Crouch Interview (Guardian)

[lishiyo]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/aug/22/peter-crouch-tottenham-interview

Peter Crouch keen to put down roots after rejoining Tottenham

After joining his 11th club in a 10-year career, Peter Crouch says he is staying put at White Hart Lane

The problem when you are 6ft 7ins, as Peter Crouch will tell you, is that it is impossible to be anonymous. Some footballers go for dark sunglasses and baseball caps but the tallest player in English football has learned that he cannot disguise himself even if he wanted to. He has had Mickey Rourke shout "hey robot boy" at him while holidaying in Miami and then there is the famous old story of the day he signed for Liverpool and was walking outside the stadium, soaking up the history, when a double-decker bus rolled past and someone leaned out of the top window. "Crouch," came the shout. "You lanky wanker."

Crouch retells these tales because he has always had the ability to laugh at himself, which probably comes in handy given that it is not so long ago opposition fans would hiss the word "freak" whenever he touched the ball. He is back at Tottenham Hotspur now, the club where his football journey started as a rake-thin YTS boy who would soon discover some of the hard lessons of the sport. Crouch was there five years and, just as he started thinking about breaking into the first team, David Pleat told him he was going on loan to Dulwich Hamlet, a team of part-timers from the Ryman Premier League. "I took the hint," he says ruefully.

His career since then has taken him from IFK Hassleholm in Sweden to Queens Park Rangers, Portsmouth, Aston Villa, Norwich City, Southampton, Liverpool, Portsmouth again and now back to Spurs. Eleven clubs in 10 years and almost the same number of house moves. Now, he says, he is done with removal vans and saying goodbye to the neighbours. "This is it now," he says. "No more moves. No more, please!"

He has, after all, joined a club that is on an upward trajectory. Spurs have won their opening two games against Liverpool and Hull City. They are enjoying the view from the top of the Premier League going into Sunday's game at West Ham and Crouch could already be forgiven for thinking his £9m move from Portsmouth has been a great career move.

"I spoke to Fulham and Sunderland too but I just felt Tottenham were the right club," he says. "I thought they had the stronger squad although I have to say, when it came to my first day in training, I didn't realise just how good everyone actually was. Honestly, there is no drop at all in the standard from when I was at Liverpool.

"We've got a lot of internationals, England internationals. Everything is sharp. Maybe we just need that belief that we can go on and have a good season. But I looked at Liverpool last Sunday and if you match our squad against theirs, especially the bench, we look pretty good. I honestly believe that if we don't break into the top four this year we're only a year or two away."

He is talking in the grounds of Ridgeway Park in Chingford, having spent a sunny afternoon playing football with children from the nearby Wellington Primary School as part of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation's summer-holiday sports programmes. It is the kind of event that some footballers find tedious but Crouch is always generous with his time, happy to pose for every photograph, fully aware of the importance that Spurs place on community work.

He is clearly excited about being back at his first club, the sense of unfinished business and the challenges of joining a bigger club. But there are glimpses of hurt, too. Crouch was part of the exodus that has left Portsmouth's supporters fearing the worst and, as one of football's good guys, he cannot disassociate himself with the mess at Fratton Park. "When I went to Portsmouth I genuinely thought we would be challenging every season because the team was brilliant, really. We had [Sulley] Muntari, [Lassana] Diarra, [Jermain] Defoe and many others. It's sad really. It's a great club with fantastic fans and what's happening there, the way the club is going, is a real shame. I hope they hang on this year and stay up. But I speak to Jamo [David James] and a couple of the other boys and it's not great. You can't let 12 to 15 players go and not replace them."

The chance to move back to Tottenham was something, though, he could not resist. He was there from the age of 14 to 19 and, though it ended badly, he still talks about those five years with affection, not least as it taught him about the brutal mickey-taking that every young pro has to be able to cope with. Like the time "Sticks" found he had been the victim of a classic football ritual during one youth tournament in Northern Ireland. "Someone had pissed in my suitcase. All my gear was covered."

A successful season at Tottenham should invigorate his chances of playing in next year's World Cup and it does not faze him that, in his mind, Spurs have "the strongest quartet of strikers [Crouch, Robbie Keane, Defoe, Roman Pavlyuchenko] any manager has to choose from in the league." He is joining a club, he says, where "the strength in depth is as good as anywhere I have played". Then there was the chance to be reunited with Harry Redknapp, who has now worked with Crouch at three different clubs.

"Harry brings out the best in me," Crouch says. "I remember when I was at Southampton, in and out of the team, and when Harry came in he said, 'I can't believe you're not playing, you and Kevin Phillips are going to be my two strikers.' He played me right away and I scored 16 goals in the second half of that season."

Redknapp has certainly shown greater faith in Crouch than any other manager throughout a playing career that, as the striker is acutely aware, has always divided opinion. "The thing is," Crouch says, "if you're over a certain height, people automatically assume you're there just to win balls in the air. But I know in myself I'm a footballer and I can play. And the manager knows it too."

The Crouch "speciality" is, after all, the flying overhead kick rather than the towering far-post header – or the old robotic dance he has now kicked into touch. "Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to score volleys. I always remember watching [Gianluca] Vialli when he was at Sampdoria and I just wanted to be like him. I don't think any kid goes in the back garden to practise headers. You only want to score spectacular goals, don't you?"

His complaint about not getting the recognition he deserves could sound like whingeing were it not patently true. He has scored 14 times in his 17 starts for England and hit the net on both times Fabio Capello has started him. Yet still there is a sense that Capello, and the English public, are unsure. "I'm very proud of what I've done for England, especially when I've started," Crouch says. "I've got a good record but maybe, for whatever reason, it's not built up by people. I wouldn't say I'm hard done by. But it's true that I sometimes don't get the praise."

The mind flashes back to Crouch's volley against Croatia at Wembley in late 2007 and what it would have meant for England had a 2-2 draw not turned into a 3-2 defeat. Crouch would conceivably have been a national hero had his goal taken England to the European Championship.

"I remember the press conference before that game and journalists saying to me: 'You can do a David Beckham and be the hero.' I still had it in the back of my mind when I was going out on the pitch. I remember scoring and actually thinking back to it, thinking 'the press boys were right'. I genuinely thought we were through and that it had all come true."

Instead, that goal has largely been forgotten. But Crouch can smile about this, too, just as he can laugh when he remembers Tottenham farming him out to Dulwich. "It was harsh. I was a young lad and I got whacked about a bit. I came away thinking: 'I really want to make it as a top player; I don't want to be playing at that level.' It's been a roundabout way of getting back. But I genuinely believe I will be at Spurs for a long time now."

Some great comments there by Crouch, I don't doubt the rumor he's the nicest footballer in England. It's a shame his England record doesn't get much recognition, I'd love to see him make the WC squad and become a hero, though I think Carlton Cole is the better option for target man atm.

I feel a bit sorry for Pompey fans, their chairman was to blame for not taking care of finances but the way they've fallen apart so quickly is pretty shocking. They had a great team two seasons ago that won the FA Cup, and now it's all been dismantled and they look certainties for relegation, with Distin and Kranjcar very likely to jump ship before the window closes.

 

[scat1620]

Another great read, along with the Harry thread, lishiyo - thanks very much for posting!

 

[raf18]

nice read. thanks for posting.

It seems it was pleat that didnt think he would make it as a footballer. Every time he commentates, he says how he tried to sign EVERY player for us. Well here is one england international you tried to shift to non-league football! Stick that in your pipe and smoke it! I dont think he is working for ITV anymore so no more shibomba at RB.

 

[punky]

Does seem a nice guy. I just hope he's happy to put up with the competition for places.

 

[speccy_spur]

3 meter Peter! :grin:

 

[PT]

It seems Carlton Cole has jumped the England queue. Crouch will need plenty of game time if he's to get on the WC plane. I just hope he does the business for us and gets the recognition from Capello as a reward.

 

[yanno]

"I spoke to Fulham and Sunderland too but I just felt Tottenham were the right club," he says. "I thought they had the stronger squad although I have to say, when it came to my first day in training, I didn't realise just how good everyone actually was. Honestly, there is no drop at all in the standard from when I was at Liverpool.

:grin:

No difference in quality, and our squad depth is better than the scousers.

Their reserve strikers are Ngog and Voronin. Ayala (no not the good Argie) is playing CB.

 

[speccy_spur]

It seems Carlton Cole has jumped the England queue. Crouch will need plenty of game time if he's to get on the WC plane. I just hope he does the business for us and gets the recognition from Capello as a reward.

I hope he is not only on the plane, but for his legs' sake he gets the exit row seat. :wink: