Deeney: Hornets team-mate Mariappa should have been a chess player

Watford captain Troy Deeney claims that Adrian Mariappa is the dullest man in the team’s dressing room, believing the defender would have been much more suited to life as a chess player.

Having come through the Watford academy, Mariappa made almost 250 appearances in seven years at the club before leaving for Reading in 2012.

A spell at Crystal Palace followed for the Jamaica international but he returned to Vicarage Road on a free last summer.

Striker Deeney joined the Hornets from Walsall in 2010, so has known Mariappa for a number of years, and is adamant the 30-year-old would have been better-suited to a more sedate sport.

“Adrian Mariappa has the worst banter,” said Deeney. “Ade is so boring, he should have been a chess player or something!”

Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images

While Mariappa may be slightly lacking in the banter department, Deeney insists that isn’t the case with the majority of the Watford squad.

And the 28-year-old remembers a time when dead rodents were the order of the day for practical jokes – even if he didn’t always end up on the right side of the pranks.

“There was a stage where rats and dead mice ended up being put in people’s wash bag,” recalled Deeney.

“I had one put in my car, and I was driving my Mum’s car at the time, with a seat belt on!”