'They understand football': Former England striker now says he wishes he would have played for Newcastle United

The career of a professional footballer is a relatively short one so players who get to tick off everything on their bucket list are very rare and it seems that one former England star regrets not getting the chance to pull on Newcastle United's famous black and white during his career.

While it seems like he played for literally every other football club in the English pyramid, Peter Crouch never set foot on the hallowed turf at St James' Park as a home player, however he did face the Magpies plenty of times amassing six goals against us.

In what could have been another cruel twist to the story, Crouch did almost sign for Sunderland at one point.

Crouchy has now said that Newcastle is the one club he wished he'd had the opportunity to play for in his career.

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Peter Crouch loves coming to Newcastle on match days

The lanky robot-dancing forward turned out for Queens Park Rangers, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Norwich City, Southampton, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Stoke City and Burnley but would have loved to have taken the number nine shirt from Alan Shearer as reported by Newcastle World.

"I reckon there's something special about being Newcastle's number nine. Whenever I go up there, I feel like it's a football city and when I think of the old centre forwards that have played well for Newcastle. You're like the hero, aren't you? If I had scored goals for Newcastle...

"Even the music before the game they play up at Newcastle. I've always enjoyed playing as an away player there. They understand football. They live and breathe it.

"If I had gone in just after that Alan Shearer phase, I would have been at a good age then but these things don't work out. It's all hypothetical, but if I had to pick one club to play for, it would have been Newcastle."

We are intrigued at the thought of Peter Crouch being Newcastle's number nine

It seems Peter Crouch is enamoured with the match-day experience in and around St James' Park.

We wonder how he'd have turned out if he'd come to Newcastle after Alan Shearer. It would have required a whole different style of play, likely going back to the good old days of lump it up to the big man and hope for a knockdown.

It's an intriguing thought, and we love the compliments from the Jill Scott look-a-like. What could have been, eh?