{"id":293121,"date":"2023-09-19T15:20:31","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T15:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=293121"},"modified":"2023-09-19T15:20:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T15:20:31","slug":"controversial-ex-premier-league-star-looks-unrecognisable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/controversial-ex-premier-league-star-looks-unrecognisable\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial ex-Premier League star looks unrecognisable"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Controversial ex-Premier League star looks unrecognisable with the once versatile midfielder &#8211; who was once banned for 10 MATCHES &#8211; now a regular voice on Sky Sports<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The versatile midfielder made over 400 appearances across English football\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>They are now a regular fixture on Sky Sports&#8217; EFL Championship coverage\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport&#8217;s podcast &#8216;It&#8217;s All Kicking Off&#8217;\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A former Premier League star &#8211; who now regularly appears on Sky Sports &#8211; looks unrecognisable compared to a picture from their playing days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The central midfield player made over 440 appearances in English football before hanging up their boots in 2014 while at Coventry, at the end of a 15-year career in the Premier and Football League.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although capped at both Under 18 and 21 level, the midfielder would never go on to play for the senior England team.<\/p>\n<p>Since calling time on a long career across three divisions in the EFL, they ex-Nottingham Forest, Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds and Southampton star has gone on to a have a prominent career in the media.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite their exploits with the ball at their feet, an overzealous approach to tackling landed them in a spot of bother, notably coming into a confrontation with the referee when in a clash with Arsenal back in 2005.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/15\/75599441-0-image-a-31_1695134861761.jpg\" height=\"417\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>A controversial former Premier League star looks unrecognisable from their playing days<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/15\/75599449-0-image-m-35_1695134894859.jpg\" height=\"448\" width=\"306\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/15\/75599451-0-image-a-36_1695134901078.jpg\" height=\"448\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>The midfielder also spent time in the Championship with the likes of Leeds, as well as being called up to the England youth set up<\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p>The player of course is David Prutton, who has since gone on to present Sky Sports&#8217; EFL Championship coverage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Prutton was part of the Southampton side that suffered the heartbreak of relegation from the top-flight at the end of the 2004-05 season &#8211; a campaign that saw the versatile midfielder miss a huge chunk of the action.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Coming up against the Gunners, the hard-tackling Prutton sent French star Robert Pires tumbling with a hefty challenge, for which he was shown a red card.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, things quickly went from bad to worse for the Southampton man, who would refuse to leave the field when shown the card, before shoving referee Alan Wiley.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a result, he was handed a 10-game ban and fined \u00a36,000 after admitting to improper conduct.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I haven&#8217;t got a leg to stand on,&#8217; he told Sky Sports News after the event. &#8216;I&#8217;ve looked at, I&#8217;ve thought about it and I&#8217;ve read about it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s an horrendous situation which I&#8217;ve never found myself in before and, hopefully, never will again.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/15\/75599447-0-image-a-30_1695134827956.jpg\" height=\"508\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>David Prutton is perhaps best remembered for the fallout from his challenge on Robert Pires<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/19\/15\/75597607-0-image-a-28_1695134280056.jpg\" height=\"444\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Prutton was handed a 10-game ban for shoving referee Alan Wiley after a tackle on Pires<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I need to apologise. Firstly to the ref, who was only doing his job and to the linesman, who was only doing his job.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;[Robert] Pires, I thought had made a meal of it, but, with hindsight, I&#8217;ve seen the pictures and heard about what happened to his leg so I&#8217;m incredibly sorry about that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I would never go onto the pitch to try and hurt anyone else because I wouldn&#8217;t expect anyone to do it to me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I apologise to the people that saw it. Football nowadays, you get a lot of kids and families going. They don&#8217;t pay their money to see that kind of thing.&#8217;<\/p>\n<h3>IT&#8217;S ALL KICKING OFF!\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p><span><span>It&#8217;s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2017\/08\/02\/636x90_facebook_ad_sport.png\" width=\"636\" height=\"90\"><br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/football\/article-12536211\/Controversial-ex-Premier-League-star-looks-unrecognisable-versatile-midfielder-banned-10-MATCHES-regular-voice-Sky-Sports.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Controversial ex-Premier League star looks unrecognisable with the once versatile midfielder &#8211; who was once banned for 10 MATCHES &#8211; <span class=\"more-text\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Controversial ex-Premier League star looks unrecognisable - Sportstons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/controversial-ex-premier-league-star-looks-unrecognisable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Controversial ex-Premier League star looks unrecognisable - Sportstons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Controversial ex-Premier League star looks unrecognisable with the once versatile midfielder &#8211; 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