RANK STUPIDITY

West Brom players accused of driving off in Barcelona taxi

FOUR top-flight footballers are at the centre of a police inquiry over claims they stole a taxi in Barcelona.

The West Brom quartet – Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill – allegedly drove off in the cab from a McDonald’s at around 5.30am.

It’s claimed they left the driver who had taken them to the fast food restaurant stranded and the taxi was dumped outside the team’s five-star hotel.

A source said the vehicle’s keys were left at reception.

The players went to their rooms but they were soon roused by police and taken for questioning.

Furious West Brom head coach Alan Pardew said: “We are having an investigation. There was a curfew on and it was broken. That is unacceptable and I feel let down.”

Team captain and Northern Ireland defender Evans, 30, England stars Barry, 36, and Livermore, 28, and Welshman Myhill, 35, apologised yesterday in a statement on the club’s website.

West Brom, at the bottom of the Premier League, were in Spain for warm weather training. A source said the four booked a taxi to the Olympic Port area at about 4.30am in defiance of their curfew.

A worker at the One Barcelona hotel alerted police to the dumped taxi at about the same time as they got a call from the stranded cabbie.

The source added: “The four weren’t formally arrested but were identified. A report will be submitted to an investigating judge.”