Troy Deeney accuses Forest Green Rovers of using his contacts and apologises to players who dropped down

Troy Deeney apologised to the players who dropped down divisions to come and work with him at Forest Green Rovers.

The former Premier League striker was sacked by the League Two club after just six games, where they managed three draws and three defeats.

Deeney made headlines for his viral rant about his squad and was also later banned from the touchline for four games by the FA.

The 35-year-old felt like the club used his name to get players to drop down to League Two, something he apologised for.

Speaking to talkSPORT’s Sunday Edition about what he learnt, Deeney said: “A lot of the players there phoned me and spoke about certain things, but having to deal with recruitment and understanding that my name was a pull to come in.

“A lot of players came from the Championship and dropped down, who obviously didn’t want to come down of their own free will.

“We had a nice conversation and explained it and spoke about Forest Green in glowing terms and managed to persuade them.

“To those players in particular I will apologise because they came in off my name and we didn’t get to play a game together.”

Forest Green owner Dale Vince joined talkSPORT on Friday and revealed the reasons for Deeney’s sacking, saying the rant at the players and FA disciplinary were key factors as well as results.

Vince also admitted to not having spoken to Deeney at all.

He said: “Like he said, he never spoke to me and still hasn’t spoken to me. I’ll have to take his word for it. What was said to me and what was said publicly were two different things.

“I have to be careful as there are still some legal issues to tie up, he’s the boss and it’s his decision.

“I wish him and Forest Green all the best.”

The viral rant at his players involved strong criticism of Fantaky Dabo, something Deeney would later go on to apologise for.

On this, he added: “I’ve said a lot of wild things in my time. I only apologise when I’m wrong, the thing I was wrong for was saying it publicly.

“I already said it to his face. I said it to him first about what I thought and why I thought that.”