Quintin Jardine's blog

Glad you enjoyed your visit to St Marti. You know Miguel Torres? To tell you the truth I’m not a big fan of his best-selling white, but me gusta his Esmeralda.

This from Tony Pulis, manager of Stoke City, on his new signing Peter Crouch.

“Peter is a great lad and I think you’re pigeon-holing someone just because their picture is in the paper,” Pulis said. “He is a fantastic kid, very down to earth, and we are absolutely delighted to have him.”

Peter Crouch is thirty years old. At what point does a professional footballer cease to be a ‘lad’ or a ‘kid’? The answer is  that in the minds of most British football managers, they don’t, and therein lies a problem. In any business that employs specialist staff, they should be respected and treated as adults, otherwise there is a risk that they will become disaffected and will not give of their best. Perhaps that explains why Stoke City are an ugly, limited team.

Thank you, my friend. The Loner seems to be going down a bomb, most of all in Canada. Think I might move there.

In a future Skinner I think I may ‘deal with’ a Dutch football ref. By all accounts, the guy at Hampden on Saturday was a disgrace. Three bad penalty shouts, two against us one for us, but the worst thing seems to have been his attitude. The very sensible and very experienced Darren Fletcher said that ‘his demeanour was poor’ throughout the game, and another Scottish player claimed that when he tred to speak to the guy, he was told to ‘**** off’. At a time when players are told to ‘Respect’ referees, that’s not acceptable; if it’s correct, he should be sanctioned, publicly. Makes me wonder if there’s a secret Dutch football agenda against British nations and sides, after Howard Webb and the World Cup Final.