Peter Crouch has revealed the only player he’s ever feared was Rangers treble winner Kevin Muscat.
The Stoke City and former England striker has came up against some of the world’s best defenders throughout his 17-year career at the top but namechecked the former Australia international as his most formidable opponent.
Muscat, who earned his hard man’ reputation at Crystal Palace and Wolves after moving to England aged 23, joined Rangers in 2002 and spent a hugely successful season at Ibrox before heading back down south.
Crouch told That Peter Crouch podcast: “Kevin Muscat scared me. You know people say, ‘I’m going to break your legs’, when he would say it you genuinely believed him.”
OPINION
Crouch was probably not the only forward unnerved by Muscat, who was a player good enough to represent Australia 46 times. In a professional career spanning 19 years from 1992 to 2011, Muscat received 123 yellow cards and 12 red cards. Tough, uncompromising and competitive even by Australian standards, he started his career in defence before moving up into a midfield anchorman role. He was a regular goalscorer and was technically better than his reputation might suggest. But his aggressive side spilled over and, occasionally, he put the ‘d’ into dirty. Even Millwall once threatened him with the sack if he did not “clean up his act” after once stamping on Danny Webber. Crouch faced Muscat on four occasions during the early 2000s, twice when his former Portsmouth side played Muscat’s Wolves and another two times when he was at Norwich and they took on the Aussie’s Millwall.