Peter Crouch says player Tottenham signed for £4m was really ‘strange’

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Football is a brilliant sport, not just because of the game itself, but because of the characters associated with it.

Tottenham fans know better than most what a great character in football looks like. The likes of Paul Gascoigne and Glenn Hoddle are both true mavericks, but as far as personalities in football go, they don’t come much stranger than Benoit Assou-Ekotto.

The left-back had many stories written about him over the years – some of which we’re best off not repeating, but speaking on the Official Tottenham Hotspur Podcast, Peter Crouch has now touched on the defender’s personality.

Crouch says that Assou-Ekotto was a very strange character at Spurs, stating that he’d often come to games and have no idea who the team were even playing that day.

Assou-Ekotto was strange

Crouch shared his verdict on the full-back Tottenham paid £4m to sign.

“Was it true that Benoit Assou-Ekotto was as aloof as people said?” Crouch was asked.

“Yeah he’s the strangest character I’ve met in my life. I actually liked him, I love him yeah, but he’s just very very different. He’s one of those people where you just let him crack on. He’d come in with his Tesco bag before the game, he’d have crisps, a croissant and some hot chocolate, then he’d go out and play Man United and be the best player. He had no idea who we were playing, on a Saturday he’d be like ‘who’ve we got today?’ He knows Messi and Ronaldo, but he had no clue below the top two teams who they were,” Crouch said.

Could’ve been brilliant

Assou-Ekotto may have been a strange character, but he was a good footballer who could’ve been brilliant if he just applied himself.

Assou-Ekotto made it to a team like Tottenham while not knowing who he was playing most weekends, imagine if he’d got his head down and committed himself to the sport, he could’ve been a top player.

Of course, for some, football is nothing more than a job, and Assou-Ekotto seemingly treated the game as more of a career than anything else.

We can’t get our heads around why you’d approach the game like that, but every player has their own views on how the sport should be treated.