In what could well be the best bit of news Spurs fans hear all summer, The Sun, in it's infinite wisdom, are today reporting that Pompey have signed Liverpool's Peter Crouch for £10m. The word is that the lanky target man will pen a 4 year deal - as soon as they can find a table tall enough for him to lean on.Taking £20m in cold hard cash for Robert Keane is one thing, but a deal for half (or less) that amount with Crouchie as a makeweight would have had me crying into my beer wondering why Tottenham had undone all their good closed season work in one disaster-deal.
Now, if I am being 100% fair I do concede that The Beanpole does get a bit of a tough rap when it comes to his reputation. He's not a bad player, well he's better than me anyway. Fans will point to his record of 14 goals in 28 international appearances as proof that he is world class (even though they conveniently forget that this includes 4 against Caribbean opposition and strikes against other footballing powerhouses such as Andorra, Macedonia, Hungary and Estonia).
Although mostly a bench warmer for the Scousers, he has popped up with the occasional goal, and the cliched moniker of "quick feet for a big man" seems to have been invented for him. He does have an eye for a pass sometimes, and is decent in the air (obviously) but I think that's where the praise ends - unless you include his robot dancing, which in this writers opinion could have been one of the greatest signature goal celebrations in history if he had persevered with it.
Apart from his obvious lack of pace there is one crucial reason why having Peter Crouch in your team is a bad idea, and that is due to it being an easy option to suddenly resort to the long ball when things aren't going so well. Dawson already believes he is capable of 60 yard Hoddle-esque clearances and having someone 10ft tall to aim at would only encourage him. I for one don't want to watch that for the last 20 minutes of every game for the next 4 years.
So all in all this is a good news day. I very much doubt that Keano will be allowed to go to Liverpool, but at least now we can rest easy in the knowledge that if the unthinkable does happen, it will not result in a double slap in the face.
9 comments:
Good article and fair points - not a bad player but no replacement for any of our current strikers.
As for Dawson, he actually can play 60 yard passes and has created some wonderful chances on occassion, but he tries too often - I would argue this is from a lack of leadership at the back as much as anything else.
No Crouch, yes top defender and central mid general.
couldn't agree more.last thing we need is long ball.lets put in an offer of £16m + chimbo for Villa!
Phew!!! I'm glad that particular saga is over.
What concerned me most of all is that Ramos was reported to be quite interested in him, that can't be true, can it?
Agree, now if only that annoying Anton Ferdinand rumour went the same way, we could start looking forward to the new season.
Good article.
Maybe it was a smokescreen for Pavelychenko, thinking we need a target man to replace Berbs, but one with pace and skill.
Crouch isn't even strong in the air like Sir Les, or Chimbonda.
Glad to see that crouchie is not comming to spurs but defoe and he could be a very good partnership
This whole Keane to Liverpool saga, along with the Crouch rumours, have been completely unsubstantiated. I have not heard or read one quote from Crouch/ Keane/ Benitez/ Poyet etc. about this. In fact all I've read was a quote from Poyet saying the opposite.
Having said all that - yes, was delighted when I read this news!
agree! i hate crouch. totaly awefull player!
Good for Crutch, good for pompey. good for spurs. And Keane and Berbs are going nowhere.
Fudgie
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