An unnamed Premier League player has been caught out while planning a cringeworthy attempt to get into his manager’s good books.
According to the Daily Mail, a top flight player went to 'extraordinary lengths' to curry favour after finding out which hotel his incoming manager would be staying at.
The player, whose identity and club have not been named in the report, is said to have booked a room in the same hotel as his new boss.
He had planned to 'accidentally' bump into his new manager and presumably strike up a good relationship before the rest of the squad had the opportunity.
However, the player’s team-mates are said to have found out about his plan and were 'less than impressed'.
The story evokes memories of Peter Crouch’s mystery former team-mate, nicknamed 'Parched' for his tendency to speak the manager and coaching staff during drinks breaks in training.
Crouch gradually revealed details about 'Parched' on the BBC's That Peter Crouch Podcast, allowing listeners to guess the identity of the player.
“There’s one player that will remain nameless – I’m not saying the club, when I say remain nameless they always try to get it out me. We decided to call him Parched,” Crouch said.
“When we were doing pre-season training it was intense, really intense, and after you’ve done your running or training everyone would go over for a drink, knackered, and drink loads of water. It was roasting hot, you’d done a load of work.
“We’d look over and Parched would be sitting with the coaching staff. He’s not had a drink.
“Every drinks break we’ve had he’d be around the manager, chatting to him about tactics or just getting him on side.”
Crouch would later reveal the culprit to be former Scotland international Charlie Adam.
Crouch and Adam played together at Stoke City for seven seasons before the former England international left the club to join Burnley in 2019.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Football, Premier League
Rory O'Callaghan