Peter Crouch has amusingly revealed Luke Littler has been banned from his podcast so he can focus on his darts career.
The teenager is currently gearing up for tonight’s blockbuster showdown with Luke Humphries, with the youngster hoping to win his Premier League opener.
The 17-year-old has insisted he’s not afraid of anybody and seems to have adjusted to his newfound fame.
Yet Crouch has now claimed the teenager is banned from appearing on his podcast.
Luke Littler is currently preparing for his Premier League showdown with Luke Humphries in Cardiff
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He said: “I’d love Luke Littler on, I’d like to speak to him. You have people who burst on the scene at 16.
“I was watching the darts, they had a list of people who have won things at 16. Obviously it was before he lost [the final].
“Martina Hingis, Wayne Rooney, they’ve all gone on to massive things. It would be interesting to see where his head’s at, at this age.”
However, Capital DJ Chris Stark then fired a warning to Crouch by saying Littler should be protected due to his young age.
He said: “Do you think that’s part of the problem that he’s had this massive success at 16.
“He’s managed to get this far on his own without all the attention.
“A lot of the criticism is that suddenly he’s out doing all interviews.
“Maybe the best thing we could do as a podcast is almost run a campaign to say, we are not going to get you on the podcast.
“We are going to be the only media outlet to say we don’t want Luke on because we want him to concentrate on his darts.
“This amount of weird attention that appears you must have seen it galvanise some players and people but it does have a negative effect as well.
“Maybe that’s what we do with Luke. We give him a couple more years, win the Worlds at some point, then invite him on the podcast after that.
“Until then we operate a policy of everyone should leave Luke Littler alone.”
And Crouch then responded by saying: “I wouldn’t like it personally. At 16 I was miles off it.
“But we are making a stand, we do not want Luke Littler on the podcast!”
Littler has given numerous interviews since recently becoming a household name.
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Luke Littler has been banned from Peter Crouch’s podcast ahead of his Premier League opener against Luke Humphries
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But he’s still focused on his darts and is looking forward to locking horns with Humphries in Wales tonight.
The youngster will be making his Premier League debut just weeks after losing to Humphries in the final of the World Darts Championship.
And Littler has said he’s targeting revenge, despite beating his 28-year-old at the Dutch Masters on Saturday.
“Obviously I’ve seen the line-up and I play Luke on the first night,” he said.
“Last game on, so I’ll try and get my revenge on him and try and move onto the semi-final.
Luke Littler poses with his fellow darts players ahead of tonight’s Premier League opener
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“But if it’s not to be then we go again for the next 14 weeks.
“I can’t wait to play every venue. It’s going to be crazy.”
