‘Inmates were running the jail’ – Troy Deeney’s bid to save Forest Green from non-League oblivion

Former striker faces uphill task at League Two club, but two fascinating days in his company reveals a manager who leaves no stone unturned

Troy Deeney has run out of patience. It is 9.30am on Friday at Forest Green Rovers’ training ground and for the second morning in a row, Reece Brown is accused of being late. Deeney has already called Brown out publicly for his performances in training but now he is going further. A lot further.
Brown is in the manager’s office and is about to be sent home. “Get yourself home for the weekend and figure out what you want to do,” Deeney says. “This is the second time in two weeks. There is nothing to argue about. I want you out of the building.”
After the 27-year-old leaves, Deeney is unequivocal. “That is the problem with this place,” he says. “The inmates have been running the jail. I said we needed a line in the sand.”
The line has been drawn. The departure of Brown, a senior professional, shakes up the squad, who later assemble in the impressive new £800,000 gym. Currently on a site at Stanley Park near Chippenham, it will be moved to Forest Green’s new training ground, Eco Park, when it opens ahead of a new all-wooden 5,000-seat stadium being built off the M5.
It is less than four weeks since Deeney, at 35 and having arrived last summer as player-coach, was handed his first managerial role with the immediate task: save Forest Green from being relegated from the Football League. The popular former Watford striker is the club’s fifth head coach in 18 months and aims to bring the “stability” owner Dale Vince has called for.
Alfie Sparks, the lead performance analyst, comes into the office and they go through clips of Harrogate Town, Saturday’s opponents, and drone footage of a goal that striker Matt Stevens scored in training. Deeney wants to show it to the squad.
The goal is an example of the kind of decisive counter-attack he wants. “AWTB?” Deeney asks about an abbreviation Sparks uses. “After Winning The Ball,” comes the reply. “I need to learn those,” Deeney says, adding: “I only need five minutes max to reinforce the message. I will make sure it is punchy.”
It is a busy day. Forest Green need changes and Deeney is wasting no time. Three new players are announced, the promising 19-year-old goalkeeper Tommy Simkin, on loan from Stoke City, experienced midfielder Alex Gorrin from Oxford United and Dom Thompson from Blackpool.
“He is probably too good for this level,” Deeney says of Thompson. “I’m buzzing to have him here and he will raise the standard of the group.” The 23-year-old, who can play at left-back or on the wing, is well-known from his time at Brentford. “I know Ivan Toney,” Deeney says. “He speaks highly of him.”
Deeney is working his contacts. There have been calls to Burnley manager Vincent Kompany and Robert Huth, Leicester City’s loans manager, and Deeney is using the January transfer window to revitalise an underperforming squad trying to avoid the ignominy of back-to-back relegations.
“Browny has gone home,” Deeney tells the players in the meeting room next to the gym before the detailed video analysis, led by set-piece coach Andy Parslow, begins. “We are not feeling sorry for him. I told him it was coming. We need to start moving together,” Deeney adds. “There are a few new lads in. There will be more coming and more going in the next few weeks. If you want to stay, you have to step up your game.”
There is a pause before he points to the coaching and technical support staff.
“Anyone in green – if they speak to you, then it is me speaking to you. Anyone who takes the p— will not be tolerated,” Deeney adds.
Deeney is charismatic and his candour is one of his strengths. There is no malice to it; just a desire to be honest and do the right thing.
Harrogate will be Deeney’s sixth match in charge. Performances have improved, with three draws, but a transformative win has remained elusive, with Dave Horseman, his predecessor, having presided over two victories in 14 as Forest Green slumped to second bottom – and 91st in the football pyramid. They have not won in the league since October. They have won 19 of their past 95 matches in all competitions. The rot is extremely deep. It has gone on for two years — even winning just one of their last seven games in their promotion season to League One under Rob Edwards, who left soon after and is now the Luton Town manager. Something drastic must happen and Deeney is determined to oversee it.
Deeney has brought in a performance chef and a nutritionist will follow. There are talks over whether to use a sports psychologist. “I’m trying to raise the standards everywhere,” Deeney says. One of his innovations is what he calls “Killer Tuesday”, which is a training session as brutal as it sounds. “It’s designed to break you,” he says, smiling.
On Friday there is first the gym work; then there is training with Deeney’s assistant David ‘Ned’ Kelly – the experienced former Newcastle United and Republic of Ireland striker – organising the ‘rondos’, the tight passing drills. The players split into three groups and Deeney joins in. “Twenty passes and you stay in [the middle],” he shouts. “Nutmeg and you stay in. One touch because we are good players. You are allowed to flick it.”
The tempo is high. “All-in, below head height. Go,” Deeney yells before a chance is missed. “This is not a dig, but you have to score,” he says. “This is fun and I expect you to enjoy yourself. But I also expect there to be a standard. Give 100 per cent.”
There is a high-tempo crossing and finishing session while Kelly then coaches forwards Matty Taylor and Tyrese Omotoye individually.
Back in Deeney’s office, a list of transfer targets is reeled off. “It’s not personal. We just want to win,” Kelly says before he and Deeney discuss their working relationship.
“My initial step into management was supposed to be a year from now,” Deeney explains, having left Birmingham City last summer, taken four weeks off and decided against a big-money move to Saudi Arabia before joining Forest Green as part of his intention to become a manager.
“I got asked to interview for the Walsall job and did it just for practice but then got into the final three,” he says. “I always had a skeleton idea of what I wanted it to look like. I am fiery. I wanted an older, wiser person and then a younger more analytical one. So, we had it all covered off.”
He did not know Kelly before they met but the 58-year-old came highly recommended and the pair hit it off instantly and decided that they would, one day, work together. Last month that day came sooner than expected when Horseman and his assistant Louis Carey, both of whom Deeney admires, were dismissed.  “Then it was, ‘Right, we need to go tomorrow’,” Kelly says.
Into Deeney’s office steps Simkin and his agent, Luke Rodgers, the former Shrewsbury Town, Port Vale and Forest Green striker.
“You know you better than me,” Deeney states as he asks the teenager which area of his game he wants to improve.
“We can set that up from the video point of view, with a camera behind the goal and see how you move,” Deeney adds after Simkin says he needs to “recognise the space more”.
“And don’t worry if you make any mistakes, by the way,” Deeney says. “That is on me. Stick your shoulders back. This is part of your development. Be a little bit arrogant. That might not be your nature but Dychey [Sean Dyche] calls it ‘putting your mask on’. And win tomorrow and you will be a hero.”
Deeney returns to his office for another meeting, this time with Jay Williams, the Under-19 Wales international defender from Fulham who is training with them. “I don’t know if you have noticed but I don’t lie,” Deeney says as he explains the options available. “It gets me in trouble sometimes.”
There are further meetings with Thompson, who is shown clips of what is expected, and with reserve goalkeeper Jamie Searle, who is concerned as to where he stands with Simkin’s arrival. “There is a lot of change happening and it’s my job to manage that,” Deeney says with goalkeeping coach Dan Connor nodding. “All I want to do is stay here and be number one,” Searle says.
At 3.30pm Deeney walks into a nearby hut for a detailed meeting of the club’s technical board chaired by director of football Allan Steele with head of recruitment Will Daniels and academy manager Hannah Dingley, who made headlines last summer when she was briefly the first woman to lead, as caretaker, a professional English club.
The meeting is exhaustive and considered. It covers topics as varied as the loan of academy players, the club’s playing style, their approach to education and recruitment strategy. “What is that legacy moment that we leave?” Deeney asks as he discloses plans to bring in Jermain Defoe to carry out a shooting clinic and John Terry for a defenders’ session.
The meeting changes into one focusing solely on the pressing need to further strengthen the first team. “If we get the centre-half we want then we will be foundationally very solid and can look for our game-changer,” Deeney states.
“No panic buys,” Steele says and there is a nod of agreement before a discussion as to whether Deeney might select himself if they cannot get an attacker they want. “Have you decided on your team for tomorrow or are you still deliberating?” Daniels asks. Deeney will return to his office, on his own, for thinking time about his final selection. “Give me 20 minutes,” he says as he leaves. It is close to 6.30pm.
It is 6.02pm on Saturday in the manager’s office at Forest Green’s stadium, the New Lawn. Harrogate have won 2-0 with Forest Green debutant Gorrin sent off early in the second half. The result takes them back to the bottom of the League Two table: 92 out of 92 in the pyramid.
Deeney is holding a staff meeting. “I’m going to write something up tonight for each department,” he says. “Physical, recruitment, set-pieces. We have loads of work to do and will have a proper meeting on Monday. I will give you all a call individually tomorrow.”
We walk across the pitch for his post-match interview with BBC Radio Gloucestershire in which he reveals why Brown is not in his squad. “No one has asked why Browny is not here again?” Deeney says, with his interviewer then posing the question.
“Because there is all the nonsense and he is 27 years old and he’s my senior midfielder but he can’t turn up for work on time,” Deeney says. “If you had someone turn up [late] twice in two days, would you put him in your squad? Would you trust him to get you through a game? So, that’s it.
“Reece is my senior leader of pros in the age group and that’s what he does. So, what do you think [young midfielder] Charlie McCann thinks he can do? What do you think Harvey [Bunker] thinks he should do? It’s a continuation of nonsense and it won’t be tolerated.”
Defender Fankaty Dabo is called out. He has endured a very bad game, and Deeney discloses he is out of the squad for Tuesday’s trip to Mansfield Town. It is a far cry from when Dabo featured in the Championship play-offs for Coventry City last May and in the final against Luton missed the decisive kick in the penalty shoot-out.
“He’s not been good for five, six, seven, eight, nine weeks,” Deeney says. “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 won’t get a game in the National League. So, is that me or him? He has pure ability but he gets run every game and never makes a tackle and when the ball comes to him he looks like he kicks it with his shin pads.”
The head coach is honest, authentic and consistent, and admits that at times he has gone too far with criticising players publicly. He later apologised to Dabo and has said: “I let my emotions get the best of me at times.” There is no ill-will, just a desire to win. “If I was Dale Vince I would be questioning me, as he should do. If I was a fan I would be asking for my money back.” With that, Deeney departs the press box.
The evening chill is a far cry from the mid-morning excitement when staff from all the club’s departments met for coffee and cake, an innovation introduced by the new head coach to bring everyone closer. Steele praises Deeney’s impact and adds: “But it will need every single person and every single thing we are doing now to drag us out of this.”
Deeney speaks before heading over to the other side of the stadium, where the dressing rooms are, with the players starting to arrive from 12.30pm. On a Wattbike is suspended centre-half Ryan Inniss. He will be sorely missed against Harrogate, as Deeney feared. The head coach takes his team meeting at 1.40pm, going through detailed clips as to what to expect from Harrogate. He hammers home the message that they play in a 4-4-2, with a diamond midfield, so the space to exploit is out wide. “Any questions? Anyone unsure as to what they are doing? Get ready to win then,” he tells them.
The warm-up begins at 2.20pm, at 2.48pm the dressing room is full of booming music. At 2.54pm the players will be called to line up in the corridor. Three minutes before that Deeney walks in.
“Cut the music please, take a seat,” he says. “We have prepped it. We know what we are doing. I have to take confidence from what we are doing. Every game I have asked for progression and progression now is to win. We are all in this together and are going to have a good day, yes?”
At half-time it is 0-0 and Deeney is not happy. While the messages are reinforced by set-piece coach Parslow, the manager prepares what to say.
“I’d prefer to watch ‘Antiques Roadshow’ instead of this,” he says, criticising the low-key nature of the game despite what is at stake.
“If you don’t want the ball, no problem,” Deeney adds. “Come and sit next to me [on the bench]… make something happen. I’m not trying to jump down your throats but drive it yourselves or in five minutes I will make three subs. I feel like we are sleepwalking to a 1-0 win for them. Drive the standards.”
They do not heed his warning. Three minutes after the restart, Gorrin lunges after the ball in the centre of the pitch and catches Odoh. It is a carbon copy of a late challenge the combative midfielder made in the first half that earned a yellow card. Gorrin is sent off.
“We will have to dig in now,” Deeney says to his staff but three minutes later Harrogate break down their right and score from close range. There is a flicker of defiance from Forest Green but Stevens is denied by their former goalkeeper James Belshaw, before disaster strikes as substitute Callum Jones gives the ball away and the dangerous Odoh finishes. Having made two substitutions after the first goal, Deeney prepares for three more. “Can we just put those three on as well,” a wag in the crowd behind him shouts.
It is 5.08pm and the only music is coming from the Harrogate dressing room. The door is wide open, loud celebrations in full swing. Forest Green’s door is shut tight. The squad are in silence, the defeat sinking in. 
“They [Harrogate] play 4-4-2 diamond, so all the space is on the outside. So what do we do? We play through the middle,” a disbelieving Deeney says, identifying McCann and Jordan Moore-Taylor for contributing to Gorrin’s dismissal by playing poor passes. “The sending off kills us but, to be fair, he got stitched up by the other lads,” Deeney says.
“I see a group of people doing their own thing. Hiding. Scared. I don’t know why they are scared, given they have been losing for 18 months to two years now. Hopefully it [the loss] will be a lightbulb moment and they will kick on and have the career they can have or they will be out of the Football League.”
For Deeney, as he goes to meet his family, the work will continue long into Saturday night and Sunday morning. With 20 games to go and 60 points to earn there is no way he is giving up without a fight; without getting the “sledgehammer” out.
“I take responsibility and I am fixing it,” he says, emphatically. “This club is not a bottom-of-League-Two club and we need to address that. There is hope. We will change.”