Watford captain Troy Deeney has revealed that he once got so angry at Odion Ighalo while he was at Watford that he drove home instead of taking the flight back with his team.
Speaking to The United Stand, Deeney recalled how in one away match against Manchester United in 2016, Ighalo threw away multiple chances, including one where he could've squared the ball to Deeney for an easy tap-in.
'I was in such a mood that I drove home, I didn't get back on the plane,' he said, suggesting there would be 'problems' if he was near Ighalo.
Ighalo played for Watford between 2014 and 2017 before making a move to China. He is now at Manchester United on loan.
'When we used to play, we played one year I ended up losing my head with him,' said Deeney. 'He had like four, five shots and then there was one – I remember Fosu-Mensah was playing, I think he was making his debut – and basically [Ighalo] got put in behind and literally all he had to do was square it and I’m rolling it in from eight yards out. And then he shot and it went wide.
'And he knew. You know when you know, because he looked at me and was like, "Ah". Like, this is gonna get sticky. And I remember just going in at half-time like, "If that’s the game we’re playing then take me off innit, because I thought we were here to win, I don’t really care who scores."
'I was in that much of a mood – because Mata scored and United won 1-0 – that I drove home. I didn’t get back on the plane. I literally said to the manager: "You put me on this plane, there’s gonna be problems, so let me just calm down," and I drove from Manchester to Watford.'
Luckily, Deeney did manage to calm down by the next time they saw each other, and it appears the 31-year-old has forgiven Ighalo.
'We spoke about it the day after, and I was just like, "Dude, we’ve just gotta win and if you’d let me score in that instance, Man United would have had to come out, you’d have had three of four other chances to score."'
'But he built that game up so much. That was the game, he’s a Man United fan, a lot of his family in Africa are Man United fans. So that was the game, in the same way Villa is that game for me.'
Nowadays, Deeney has nice words to say about him, and praised his worth ethic and his loan move to United.
'He trains well, he’s no hassle, genuinely I bet if you asked any person at United they’d say he’s no hassle. Absolutely sick, nice guy, genuinely he’s a Man United fan as well.'
Source: m.allfootballapp.com