Troy Deeney says Gianfranco Zola has played a huge part in his career and described Watford’s former head coach as “easily the nicest man in football”.

Deeney scored 29 goals in 62 appearances during the Italian’s 17 months in charge of the Hornets.

The club’s current top scorer tweeted a picture of the pair on Instagram with a message.

It read: “This pic sums up the level of respect I have for this man. Spoke to him for an hour last night; he helped me massively in my career [and] he will be missed as he's easily the nicest man in football #gentleman.”