Stoke City and Burnley saw very different versions of ex-England international: View | OneFootball

'Two metre Peter' - also known as Peter Crouch - is considered as a unique legend among a host of English clubs for his goal-scoring talents despite an ungainly appearance.

However, fans of the club he ended his long career with may wonder why they didn't get the same player as every other club.

As Crouch entered the twilight of his career, he made a trip over the Staffordshire border to join Lancashire-based club Burnley from Stoke City, as part of a player-exchange deal with Sam Vokes.

However, while at the Clarets, the forward failed to find the net, and many Burnley fans were left perplexed, as they had not only gotten rid of a goalscorer in Vokes, but they had replaced him with a player who had only netted one goal during the season in which he made his move, and was clearly not the same player as many remember him to be.

Peter Crouch was a cult hero at Stoke City

Stoke City is the club that Crouch spent the longest time at in any one point of his career. He cost the side a club-record breaking fee of £10 million, with the possibility to rise to £12 million and joined after the start of the 2011/12 Premier League season.

In his debut season for the Potters, he appeared 40 times across four competitions, and apart from drawing a blank in two EFL Cup games, he netted 14 goals in all the others, which included two in Stoke's short-lived experience of the UEFA Europa League.

He would also surpass 100 league goals personally in a January match against Blackburn Rovers, and it was this form saw him win the club's Player of the Year award and also backing from then-manager Tony Pulis to make the England squad for Euro 2012.

Unfortunately for Crouch, this fantastic season would not be replicated across the remainder of his seven seasons at the Bet365, as he would never achieve as many appearances as the 40 previously mentioned, nor would he get near to his goalscoring tally of 14, with the closest being 10 in the 2014/15 season and 2016/17 season.

This isn't to say that those seven other seasons didn't come with success however, as personally, Crouch would set a few proud records.

The first of these occurred at the turn of the year in 2016/17. In January of that year, he would go on a scoring streak of four goals in five games, and within that run, he would reach 100 Premier League goals and become the oldest player ever to do so in the competition's short history.

The next record was broken in the season after that, 2017/18, when in a match against Brighton and Hove Albion he appeared as a substitute and, therefore, broke the record for most appearances as a substitute in the Premier League, surpassing the 142 appearances set by Newcastle hero Shola Ameobi.

His final record break would occur in the same season, with the Englishman reaching 45 Premier League goals for Stoke and, in turn, beating Jonathan Walters' 43 Prem goals to make him the club's all-time leading goalscorer in the division.

Peter Crouch failed to fire at Burnley

With the move to Burnley then, and considering how successful Crouch had been at Stoke personally, most Clarets fans would have thought that - despite his growing age - they were getting their hands on a player that could score them a few important goals and arrived with bags of experience.

That couldn't have been further from the truth though. Crouch had been relegated with Stoke to the Championship, and during his time in the division, had only scored once in twenty-three games.

His Clarets debut was perhaps his only impactful game, as after a year-and-a-half wait for a penalty, the 6ft 7in striker won one after Southampton's Jack Stephens was forced to handle the ball after coming under pressure from Crouch.

With regular spot-kick taker Ashley Barnes taking and scoring that penalty, Crouch's best chance at scoring a goal for the Clarets went by.

In his five other appearances from the bench, he wouldn't feature for longer than 20 minutes, and come the end of the season, the man from Macclesfield was released and promptly retired at 38 years of age, despite once saying he would happily play football until he was at least 40.

This isn't to say that Crouch didn't enjoy his time at the Lancashire-based club though. In an interview with BT Sport, reported here in the Lancashire Telegraph, he said, "I had a laugh, I enjoyed my training, worked hard and it was a nice way to finish my career up at Burnley.

"I came from somewhere at Stoke where we got relegated, and I was becoming disillusioned with football in a lot of ways, as just from what happened the dressing room became a little bit toxic.

"It was a breath of fresh air when I went up there and signed."

It really must be confusing for Burnley fans that Crouch really never worked out at the club. Despite his admittance of enjoying his time at the club, and years of experience beforehand, they just never got the best out of him.

Therefore, it is Stoke, from his plethora of clubs, that really got the best possible version of the man. He was a reliable striker when called upon, would often score goals in important matches and made himself an icon of the club, and of the English game.