Good article on the big fella

Montse · June 10, 2006

From humble hate figure to a nation's hero: the rise of Crouch

He used to apologise to players he had tackled but is now one of England's key men, writes Matt Scott

Saturday June 10, 2006

The Guardian

Peter Crouch could be described as half-man, half-ladder but there is far more to him than his physical appearance. Certainly Ian Holloway, who managed the England forward during his time at Queens Park Rangers, has a positive view to offer of Crouch's most striking quality.

Holloway remembers a time more than five years ago when he had just taken over at the Loftus Road home of a club whose very existence was endangered by a parlous financial state.

In administration, QPR had been relegated into what is now League One and all the young players, Crouch included, were informed that their salaries would be slashed for the season ahead. The bitter recollection still stings Holloway. "Just 13 games I had with Crouchie," he said. Clearly it had been a wrench to lose the stringy striker. "'Wrench' isn't the word for losing him. After the season had finished, David Davies, our chief executive, called me and said there was a £1.2m offer from Portsmouth for Crouchie. I said that he should turn it down, that he was worth £4m or £5m."

Davies, though, knowing the benefit of any seven-figure sum, accepted the bid. To the manager's dismay, there was no sell-on clause. "So I rang Peter and said, 'This can't go through,'" he recalled. "It kicked off with Portsmouth but I stood fast and said there would have to be a 15% sell-on. I said to Crouchie, do you think it's fair to let you go without a percentage? He said no and, in fairness to Peter, he phoned Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth himself and told him the deal would be off if they didn't agree to it."

Holloway recalls Crouch's selflessness with genuine affection: rather than view Pompey's offer as an escape route, the 20-year-old put the club's interest first. "There's not many players who would do that but that's Crouchie, he's different class," said Holloway. "He and his dad Bruce are like that: there's nothing selfish about him. The most important thing about him is that he's a real person. In this hectic world where the players are often getting paid too much, he's a bit of sanity. I told his dad that the way Crouchie had behaved himself spoke volumes about his upbringing."

So exceedingly nice is Crouch that one former team-mate tells how he lost his temper with the striker because he kept apologising to the opponents he tackled. That instinct was perhaps compounded by a lack of self-assurance that was aggravated only by spending so long on the sidelines.

"It was probably a bit difficult for him when he first came," said Dennis Rofe, the first-team coach at Southampton where Crouch joined for £2m after a period of first-team exile at David O'Leary's Aston Villa. "Paul Sturrock had bought him and he lasted two games of that season. When a manager leaves after two games you feel a bit uncertain and particularly as we had James Beattie and Kevin Phillips. Peter probably wondered if he'd made the right move or the wrong move."

Sturrock's replacement Steve Wigley was never convinced and used Crouch only as a substitute. He never saw the best of the player; Kevin Bond, who was the assistant to Wigley's successor Redknapp, instantly did. "The biggest thing was having someone put their confidence in him," said Bond. "He always had confidence in himself but, when Harry came, that was without doubt the turning point."

Redknapp knew from his time at Portsmouth what a good player he had on his hands, perhaps explaining why he had acceded so readily to Crouch's plea for a sell-on clause four years previously. "All Harry did was put him in the side, said he would stay in and told him what a good player he was," said Bond.

"Southampton were struggling like mad at the wrong end of the table; there were injuries to Kevin Phillips and James Beattie and all the while Peter Crouch was doing nothing, kicking his heels in the reserves. Harry put him in and he produced straight away, gave us the goals and the all-round play. He has a terrific touch, he brings people into the game and he has terrific awareness. We were scratching our heads how other people hadn't used him sooner."

He had scored only once in nine appearances before Redknapp's arrival but subsequently hit 15 in 24 to prove what an incisive striker he can be. But Crouch is not just a goalscorer and the selflessness off the pitch is also reflected on it.

Holloway, Rofe and Bond all agree that his ability to create space for team-mates and to pick a pass will make him a valuable asset in the World Cup. Even the fans have now come round but it was not always so, with Crouch enduring abusive chants of "freak" from away supporters at almost every Premiership ground.

His reaction, though, says much about the player's determination. "He could blank that right out of his mind," said Rofe. "Some people that sort of thing affects, but not him. In effect it might have made him a bit more determined, because it used to be away from home mainly. He knew the way to shut people up was to score goals and that's what he did."

Now Crouch has a place in every Englishman's affections, not least due to the seemingly ironic dance he enacts in celebration of his international goals, one that clearly tickles his team-mates. Indeed Holloway, who knows all about team spirit, believes Crouch is the secret to the England squad's current cohesion.

"He's a players' player," he said. "I think he's vital to us. It's all about balance up front but there's not too many target men who can do what he can do. Peter Crouch can't run like some but he's got awareness. You can use guile and he's got that. Without those skills, players won't have you. That England lot have been united by him, I'm convinced about it. That dance of his, his personality will have got them all going."

With Crouch on board maybe, just maybe, they will still be winning and dancing on July 9.

Clinky

Good luck Crouchie, you deserve it

_00_deathscar · June 10, 2006