Why is no one talking about Troy Deeney confirming what Wilfried Zaha has said?

The Wilfried Zaha argument has continued to rage on after the Palace forward’s comments after the victory at Huddersfield.

“I’d have to break my leg for a player to get a red card.”

This has been plastered all over, well, everything in the past two weeks. Sky Sports News, BT Sport, BBC News, Match of the Day, every single football podcast and all that comes in between.

On Monday, on the 5Live Football Daily Podcast, Mark Chapman, Ian Wright and Chris Sutton were joined by Troy Deeney, yet no one is talking about the Watford captain’s comments that straight up confirm everything that Wilfried had the cheek to moan about.

Throughout the segment (not all is included here) Chris Sutton stuck up for Wilf twice and I nearly fell off my chair, but it’s Deeney’s frank talking on what at best is terrible sportsmanship and at worst, borderline cheating.

“You take it in turns of kicking him. I know no one wants to hear that, but you go; “You hit this time, you hit him the next time”, you don’t have the same player tackle him because you know you’re gonna get booked.”

“It’s difficult, but also as a captain… I’d be the first if we were playing him this week and he’d just said those comments I’d have been like; “Ref, don’t you be the first one to give him a pen. Don’t you start going easy on him”, you can then flip it and start being more psychological with the referees.”

“You want to say to him (the ref) in that little meeting we have an hour and a half before kick-off; “Do you want to be the first one to give him a penalty for diving?””

Chris Sutton then asks: “So do you think that referees can be influenced?"

“Clearly” Deeney responds with a chuckle.

“That plainly isn’t right though, is it?”

“It’s human nature.”

“You’re trying to get an edge” pipes in Ian Wright.

“Until we get robots doing it, there’s gonna be human error, so you try to play to that advantage.”

“It shouldn’t happen! The referee should have the integrity, with respect, that they don’t listen.” exclaims Sutton.

“They might not listen to people, for example, we all know that Wilf is emotional on the pitch, so when he does get tackled and feels he’s been fouled, the first thing he does, he goes screaming and shouting at the referee. Now it’s human nature, if you’re screaming and shouting at someone, you’re not going to do them a favour are ya?”

Do them a favour?! Thanks to Jesse Boyce, who drew my attention to this podcast, for ruining my Friday. I am now fuming.

Zaha complains about the treatment is getting and the media drag him from pillar to post. People like Stan Collymore are out there saying that they cannot remember a single red card tackle on Wilf when players have gone through him studs up in consecutive games! Troy Deeney, the captain of the player that stood on Wilf’s calf, then comes out and tells everyone that he TELLS his players to do it, and no one is talking about it?!

If this doesn’t confirm the agenda against Zaha, I don’t know what does. The media should be all over this and condemning Deeney’s comments, but I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere. Even Ian Wright, a man that we made, is agreeing with Deeney’s comments, not caring a jot that the man sat right next to him was the architect of Capoue putting in a challenge that could have ended his career.

It is not the 80s any more, the game has moved on. It is not a compliment, it is cheating and nearing criminal as far as the Capoue challenge is concerned.

As for referee’s, if they are so easily influenced, especially by a man like Deeney, who has a history of kicking people in the head on dance floors, then the FA need to take a long hard look at their men in the middle. As if our referee’s being shunned by the World Cup shouldn’t have been enough of a wake-up call. Maybe Deeney's past is the reason that they listen to him because they are intimidated by him. Either way, it's not a good look.

In any debate that surrounds Wilf, people always point to him being the most booked player for simulation. No one ever mentions that they were ALL proved to have been actual fouls. Guess where two of these yellows happened? That’s right, at Vicarage Road where Deeney and the referee were having a cosy little meeting 90 minutes before kick-off in which the Watford captain is getting in the referee’s head. So, the media have built a reputation for Wilf around people like Deeney telling the referee's to make the wrong decisions.

So, there you have it. Wilf complains about being targeted for career ending tackles and everyone tells him to shut up. Deeney confesses to instructing his players to put in such tackles and everyone, including a Palace “legend”, nods along and says nothing. Wilf gets booked for diving constantly and it is apparent that this is happening because opposition players are putting the fear of god into the referee, but everyone just nods along.

The lunatics are running the asylum.