A dog’s life for Etherington

MATTHEW ETHERINGTON was welcomed to ‘Battersea Dogs Home’ after completing his move to Stoke yesterday.

The midfielder has been in the dog-house at West Ham, making only eight starts this season, but was welcomed into the warm by the Potters manager Tony Pulis.

And Pulis said: “I think Matthew feels it is right to get out of London and start again — perhaps we can give him the love and care he has not had for a while.

“No disrespect but we are at a club where we can’t deal in the top bracket of players we would like to bring here. We are always working below that.

“We are not at Crufts, we are at Battersea Dogs Home. We are looking for strays.

“We are looking for people who have gone astray with the aim of bringing them back.”