Since his arrival at Watford in 2010, Troy Deeney has become club captain, scored over 100 goals, steered his team into the Premier League and become synonymous with the Hornets in a way that few players do at any club these days. When Leicester City, then Premier League champions, made repeated bids to sign Deeney in the summer of 2016, the rebuttals of those bids sent a message: Deeney is a Watford player, and that's where he'll stay.
Of course, this is football, and with the money that flies around in the Premier League things are only ever permanent until they're not. New Hornets manager Javi Gracia - the 10th manager at the club since Deeney joined - has opened up the possibility that the striker could be on his way out. As West Brom hover over Deeney, looking for some more grunt up front in a team that has looked short on that ingredient this season, what would make Watford consider parting with their esteemed captain?
It's Watford
If anyone wanted proof that there's no room for sentimentality in top-level football, then the Pozzo family could serve as the perfect case study. The revolving door in the manager's office has meant that even when Quique Flores kept the club well clear of relegation in 2016, it was considered that he hadn't done enough to remain in employment.
While players form bonds with the fans that managers simply can't, it would be naive to think that the same level of emotional bond extends to the boardroom. Even a player like Deeney is not indispensable to the controlling owners.
He's nearing 30
Although most match-going fans long for the days when they had their 30th birthday to look forward to, there is an unavoidable law in football when it comes to player value. Once a player exits their 20s, their value drops steeply. Even though Deeney is exactly the same age that Jamie Vardy was when he made his England debut, he's also at the last point where Watford could get a maximum return on their investment in him. The biggest downside to this is that they could have got £25m had they sold him 18 months ago, which they won't now.
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He's out of sorts
The truth is that after the 2016 season, when Deeney had banged in 13 goals for a Watford team that took the "underdog" tag into every game, there was a lot of sense in holding on to the player. He was in his mid-20s and the pivotal player in an overperforming side. Under Marco Silva, whose start to this season saw him rated by Betway as favourite to take over at Everton when Ronald Koeman was sacked, Deeney performed less well. He has scored just twice this season in the league and has missed several games through suspension as that solid start has tailed off.
It might just make sense
Although Watford's fall from the European spots to the very crowded bottom half of the table has not shone a positive light on anyone, it's not been an inability to score that's hurt them. Richarlison's prolific contribution from a wide position has seen him become the club's top scorer and, in Andre Gray, there's a striker there with many of the same gifts Deeney has.
What has been lacking is defensive solidity - in the entire Premier League, only Stoke have conceded more goals. If selling Deeney allows the recruitment of defensive reinforcements, that could make the difference between a safe mid-table spot and being in the relegation melee come May.
It's true that the club could get a higher fee for Richarlison - who is tipped to move on to "bigger" things before too long anyway - than for Deeney, but it's equally true that they would miss his contribution more - on the evidence of this season, at least. In a league where relegation is a real and present fear for more than half the teams, it could be that Troy Deeney is now dispensable because Watford need to stay in the league he helped them reach.
