John Barnes has told Watford's board they need to ensure Troy Deeney stays with the club for the new season.

The striker, who this week has celebrated 10 years at the club, has a year left on his contract at Vicarage Road.

Barnes says the forward is just the type of player the club needs to keep going forward.

Describing Deeney as "Mr Watford", the former Liverpool and England player said keeping him would go a long way to enhancing the Hornets' prospects of success in 2020/21.

Barnes said to BonusCodeBets: "Troy Deeney has got one year left on his contract and has been at Watford a long time, he’s Mr Watford if you like.

"I don’t think any of the top 10 teams will be interested with Deeney at his age, whether he’d want to stay in the Premier League and prove himself elsewhere, I don’t know.

"He himself has said that he doesn’t know what’s going to happen in the future in terms of what Watford’s plans are. Whether they will have to be selling players on high wages, we don’t know.

"I know that Troy (Deeney) loves Watford and that he’d love to see them come back up, but from a financial point of view he doesn’t know what’s going to happen with the club.

"I know he’ll give a 100% if he stays and he’s a player that’ll still run through a brick wall for the team, he’s the type of player that Watford would want to keep.

"However, whether he thinks staying is right for himself, I don’t know."