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The BBC has announced that former Watford captain Troy Deeney has replaced Garth Crooks as the selector of the BBC Sport website’s Premier League team of the week, bringing to an end Crooks’ long-running column.
The former Stoke and Tottenham striker has been a BBC stalwart, appearing regularly on Final Score and occasionally on Match of the Day since concluding his playing career in 1990.
But it is for his often unconventional selections after each Premier League weekend that the 66-year-old perhaps became best known, establishing himself as a unique footballing thinker.
Often loading his side up with forwards and eschewing midfielders, Crooks regularly picked players out of position in strange formations, though his column is thought to have been exceptionally well read.
He departs ahead of the new Premier League season with Deeney — most recently player-manager at Forest Green Rovers — stepping in.
“I’m delighted to tell you that I am taking over from the legend that is Garth Crooks to select BBC Sport’s Premier League Team of the Week every weekend, and it is a great honour to get to fill his shoes,” Deeney said in his opening column for the BBC.
“I’ve always had massive respect for Garth for his amazing career in the media after his playing days ended and, as someone who is following in his footsteps now, I’ve always looked up to him.
“I also really admire his approach because, when he has an opinion, he is not afraid to say it and he is always able to back it up – yet he never comes across as someone who is trying to be controversial just to get likes or views on social media or anywhere else.”
Deeney spent more than a decade at Watford, twice firing them to promotion out of the Championship, before leaving the club for Birmingham in 2021.
He was sacked by Forest Green in January after failing to win any of his first six games.
The 35-year-old has embarked on a media career and hosted a podcast alongside former England striker Jermain Defoe for the BBC last season.
Having been a victim himself of Crooks’ sometimes curious selections, Deeney poked fun at his predecessor and insisted he would stick to a more rigid system.
“I was lucky enough to make Garth’s Team of the Week on a couple of occasions during my Watford days, although it has to be said I was not always put in the position where I had played on the pitch,” Deeney added.
“When I helped Watford beat Arsenal in the FA Cup quarter-finals in 2016, he picked me but used me as a holding midfielder instead of a striker. That was a new one on me, to be honest!
“I know Garth was famous for sometimes choosing unusual formations like that, but I am going to do things a bit differently. In my team, I promise players will be in their correct positions for starters!
“Being serious though, it’s a real privilege to continue the incredible work Garth has already done with this piece. I can’t wait to get started and I have already given plenty of thought to my own selection criteria before the new Premier League season begins on Friday.”