Birmingham Mail

Dutch footballers are technically excellent but woefully daft at times.

Take Johan Cruyff for instance. Holland's No.14 was without doubt one of the finest footballers of all time. Yet during the 1974 World Cup he spent so much time squabbling with his team-mates about sponsorship issues - the Puma-backed genius wore two stripes on his shirt sleeves while he team-mates fulfilled their adidas obligations by wearing three - that the whole team flopped in the final against West Germany. And then, when at his peak, he made himself unavailable for the 1978 World Cup because, well, he couldn't really be bothered.

In 1996 Edgar Davids was sent home from the European Championships in England for suggesting that coach Gus Hiddink's head was stuck somewhere rather dark and unpleasant.

And, since then we've had racial tensions between players, a succession of shoot-out miseries and a tendency to choke at crucial moments.

And now Ryan Babel has topped that. The Liverpool forward missed a training session and pre-match nosh up before the Euro 2008 qualifiers because, according to coach Marco van Basten, he had 'overslept'.

All of which is nothing new to Albion fans and their own experience of a sleepy Dutchman back in 1999.

Thinking that the Easter Monday game against Crewe would be an evening kick-off, the legendary Fabian De Freitas spent the afternoon having a pleasant kip while frantic Albion officials struggled to contact him. His girlfriend, showing loyalty to her partner beyond the call of duty, rather unhelpfully ignored the phone calls.

Meanwhile, over at the Hawthorns, Denis Smith's Albion side, sans De Freitas, were busy getting battered 5-1.

Sherjill MacDonald and Shelton Martis - your cards are marked...