In an exclusive interview with the Times ahead of the release of his new autobiography, Peter Crouchy tells:
''I'm steering with just two fingers, windows down, sunglasses on, music blaring.
“A little voice deep down keeps telling me that an Aston Martin isn’t really me, but a louder voice is telling me that as an England international playing up front for Liverpool, the old rules no longer apply,” he remembers.
“Big voice: Peter, you’ve never looked cooler. Little voice: Peter, you’re a monstrous bellend.”
He stopped at some traffic lights in Manchester when who should pull up alongside Manchester United captain and noted angry man Roy Keane.
“I give him a nod, give him a wink. I may even point my index finger at him and make a clicking sound at the same time.
''All of it saying, you and me, eh, Roy? Same game, same level. In it together.
''Rivals, yet friends who just haven’t met before. All right, Roy?”
He could hardly expected anything less than what happened next.
''Only, Roy isn’t all right.
''Roy looks absolutely disgusted.
''He just shakes his head and goes back to staring dead ahead, hands on his steering wheel.
“And when the lights change and he drives off without a backward glance, I’m left there with the handbrake on and an awful realisation: ‘Oh my God, I’ve become one of those twats.’
“God’s honest truth, that’s what happened,”
''I looked at him, gave him a little wink, thought, ‘Yeah, he knows what I’m about.’ I genuinely had a wake-up call. It only took one look from Roy Keane. I sold the car that same week.”