he might be worth a try as a coach/manager, but it's the player bit I'm not keen on as he would almost be sure to pick himself me thinks
So goodbye then Troy You came form the Midlands and love your mother And scored the DEEEENEYYYYYYYYYY! Goal You also did other goals Mainly penalties in your last years admittedly And you commented on the size of Arsenal's ball bags So you are regarded as saying things as they really are We look forward to your media career on BT Sports 2 And hope you have better banter than Mooney and his pack of Digestive Biscuit metaphors which basically make no sense whatsoever.
A sad day, but the right decision for both parties. He's obviously a Watford legend and I associate some of my best memories of the 26 odd years I've been supporting Watford with him. Too many to list. He's obviously been integral to all the progress we've made in the last decade. It's just a shame about the last couple of years. His reduced effectiveness and his media exploits were not pleasant to witness. Thankfully, when the dust settles and we reflect on his career, that can be forgotten. Wish him all the best at Birmingham. Very pleased that he's got the transfer he wanted.
He is a legend, without a doubt the most important player of my time supporting Watford. Many of the best memories I've had watching this great club over the years have his fingerprints on. A sad day but one that had been coming for a while, and I think it is the right decision. Hope he goes and does well at Birmingham - they're building quite a handy squad there.
You can see in his highlights where he convinced himself he was a big man battering ram and moved away from his real game in the early half which was strong with the ball to his feet and a quick turn to hit a corner. Hopefully he realises that and can bring it back at Birmingham against scum Some of the finishes in the first few seasons were unreal.
I suppose it was a long time ago now, but I was startled to realise that the goal v Leicester was only number 35.
Some of those finishes were world class. I forgot about that stunning volley from the edge of the box. What a goal that was. You can see towards the end of the video it's just penalties, but he still had to score them. How GK's never sussed him out over time is astonishing. Great player and servant.
Tbf if you look at the later penalties, keepers did know he'd smash them down the middle, they just couldn't do anything about it!
He literally told the whole country on talksport exactly what he'd do, and they still couldn't stop it. Keeper in his last goal actually moved out of the way!
Agree with all of this. I don't think it's a coincidence that Tommy Mooney was a mentor of his; Troy was absolutely a souped up version of Sir Tom - understood the role of the club in the community, how supporters like to see players conduct themselves on the pitch. As someone else remarked, some of his finishes are remarkable; there's a chip against Ipswich in 2012, I think, and the clip on the video didn't really do it justice - he manages to slide and intercept a passback before the keeper, turn, and from on the byline chip it in from 12 yards. It's a ludicrous finish. What a player. What a man.
Troy's actual technical ability is massively underrated, especially since he started to focus on physical battles with centre backs. His touch, weight of pass and as you mentioned, some of his finishing, was superb.
There's also a fine headed volley to win the game at Palace in 2015/16, probably the last good goal he scored for us apart from the one at West Ham the following season. Also interesting to note he got mildly crucified for missing the penalty at home to Spurs that would have at least in theory kept us up, but in this game he scores a penalty in exactly the same way, just Hennessey was slower to react than Gazzaniga. Can't blame him for mixing it up on occasion, but perhaps on such an occasion he should've kept it simple, like Rashford should've in the Euro 2020 final.
Even now, he seems quite good at those curled chips when the keeper's come out. West Ham and Liverpool the prime examples. Those seem to make up his good goals these days.
It's a real shame he decided that was his game and made it his focus, to the detriment of everything else. I think his downturn started when he spent the summer training with a boxing trainer and put on shed loads of muscle. It was just too much for a footballer and made him too slow and cumbersome for his role, even though he was in great physical condition. We actually had a poster on here (can't remember who) who pointed this out at the time and was quite soundly derided for it. but he was proven absolutely spot on.
His finishing in the 13/14 and 14/15 seasons was superb, a real variety of goals as well. It was still decent after that but started to decline once we got in the PL and he decided to bulk up.
You could see in his last couple of seasons he just needed too long to control the ball and shoot, like was ever so slightly in slow motion. You just don’t get that long in the premier league to pick your spot.
