Retired football claims Arsenal was his former side’s ‘banker’

Peter Crouch has relived his time at Stoke City, and has claimed that Arsenal was their banker under Tony Pulis.

The Potters were notorious for making life difficult for opponents, especially at their home ground, so much that the phrase ‘could they do it on a cold night in Stoke?’.

Crouchy was one of a number of players who enjoyed his time in that side, and claimed that they saw us as their ‘banker’.

“Arsenal was our home banker, we made things difficult,” he said on BT Sport (via Football League World). “I remember we trained in the middle of the pitch before we played Arsenal, just to cut it all up and they couldn’t play. The grass had grown longer, I remember look at Aaron Ramsey and he couldn’t see his boot. He was like Crouchy? and I went this is what we do.

“My best line of all time for me and it’s one of the best lines I’ve heard in football was when he [Pulis] said don’t get ahead of yourselves lads, you’re bang average players in a fantastic system. Well, you can’t argue with that.”

I think I’m supposed to be annoyed about the comment, but I can’t forget how difficult they used to make it for us to play. They almost played anti-football, and to their credit, they were really good at.

I used to hate having to see our team play at the Britannia, but I did enjoy seeing our rivals struggle there.

They were good at what they did, but I can’t say I miss them…

Patrick