Troy Deeney publicly shames Forest Green players in scathing attack after defeat to Harrogate

Troy Deeney publicly shames Forest Green players in another scathing attack from the boss after their 2-0 defeat to Harrogate.

The Forest Green Rovers head coach slammed his players’ attitude and claims there are too many babies in his squad with the club sitting bottom of the League Two table.

They have 18 points from 26 games played, but are 7 points from safety and have two games in hand over 22nd place Colchester, as does 23rd place Sutton United.

Troy’s immediate reflections.#WeAreFGR💚 pic.twitter.com/vCbxt5BFh3

— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) January 13, 2024

Seen a fair few people share the transcript of what Troy Deeney said about Dabo, here’s the audio for those interested – sounds even harsher hearing it. You’re meant to support your players, not publicly shame them. What happened to the importance of mental health @T_Deeney?? pic.twitter.com/dW9wOnVAvU

— Debajyoti Choudhury (@TDC1991) January 14, 2024

Troy Deeney had consistently spoken about “mental heath” during his playing career, but now publicly humiliates one of his own players.

Complete dickhead. https://t.co/dUQFIucyE4 pic.twitter.com/n1YkfOOExS

— Noah ⚖️ (@GoleadaTV_) January 13, 2024

On the group as a whole, Deeney said as per Glouchestershire Live: “The amount of nonsense you have to deal with at this place, from players by the way, is embarrassing.

“What is going to have to happen is the sledgehammers are going to have to come out and there are going to be a lot of people that won’t like it, but I do not really care.

“My job is to try and save this football club in the short term, but also to put it in a better place moving forward and at the moment there are too many babies and that is not just young players, there are too many babies from top to bottom.”

“(Fankaty) Dabo was poor and awful again and I have just told him that he will not be playing on Tuesday.

“He has not been good enough for eight or nine weeks, why do you think he was dropped at the start.

“I have just told him in front of everyone, six months ago that kid had a kick to go to the Premier League, now he would not get a game in the National League, so is that me or him?

“He’s faster than everybody, but he gets ran every game, he never makes a tackle and every time the ball comes to him, he looks like he kicks it with his shinpads.”

On Reece Brown absence, Deeney stated: “He is 28-years-old and is my senior midfielder, but he can’t turn up for work on time.

“If you were an employer and you had someone turn up late twice in two days, would you put them in your squad? Would you trust him to get you through a game?”

On players that have not been good enough in post-match interviews, he said: “Why not? I have got fans questioning me, I will stand here and do this, when are they doing the media? Where are their posts on social media? They do when it is a draw, the draws have become wins now, if we won they would do a victory lap.

“I am more than happy to call people out and I am more than happy to be called out. 6:30 we left the training ground yesterday, they were at home and in bed by that point, had a nap and had some food.

“So, we are looking at this game and already preparing for Mansfield, but I am the problem?

“I will call people out when I know and I see that that is embarrassing, if I was Dale Vince, I would be questioning me, as he should do and I will tell him exactly what I think and if I was the fanbase I would be asking for my money back.”

Forest Green now get set to take on Mansfield Town in midweek, with Deeney adding: “They will do alright because there is no expectation on that, everybody expects us to lose, so we will play better then.

“When there is a tiny bit of pressure when people think ‘you know what? This could be the game we win’, that is when the selfishness comes out.”

This comes just days after Troy Deeney also went viral for his rant after Forest Green’s draw against Salford City.

Troy’s take on today’s draw.🗣️#WeAreFGR💚 pic.twitter.com/6RbpgnuGMD

— Forest Green Rovers (@FGRFC_Official) January 6, 2024

“Rage, anger, disappointment. All of the above,” Deeney said when questioned about his feelings after his side conceded an injury time equaliser in the 2-2 draw.

“Same story again. […] It’s poor. We can dress it up as nice as we want, but we literally prepared for this since Thursday.
“I told the lads: ‘We’ll be 1-0 up or 2-1 up and we’ll be in a situation for the last five minutes where the ball will get launched in the box’.

“We worked on it since Thursday, we worked on it all day yesterday and it [the result] just shows the lack of quality to actually deal with it.”

Deeney blamed his players for the result, insisting they were ‘not good enough’ and would need to be replaced.

“By no stretch of imagination I’m standing here defeated, by the way,” he went on to say.

“It’s just that the same mistakes keep happening. You change the manager [Horseman], because it’s partly the manager’s fault.

“But it’s the players, mate. It’s not good enough.

“They [the players] are not good enough in those moments to be calm and collected.

“It’s really poor. Fundamentally, we have to get better in winning positions. We’ve tried to train it, we’ve tried to coach it, but now we’ve got to go and replace it.”

Here’s how fans reacted as Troy Deeney publicly shames Forest Green players in a scathing attack after defeat to Harrogate…

@mynameismrjrb: Thinks he’s a glass of champagne when really, he’s luke warm piss in a plastic cup. Such an unlikeable bloke.

@Hugh_Bates: Starting to sound like a broken record now Troy, & nothing short of a bully. A bang average footballer & by the looks of it an even worse Manager.

@CoventryKing: Basically what Rooney did at brum he’ll be sacked by the summer

@jammy6666: Goodbye dressing room 🤣 unfortunately player power is too powerful and I think they’ll lose him his job before he gets rid of all of them.

@Kozzy78: I never thought id actually say this, but I think id like to hear more from Troy….. 😄

@LFChateFSG: “I take full responsibility” before going on and taking no responsibility 😂

@philbadger83: Haven’t heard him say a good word about any of his players. No wonder they’re not playing for him!

@2CathedralsCCFC: Troy airing his special brand of negativity means he’ll inevitably be un-hirable after he loses the rest of the dressing room and gets sacked. Who’d take a punt on this guy now? All he does is publicly thrash his players.

@CCFCSBA_: Or something to do with him not being a proper manager

@qprjohn11: Sacked by end of march. Players won’t play for a manager who berates them in public like this. Back them in public, berate them behind closed doors.

@Mark74NUFC: “If you come into an environment… full of people who blame other people” – You’re fitting in quite well then Troy!

@1AndrewMitchell: Troy got into this habit of calling everyone out during his last season at Watford as a player and it set such a negative culture in the dressing room. He’s king of player power and now fights against it?! Have they removed the speed bumps yet Troy?

@Oj_Soyerx: I want him to stay for the rest of the season just so I can listen to his interviews every week this is comedy gold

@RichardPlatts1: He has a great player in Dabo. Needs to reflect why he can’t get the best from him.

@NUFCPhantom: Is this a comedy sketch?!?! But seriously, calling out the players is not a good look. Nor is “they should be used to losing based on what I’ve seen for the past 18 months – 2 years” 🤦🏻‍♂️

@NickGri73026857: Can u be this honest about ur group of players and it actually work out ?? I’m not convinced, it’s too easy to blame the players when ur a novice to managing and coaching. I bet the players r thinking — who’s this guy. Arrogant and far too direct for me.

@Covlad459811: He has to go no way this is the right man to keep u up your fans deserve better than this and disgrace no wonder the players don’t want to play for him

@TalkingTHFC: He’s wildly out of his depth and too arrogant to see it. That’s part and parcel of your first managerial job for most – you make mistakes with your approach. However, we’ve all seen enough of his character as a player to know he’ll never budge. I give it until February.

@SSE_LTFC: Once a wanker, always a wanker. Imagine the lies he will tell on podcasts about his time here. “I told the players my mate, a Saudi Prince, will fly them all over to see his tigers and they just didn’t listen”

@EdmeadesAlex: So he wants to take full responsibility.. and then goes on to blame the players. He doesn’t believe in apologising to the fans .. but he then apologises to the fans. And the arrogance coming from this interview , no wonder they aren’t playing for him!

@guillaumevdwege: Something deeply ironic in starting the interview with “my players were hiding, scared” and ending it with “an environment full of sulkers, full of people that blame other people”

@JoshSenior_Hull: I can’t see his managerial career lasting long… he comes across as a bully

@JasonKumar1: This is a good example of how incredible self-belief and a brutal approach to criticism can propel you as an individual and as a player. It absolutely doesn’t work when leading a group of players as a manager.

@FanHubHatter: What an absolute plank. Absolutely nobody is going to be motivated to play for him. Who would want to sign for him? And he’s correct FGR aren’t a bottom of league 2 team. They’re a village pub team that got out of hand. 😉😂

@MattBarker91: Let’s hope he keeps the job for the rest of the season cause that’s one of the relegation spots nailed on #GTFC