Get the FREE Mirror Football newsletter by email with the day's key headlines and transfer news Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Keep those bids coming, Leicester. Keep whistling, Claudio.

Whatever the champions may think Troy Deeney is worth, they will never, ever match the value Watford fans put on their captain – because it cannot be expressed in £ sterling or any other monetary currency.

Pick a number, treble it, add seven noughts: Deeney is worth more to the Hornets than any arbitrary figure or any armband.

Unless you have seen his career at Vicarage Road go from scrap to bullion, you will never understand the bond between a whole town and its leader.

How apt that it should be Leicester who are chasing Deeney's signature – because three years ago, he scored the goal that provided Watford with the greatest single moment in their history and sent the Foxes into mourning simultaneously.

(Image: Getty)

When Anthony Knockaert went down with no marks for subtlety and high marks for artistic licence in the seventh minute of stoppage time in May 2013, referee Michael Oliver swallowed it hook, line and sinker, pointing to the penalty spot with that “look-at-me” flourish only Premier League referees can effect.

If Knockaert had converted his undeserved spot-kick, Leicester would have gone to the Championship play-off final in an armageddon of controversy.

But Manuel Almunia saved the French winger's penalty, and when the Hornets broke upfield for Deeney to smash a dramatic winner on aggregate, the gap between despair and euphoria was 17 seconds.

Even Graham Taylor's magic carpet ride, which took Watford from the old Fourth Division to runners-up behind Liverpool in the top flight, into Europe and an FA Cup final, could not compete with the explosion of joy Deeney's goal detonated.

If you missed it, the chances are you were being drowned in the sycophantic fawning of Sir Alex Ferguson's passing-out parade that afternoon.

(Image: Michael Regan)

Among the must-see clips on YouTube, there was Sky Sports reporter Johnny Phillips losing it on his gantry and footage from student digs as a Leicester fan's hope morphed into an emoji of mourning while his flatmates howled with laughter.

“Do not scratch your eyes,” bellowed commentator Bill Leslie as Deeney dived into the crowd to celebrate with his family.

Not even Watford's most famous fan, Sir Elton John, has a track on his greatest hits compilation to compete with the happy ending of that Troy story.

Deeney had started the 2012-13 season in prison after being convicted of affray. Since his release, as a genuinely reformed character, he has also improved beyond recognition as a player, and he has scored 80 goals in his last four seasons to prove it.

Now he is the last remaining link, at first team level, between an era when Watford were owned by a discharged bankrupt who spoke fluent cobblers and the Pozzo dynasty who have brought unprecedented wealth to the club – so much wealth that they can dismiss £25 million bids for their captain at the drop of a hat.

(Image: PA)

Any striker averaging 20 goals per season over four years is going to attract his fair share of vultures.

And if Leicester believe Deeney's consistency makes him a legitimate target in their pre-Champions League trolley dash, who can blame them?

But Deeney's value to Watford goes way beyond goals, a decent strike-rate from the penalty spot and Do Not Scratch Your Eyes.

Whenever the Pozzos have sent a Hornets manager packing – and new head coach Walter Mazzarri will be the eighth pilot to try the cockpit in four years – it is Deeney who has rallied the dressing room.

It is Deeney who has provided the umbilical cord between inner sanctum and supporters, a reassuring presence on the pitch when the fanbase might have been alarmed by the breathless pace of change.

(Image: PA)

It is Deeney whose programme notes were down to earth after victory, and defiantly upbeat when defeat came calling, last season.

It was Deeney who rallied his crestfallen flock, after the Championship title slipped from their grasp in stoppage time last year, by grabbing pitch master of ceremonies Jon Marks' microphone and bursting into song in front of the Rookery.

And it is Deeney who signed off for this summer, after leading Watford to Premier League safety, an FA Cup semi-final and the brink of an England call-up after decorating his first year in the penthouse with 15 goals and nine assists.

No Watford fan seriously believes Deeney owes the club inexhaustible loyalty after they stood by him while his postcode was HMP rather then WD18.

(Image: AFP/Getty)

No Watford fan would seriously begrudge him a shot at Champions League football if they believed it would be more than a one-season phenomenon where he spent most of the time warming the bench or making a token start against Smorgasbord Rovers.

And no Watford fan can quite believe the player Malky Mackay bought with the £500,000 proceeds of an Elton John concert in 2010 would turn out to be almost priceless.

For the record, this observer thinks Deeney's finishing, aerial threat, strength, work-rate, leadership and all-round attributes are finite.

Every man has his price – even the most revered player at Vicarage Road since favourite son Luther Blissett. About £100 million should do it.