Troy Deeney wants you to believe Lorenzo Lucca mouthed off at a decorated legend for no reason. Watch the sequence from Porto and you find out who opened his mouth first, and it wasn't Lucca.
Here's what Deeney actually said about the Napoli striker: "With all due respect, he's lucky to be a footballer. He's one of the worst strikers I've ever seen. He told Kevin De Bruyne, who has won everything there is to win in football, to f*** off. Unbelievable." Punchy and screenshot-ready. On the headline charge, it's only half the story.
The row came during Napoli's 4-1 beating at Porto in the Champions League. De Bruyne was annoyed with Lucca, there was an argument, and the reconstructions used by multiple outlets all land on the same order of events: De Bruyne told Lucca to f*** off and asked him "Why are you speaking?" before Lucca fired the same words back. So yes, Lucca swore at De Bruyne. He also swore at a man who had just sworn at him and effectively told him to shut up. Presenting that as some junior striker unilaterally abusing a World Cup-level talent is a flattering edit, and Deeney is the one who made it.
Telling a teammate to f*** off in the middle of a 4-1 collapse is two frustrated players going at each other on a bad night. Framing it as disrespect to royalty changes the story to suit the soundbite.
Then there's the other jab: Lucca as "one of the worst strikers" Deeney has ever seen. The numbers point to a bad run, nothing more. In his first Napoli season he managed four goals in 16 Serie A appearances and failed to score in five Champions League outings. As of November 11, 2026, he's gone goalless across his last five games in Serie A and the Champions League, and one tracking site has him at three goals, ranked 102nd of 160 Serie A forwards, as of that same date. For a club that took him on with an obligation to buy in a deal reported at around €35 million, that's a poor return. Call him misfiring, call the fee a bad piece of business. Both land. "Worst I've ever seen" is a pundit reaching for a number he can't produce.
And about the man doing the reaching: Deeney's career is promotions with Watford and a run to an FA Cup final his side lost. He has no major winners' medal and was never capped by England at senior level. He scored plenty of goals and made more than 500 appearances, a real career, nobody's laughing at it. But "he's lucky to be a footballer" is a strange insult coming from someone whose own trophy cabinet holds second-tier promotions, and it describes plenty of journeymen who later found a microphone.
Deeney did get something right, and it's the part nobody's quoting back to him. He also said the Napoli dressing room is split in two, Italians on one side and everyone else on the other. That read holds up. Captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo's post-match comments were taken as a shot at the club's foreign stars, Matteo Politano aimed at the same group, and Napoli sit 27th in the Champions League league phase as of November 11, 2026. There are even reports that De Bruyne flew home with a winter exit being floated, though none of that is confirmed by the player or the club.
Deeney had a real column sitting in front of him: a crumbling season and a divided squad. He went for the viral clip instead, and he built it by leaving out who swore first.
