A former Dutch darts star has called for the Premier League to cut 'Luke Littler fanboys' from the competition, and he's named the perfect replacement.
On Thursday evening, darts sensation Littler claimed his fourth win of the Premier League season with a win over world number one Luke Humphries on night eight in Newcastle.
The 18-year-old's latest win puts himself eight points clear at the top of the table and further increases his chances of defending his Premier League title.
However, there is one ex-darts star who is adamant that the Premier League must make some big changes and remove several players who he has labelled as Littler's 'fanboys.'
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Throughout the season, several of Littler's Premier League rivals have been quite friendly towards the youngster, shaking hands with him when he pulls off a particularly impressive leg during their matches.
But, according to Dutch darts legend Vincent van der Voort, this needs to stop as there are too many fans of Littler playing within the top darts competition.
To do so, the 49-year-old believes that the Premier League should cut some of the players acting this way and replace them with a player like Dirk van Duijvenbode who wouldn't get caught up in the occasion of playing against such a big star.
Speaking on the Darts Draait Door podcast, Van der Voort said: "Compared to some of the players in it now, I’d much rather watch Dirk. There’s always something happening when he plays.
“Some players just show up and act like the perfect son-in-law, but that doesn’t bring much excitement. There are too many Littler fanboys right now, so it would be great to see Dirk in the mix. He steps up to compete against him and does everything to win.
"Every little thing, they’re giving him [Littler] fist bumps or smiles. Dirk wouldn’t do that, just like he didn’t at the UK Open. [He] wasn’t in the tournament this year, but in previous years he definitely would have been."
Van der Voort's comments come after Littler claimed that some of his Premier League rivals may be overthinking playing against him and that he was now 'in their heads,' leading to his dominance this season so far.
When asked by Sky Sports if players were overthinking matches against him, Littler said: “As a player, you shouldn’t be doing that, you should always be playing against the board.
“But I’m playing too well for them not to be playing against the board as well as me. I’ve got a few of them, just not Gezzy [Price]!”
Topics: Luke Littler, Darts
Ben McCrum