Posts Tagged ‘Crouch’
Peter Crouch concerned over Capello reaction to his nightclub antics
• It won’t happen again, claims Tottenham striker
• Fabio Capello yet to raise subject with Crouch
Peter Crouch has said he was concerned as to how England’s manager Fabio Capello would react to seeing photographs of him looking dishevelled in a London nightclub last month. The striker has admitted there can be no repeat of the incident in the build-up to the World Cup finals.
Crouch was pictured on the dance floor at Movida nightclub in the West End alongside his club-mate Jonathan Woodgate in the small hours of the morning, and also with his head poking through the sun roof of a people carrier en route from the venue. His club manager, Harry Redknapp, called Crouch “an idiot” in talks at the Spurs training ground, though the Italian – renowned as a disciplinarian – has not revisited the issue with the 28-year‑old.
Asked whether he was worried what the England manager’s reaction might have been on seeing the photographs, Crouch admitted: “Yes, of course. He’s not said anything to me. Harry said: ‘You’re an idiot, move on.’ Quite straightforward. I don’t know what [Capello] would think. It was eight days before the next [Spurs] game, though. I’m human, but it won’t happen again.
“Harry was all right with it – we were going out with all the lads, as a team. It probably escalated a bit more than I would have planned. After a game [Spurs had won at Portsmouth on the day] you want to relax and unwind. If you don’t have a game until the following weekend, you can go out and relax. It can’t be football, football, football.
“Nothing like that would happen if there was a midweek game. But with this being a World Cup year, we want to be as focused as we possibly can and concentrate on football matters. I’ve not covered myself in glory but I haven’t killed anyone. Although sometimes I feel like I have …”
That was said with a smile, though there remains a wariness as to how Capello might react to such incidents. The Italian has imposed a strict code of discipline during England get-togethers and has made no secret of the fact that a player’s conduct off the field will also influence his chances of a call-up.
Crouch, a forward with 18 goals in 35 appearances and two in the recent 3-0 win over Belarus, admitted he has yet to be singled out for praise by Capello.
In the absence of the injured Emile Heskey, however, the Spurs striker is expected to start Saturday’s friendly against Brazil in Qatar. “He hasn’t given too much away to me,” he said. “But I do think I have more a case [for inclusion] now than I did at the start of the season, coming off the back of the Belarus game and scoring in my previous start before that.”
He has recognised Capello’s recently stated distaste of players diving, an issue highlighted on Monday by David Ngog’s tumble at Anfield to win Liverpool a penalty and a 2-2 draw with Birmingham City. “I saw [Capello] had said he wouldn’t be happy, and I’ve taken that on board,” Crouch said. “It’s a difficult balance, though. If the tackle comes in and [Ngog] stays on his feet, doesn’t get the penalty and the team lose … I’m not saying you should cheat, but it’s the difference between winning or losing a game sometimes.
“In a World Cup, if someone took a dive and we ended up going through, would the nation be slaughtering him? No one wants to see that [diving]. No one wants to see players cheat to win games, but who’s saying Ngog cheated? He might have been trying to jump over the tackle. Only he knows that.”
Crouch, sold by Liverpool to Portsmouth in 2008, has watched the Anfield club’s season unravel from afar. “I do look at it and they are slightly short up front, even if they do still have good players to come in when [Fernando] Torres is injured,” he added. “But I’ve moved on. I do care about what’s happening there. I had the best years of my career there, and I’d love to see them win the league.”
Liverpool’s right-back Glen Johnson has withdrawn from the England squad after he sustained a slight recurrence of a calf injury against Birmingham. His absence leaves Capello with only one recognised right-back in Wes Brown.
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Video: Peter Crouch hits the heights as England finish World Cup qualifying campaign in style
England forward Peter Crouch hopes his two goals in the 3-0 win over Belarus will have given manager Fabio Capello some food for thought ahead of the World Cup finals
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David Beckham says Milan move ‘close’ after being England man of the match
• Midfielder’s award ‘like Obama winning Nobel prize’
• Says San Siro return is ‘95% done, very close’
David Beckham has revealed he is “95% certain” of joining Milan in January, as he seeks regular football in an elite league in order to cement a place in England’s World Cup squad, having made an impressive cameo in the victory over Belarus.
Beckham hit the post, provided some tidy passes and played a part in England’s second and third goals but he was still a surprise selection as the official man of the match. Fabio Capello likened the midfielder winning that award having played for 32 minutes to President Barack Obama last week winning the Nobel Peace Prize after only eight months in office.
The former England captain reacted with amazement when told of the decision made by a former team-mate at Manchester United, Steve Bruce, who was working as a television pundit at the game. Gareth Barry and Peter Crouch could feel aggrieved, but Beckham had provided a timely reminder of his enduring quality.
Milan have reiterated their intention to re-sign the 34-year-old on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy in mid-season, despite financial worries at San Siro. Such a move would bolster Beckham’s chances of gaining selection for a sixth appearance at a major finals.
“That move to Milan is close,” said Beckham. “I’ve always said I want to go back there if they want me, and Milan are still saying they do. It’s 95% done, very close, so I can’t see it not happening now. As for the man of the match, I don’t know how I got that. Thanks, Brucie.”
Capello was just as taken aback by Bruce’s choice, though he welcomed the prospect of Beckham playing in Serie A. “Yes I was a bit surprised,” said the England head coach. “I just thought it was like Obama getting the Nobel Peace Prize after eight months as President of the United States. He gets the man of the match after 30 minutes here …
“That move to Milan is important because he will play there. What impresses me about Beckham is that whether he comes on for 20 minutes, 50 minutes, half an hour or at half-time, he plays well and is always focused. Some players have problems when they come on as substitutes. Beckham always plays well, though.”
Bruce said that Beckham had made “the biggest impact on the game” and had “lifted the occasion”. The Sunderland manager said: “You can’t deny his range of passing. It’s great for him that he can still make an impact.”
The contributions of Barry and Crouch, who has now scored 18 goals in 35 appearances for his country, were rather overshadowed. Bruce added, albeit as a joke: “I couldn’t give the man of the match to Crouchie. He turned me down in the summer …”
More troubling for the Tottenham Hotspur striker, however, was Capello’s rather noncommittal assessment of his two-goal display. “I know very well Peter Crouch, and I know the other players very well,” the Italian said. “He’s one part of the squad. I know his statistics. I have a style I want to play in certain games and I know the players who will be on the pitch. I know very well Peter Crouch. He scores a lot of goals.”
Crouch admitted that he does not expect to start next month’s match against Brazil in Qatar, despite having scored in all three of the competitive games he has started under Capello. “I don’t expect to start the next game,” he said. “That’s up to the manager. Whenever I come in I feel I do a job and don’t let anyone down. Hopefully I’ll get a game.”
Only 12 of the 32 previously picked players who had been invited to attend despite not being involved in this squad were watching on from a box at Wembley as the current team secured a comfortable win. “This was an important night,” added Beckham, who flung his No17 shirt into the crowd at the end as England’s players conducted their lap of honour. “We wanted to finish the campaign well.
“The lads who have played in this squad have had some great games and some exceptional performances, so this was a chance to end on a high. We all have to prove that we want to be in the squad and in the team for every game, for every qualifier and every friendly. Every one of these players is so hungry and we want to be out there.”
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Crouch – Pompey helped England chances
England striker Peter Crouch has no regrets over his move to Portsmouth last summer after Fabio Capello told him to get regular first-team football.
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Portsmouth move was right decision, says Peter Crouch
• Striker played in every league game this season
• Player hopeful of retaining England starting place
Peter Crouch believes the risk he took leaving Liverpool for Portsmouth last summer in search of regular first-team football has paid off despite a difficult first season back at Fratton Park, with the striker hopeful of retaining the England starting place he won in April for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Andorra.
The forward swapped a bit-part role at a club competing at the top of the division and in the Champions League for a relegation scrap on the south coast, a move he suggested even the national coach, Fabio Capello, had queried. Yet he started every Premier League game for Portsmouth – scoring 11 goals en route – and, having been previously restricted to a peripheral role in Capello’s England set-up, he benefited from injuries to Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole to start and score in the victory over Ukraine. Life at Pompey is similarly on the up following Sulaiman Al-Fahim’s proposed takeover of the club.
“At Liverpool, we were playing more high-profile games in the Champions League, sure,” said Crouch. “When I was there I felt I’d get half the number of games I’ve played this year, even though they were quite often big games. But I feel I made the right choice going to Portsmouth because I’ve played every Premier League game this year.
“Obviously we’ve not done as well as I thought and we’ve lost a lot of players but I’ve enjoyed it. Fabio Capello would rather I was at a high-profile club and playing every week but, to be fair, that wasn’t going to happen. I had to make a difficult decision last summer. But he did tell me I needed to be playing every week, that’s what I’m doing now.
“As it is, things are changing at Portsmouth every day and it’s exciting. You hear [Al-Fahim] has a great deal of money, the man who’s coming in, and a lot of ambition and you hope he pushes the club forward. Time will tell what it means for me. I don’t know how official it is yet but you see the changes that have happened at Manchester City and at Chelsea some time ago, and they certainly benefited those clubs. I hope our club can go the same way. I am looking forward to being a part of that.”
There had been suggestions that Crouch might leave Fratton Park as part of a cost-cutting measure while Alexandre Gaydamak sought a buyer for the club, with Sunderland mooted as his most likely destination, though the emergence of Al-Fahim’s interest has put talk of a fire-sale on hold. The prospective new owner is contemplating a managerial appointment at the club, with the former Internazionale coach Roberto Mancini now considered a more likely candidate than Sven-Goran Eriksson, and it appears players will be joining rather than leaving Fratton Park should the takeover be completed.
Crouch has welcomed the change in mood. The 28-year-old returns to the international scene with relish, despite the fact that many of his club-mates have already departed on their summer holidays, having led the line as a lone striker since Jermain Defoe’s sale to Tottenham Hotspur in January. That has been a thankless task at times, with the forward looking forward to benefiting from the creative talents within Capello’s squad.
“It’s been difficult,” admitted Crouch, having played his part in Pompey securing their top-flight status with two games of the season to go. “The management at Portsmouth said they knew it would be hard and I sacrificed myself playing on my own up front. The threeclosest midfielders to me were defensively minded, too, so there wasn’t much support. That’s why it’s nice to play with England and having the support from midfield with the fantastic players we have.
“It’s quite obvious that the manager here now likes playing the one up front. In fact, most of our world-class players like playing behind [a lone striker] so you have to adapt the system around that. But it’s fair to say that the strikers in the squad wish he’d play two up so we’d stand more chance of getting into the team.
“I’d like to think I’ve staked my claim to be involved in these qualifiers. I know I played because of injuries to others, and I might not have played had everyone else been fit, but I’d hope I did enough to warrant a start.”
Capello’s squad are due to fly to Almaty tomorrow and will train together again today at London Colney. Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand were the only absentees from yesterday’s session, with the full-back having suffered a knock in Saturday’s FA Cup final and the centre-half resting the calf muscle problem that had briefly threatened his participation in the Champions League final. Both are expected to recover in time to feature against Kazakhstan on Saturday.
