Jordan Graham weighs in on Troy Deeney debate after Birmingham City man receives criticism | OneFootball

Jordan Graham has opted to take to Twitter to defend team-mate Troy Deeney after the Birmingham City captain drew criticism for comments that he made on Sam Warburton's Captains podcast.

Blues Focus quoted a small part of the interview which revolved around the fine system that Deeney has implemented at St Andrew's which was not well-received by some of the club's fans.

In the conversation with Warburton (as cited by the Birmingham Mail), Deeney said: “It’s [Birmingham] a club which has been failing for a long time, but it’s still one with deep heritage and a working man’s club.

"Fundamentally that is me - a hard working individual.

"The only way I can explain it to people and it sounds really (bad) but it’s the only way to do it. "I’ve been in the Premier League for eight years as a captain and the Premier League is an unbelievable world. "The standard, you don’t ask for anything, money isn’t in issue, it’s all about being a top professional.

"When I came to Birmingham… imagine always turning left on a plane and going to first class and then you jump on this plane and someone goes, ‘There isn’t first class, we’re on easyJet’, and you go, ‘Oh OK, no problem, it's still a plane and I'm still going to get to my destination, but is this all it is?’"

"As you know, it’s not about the monetary value of the fine, it’s about respect.

"If me and you have both got to be in a meeting, and the meeting starts at 10 but you’re there at five to and I roll in at one minute past, that meeting is delayed but I'm also saying that my time is more important than yours. "On the way I've had to financially put my own things in to raise the standards because we don't have the money, but that's fine. "Be a really good professional, that's all you have to do. "We're in a wonderful position. "Can you guarantee we're going to win? Absolutely not, that's why it's called sport. "But you can guarantee that you're on time, you do things right, you eat right, you recover right. "It hasn't been that and these things take time to change.

"I’m coming to the end of my second year there and I would like to think everyone in the building should turn round and go, 'You know what, Troy has taken us from this level to this level and there's still room to improve.'"

In a response to Blues Focus' tweet, Deeney said yesterday: "I know it's a slow news week, but taking that completely out of context, listen to the whole conversation it's around the importance of fines in sport in general.

"The boys are good, stop trying it please."

Upon seeing Deeney's response, Graham decided to back up his team-mate on Twitter.

"Deffo out of context.

"Works everyday on improving things to make it a better environment.

"Annoying to see stuff when it can be taken out of context."

The Verdict

It is understandable that both Deeney and Graham are angered by this as the quotes were taken out of context.

Deeney is clearly trying to improve the culture at Birmingham with this particular system which relies on players to turn up to training and team meetings on time.

The Blues will be hoping to end the 2022/23 campaign on a high by securing some positive results in their upcoming league fixtures.