Why Does No-One Love Peter Crouch

Peter Crouch

How is it that an international striker with 16 goals in 34 games for his country and a Premiership strike rate of one goal in under every 3 games simply keeps being moved on? Now I could understand it if the player in question was a boorish, thuggish hooligan who whines about not being treated fairly and then beats up team mates in training, attacks children in hotels and puts lit cigars out in youth players eyes.

Yet Peter Crouch comes across as a genuinely nice lad, pleasant, well spoken, always gives 100% wherever he plays and has a zero reputation for assaulting members of the British public. Crouch looks set to leave Portsmouth for a second time and seemingly has a straight choice between Fulham or re-joining Harry Redknapp for a third time at Tottenham.

With a transfer price of £12 million being already accepted form Sunderland, which Crouch has turned down due to geographical location, Crouch looks set to move for the 7th time on a permanent deal. His career has seen him sold by Spurs, QPR, Pompey, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Southampton. He’s had loan spells at Norwich City, Dulwich Hamlets and IFK Hässleholm making 9 different clubs he’s turned out for in just 9 years.

Why does no-one rely on the likeable striker? His longest spell at one club was the 3 seasons at Liverpool he spent from 2005 until 2008, even finishing as top scorer one season but deemed not as good as Andrie Voronin or David Ngog. Here’s a lad that is never late for training or has his picture taken falling out of nightclubs every night of the week. Surely something else must be going amiss?

Crouch is one of those players, in football terms anyway, who stands out simply through his physical characteristics. At 6′ 7″, he’d hardly be noticed on a basketball court, but on the pitch he’s a giant. The popular misconception about Crouch is that because he’s tall, he must be good in the air. Whilst he’s no slouch, it’s certainly not the strongest part of  his game but surely everyone knows that now don’t they?

Peter Crouch

He’s a good footballer, you don’t score over 100 goals in your career by luck, or hit a hat trick against Arsenal which was deemed as one of the perfect hat tricks * and not be skilful. Crouch can play football; he’s just a lot taller than a lot of people that also play the game. As is the current state of the world we live in, anyone who’s slightly different suffers from bad press. Now I’m not saying that Crouch is the world’s best striker, but he will always try for the team he plays for.

It seems he now faces a straight choice between two of England’s best club managers for where he wants to take his career. Does he take a risk with someone he’s never worked with before in Roy Hodgson or go with the familiar manager in Harry Redknapp. I’m a massive fan of Hodgson, he’s easily the most under rated manager in the Premiership by some distance but Redknapp may have the upper hand here. Some Spurs fans think he’s garbage and shouldn’t be brought back to Tottenham. That’s the problem with being a Spurs supporter; we’ve too many fans who still think it’s 1962 or 1984.Crouch would be a great signing. No arguement.

Anyone who thinks Peter Crouch isn’t good enough for Tottenham needs to take a reality check. These are the same fans that never gave Darren Bent a chance and if he chooses Fulham over Spurs then it’s Tottenham’s loss.  Personally I’d love to see him back at White Hart Lane and if he goes to Fulham then they have a player that will always give his all.

* A perfect hat trick is deemed to be one when a player scores one with his left foot, one with the right foot and with a header.

Posted in: Football