I was sat in a service station when Sky Sports News said I was flying in for a transfer – I couldn’t believe it

PETER CROUCH was once left shocked with a McDonald’s burger in hand ahead of a transfer he made.

The former England star revealed his departure from Tottenham was a lot less glamorous than the media made out, and involved a service station stop rather than a helicopter ride.

Crouch, 43, moved to Stoke in the summer of 2011 but was unsure the transfer would get the green light with paperwork still to be completed.

So on his way up north he stopped off at a McDonalds as he waited for the deal to go through, as Sky Sports reported a completely different version of events.

Crouch recalled the story on That Peter Crouch Podcast, saying: “I remember sitting in a Maccies and watching Sky Sports News on my phone.

“It was breaking news with the yellow bar, [it said] ‘Peter Crouch has been spotted in a helicopter landing at a golf club near Stoke, and I was sitting there with a quarter-pounder on a target roundabout.”

Crouch spent seven-and-a-half years at Stoke, scoring 62 goals in 261 appearances following a two-year stint at Spurs.

The former striker also spent time at Tottenham as a youth player and recalled another story from that time about some harsh treatment he received from first-team players.

He said: “I remember being in the Tottenham dressing room, going in to pick up my boots and they were like ‘Crouchy, what is your love life like?’

“And you’d have to stand there in front of like 20 first-team players and go ‘well, nothing’ and they’d go ‘are you a virgin?’ and you’d go ‘yeah at the moment’.

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“They’d go ‘do you have a girlfriend, have you kissed one yet?’ and you’re standing there as they’re all absolutely buzzing off you as you tell them what you’ve achieved with the opposite sex. There’s nothing worse – horrible, horrible, horrible.

“It was horrible to be a part of. They would say things like ‘well how would you kiss a girl’ and you’d have to practise it on something.

“You know the back one, you’d have to show your technique. It’s not right. I hope it’s out of the game now, it wasn’t nice for a young lad to be in that environment.”

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk