March 28 – Good Touch for a Big Man

HE is like a walking enigma, wrapped in a riddle, disguised as a giraffe.

Just how is it that 6ft 7in Peter Crouch has the same number of goals in an England shirt as Wayne Rooney, despite coming to the international scene two years later than the young scouser?

He looks ridiculous, his legs look like they may snap at any minute and he is the very definition of gangly, yet somehow Couchinho has a happy knack of sticking the ball in the back of the old onion bag.

It was on this day in 2002 that Crouchie got his first break into the big time when Graham Taylor gave Portsmouth £5m to take him to Aston Villa.

Although he started his career as an apprentice at Spurs it was after a move across London to QPR where Crouch started to make waves when he scored ten goals in his first season at Loftus Road. Sadly even with this contribution Rangers were relegated and Crouch was on the move again.

His new home was Fratton Park and he continued the form he had shown at QPR for Portsmouth, netting 18 times in 37 starts for the south coast club.

The big boys were now starting to sniff around young Crouchie and Graham Taylor, back for a second spell at Aston Villa, was sniffing with the most intensity (no need to picture that), and he him snapped up to spear head the attack at Villa park.

Despite scoring on his debut for the Villains Crouchie never really hit it off with the Villa fans and his cause wasn’t helped when Taylor walked out on the club and David O’Leary came in as manager.

The Irishman clearly didn’t rate him and loaned him out to Norwich before eventually flogging him to Southampton where he made a valiant, but ultimately doomed attempt to keep the club in the Premiership.

Although the Saints went down, things worked out rather better for Crouch who netted an England call up at the end of the 2004/05 season, and a move to Liverpool. Aston Villa reserve to Liverpool and England player in just one season: meet Peter Crouch the renaissance man.

When he moved to Liverpool his former manager and biggest fan Graham Taylor was quick to praise his former charge.

He said: “Everyone simply talks about his height, because he’s 6ft 7in, as if that’s all there is to him.

“But I can assure everyone he is very good technically and his touch will be as good as the other Liverpool players, there is no doubt about that.

“Look at his touch, look at his passing, look at his control, how he lays people in, how he holds off defenders, that’s the sort of player we are talking about.

“Psychologically, he would say his height hasn’t affected him but I think it used to. Now he’s learned to handle the criticism and he knows he’s a good player.”

Here is a little look at some of Crouchie’s exploits, including his famous robot dance from a few years back. Enjoy that and point your browser this way tomorrow for more from us.