Crouch recently retired from professional football at the end of last season following a short stint with Burnley, and is now working as a pundit.
John Terry also called time on his footballing career last summer and together with Dean Smith, engineered Aston Villa’s return to the Premier League this season.
The pair squared off several times for their clubs during their playing days with Crouch turning out for the likes of Tottenham Hotspurs, Portsmouth, Aston Villa and Liverpool while Terry primarily played for Chelsea.
According to Crouch, Terry’s modus operandi was to approach referees before games and inquire about their families while calling them by their first names, which was completely out of the norm.
Terry getting too comfortable around referees allowed him to get away with cautions other players will ordinarily get booked for, Crouch claims.
Speaking in the first episode of the Back of the Net show on Amazon Prime, Crouch said: “What I saw creeping into the game, during my time, was when the captains would go in before the game and speak to the ref.
“To me, they would always be ‘ref’. I have grown up with just ‘ref’. Now it’s like Mike and James. They are all called by their first names. It’s all to get them onside.
“I remember Darren Fletcher was good at it. But John Terry was amazing at it. Just getting around the ref. ‘Ah, Mike, you alright? How is the family?’ All this.
“Unreal. I thought: ‘This is disgusting.’ He was crawling around the ref.
“And it meant [the ref] would think twice. If he clattered someone in the first minute, he’d get up and say: ‘Sorry Mike.’ He would then think twice about booking him. It’s little things like that.”
