Troy Deeney apologises for attacking his own player with brutal post-match message

Troy Deeney has apologised after brutally laying into one of his own players during a post-match rant.

Former Watford striker Deeney earned himself a reputation for scoring goals in the Premier League, but with his managerial career just a few weeks old, he is making headline for the wrong reasons.

After leaving Birmingham City at the end of last season, the 35-year-old joined League Two outfit Forest Green Rovers as a player-coach.

With the club rock bottom of the fourth division, David Horseman vacated the managerial hot seat just before Christmas and Deeney took his place on a permanent basis.

Things haven't gone too well for Deeney since. Rovers have picked up three points from six games under the new coach and find themselves seven points from safety.

Following a 2-0 home loss to Harrogate Town on Saturday, Deeney's frustrations boiled over.

During an interview with BBC Radio Gloucestershire, the manager launched a scathing attack on right-back Fankaty Dabo.

"Dabo was poor and awful again and I have just told him that he will not be playing on Tuesday," Deeney said.

"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 run every game, he never makes a tackle and every time the ball comes to him, he looks like he kicks it with his shin pads.

Troy Deeney is the manager of Forest Green Rovers

On Sunday, while providing punditry on Watford's 2-1 win against Queens Park Rangers, Deeney revealed that he's apologised to Dabo.

During the Saturday's interview, Deeney was critical about Forest Green as a club.

"The amount of nonsense you have to deal with at this place, from players by the way, is embarrassing, I know exactly what I’m going to need to do.

"I was trying to be nice and cosy my way into it. But 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."

On top of that, Deeney claimed that watching an episode of the Antiques Roadshow would have been more entertaining than his players' first half showing against Harrogate.