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Villa Made Huge Mistake With Crouch

Vital Villa asked what Villa fans thought of Peter Crouch now he has become a Liverpool and England striker. Villa bought Crouch from Portsmouth for over £6million during Graham Taylor's second stint as manager but he was sold at a huge loss to Southampton (£2m) when David O'Leary joined 3 seasons ago (is it really only 3 seasons? Seems soooo much longer!).

34% were clever so-and-so's who said we should have kept him and I said so.
18%, including me, said in hindsight we should have kept him.
19% voted for the option '£2m? What were you thinking O'Leary?

Just 1% said he is a great striker and 4% said he is an average striker. (Might ask that again after the World Cup depending on how well he does for us!)

Just 24% felt Villa were right to sell him.

They might have been right to sell him but not to have a sell on clause so we got a percentage of the £7million fee that Liverpool paid Southampton was total negligence and if the fans are shareholders had more about them, should have led to strong calls for the board to resign for costing the club even more than the £4million original loss we made on him.

Our current poll is asking is Peter Crouch the coolest dancer on the planet? No, not really, it relates to old Dougy boy.

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Writer: J P Fear

Date:Tuesday June 6 2006

Time: 10:37AM

Your Comments

Sorry to dipute your facts here Mr Fear but if my memory serves me correctly we actually paid around £4 million for Crouch, not £6 million. Still a massive loss for a player at the club for just 1 season - a ridiculous loss. I was one of the voters for "£2 millioon, what were you thinking O'Leary?"

Villain Of The North

Peter Crouch needs to be played in a certain way. And there is no doubt that he has developed dramatically while at Anfield. If Owen returns to Liverpool next season, they could have a decent crack at the league.

NeilBaker

I've just checked my facts. According to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia Villa paid £5 million for Crouch, so we were both wrong by a million, but whats at million between freineds? ;-)

Villain Of The North

And we will continue to make major mistakes while we have the clowns we have making the decissions

irish villa

Wikipedia is added too by users, so they might be wrong! Anyway, when have I let facts get in the way of a good story? I know the press reports at the time were saying £6m anyway, maybe that was including add ons (like the cost of the extra material needed for his shorts?)

The Fear

Crouchy was rubbish at Pompey. We thought that we were paying %mill to you for taking him off our hands. It was only under Lord Redknapp he started to become a player

elsparkster

So were Villa wrong to sell Milosevic as well? ;)

GaztonVilla

Strange to say that he was rubbish at Pompey, according to our good freinds at Wikipedia again, that is where he had his best goals to games ratio (except for england where he is currently 5 goals for 7 games - not bad that). His overall play may have improved but as we are told time and again by O'Cocksitup, the measure of a striker is how many goals he scores.

Villain Of The North

u did the right thing to sell him, he wasent that good back then, u couldnt wait for hik to improve

green giant 12

As a Pompey fan who saw Crouch play regularly for Pompey all those years back I can firmly say he was a big hit in his only season with us in the championship. He played for a struggling team that escaped relegation by the skin of their teeth, yet managed to score close to 20 goals!! Already back then you could see he had alot more to his game than his height, in fact he was often (and still is to some degree) disappointing with his head. I also believe the transfer was between the 5 - 6 Million mark, it was set to rise to £6 Million based on some added clauses, I suspect they were never met as he didn't play many games for you or score many goals. Just don't think he was given enough of a chance at Villa.

scolari1984

same with allback hes playing well now, vp is a graveyard for even the best striker, even henry would struggle to score. We havent had a 20 league goal a season striker for about 24 years

son_of_cher

WRONG TO SELL CROUCH / SAVO AND ID EVEN GO AS FAR AS BOSKO.ESPECIALLY FOR THE FINANCIAL RETURN WE GOT. 13.5 MILL PAID OUT AND AROUND 4 MILL RECIEVED ... GREAT BUSINESS ? NOT

JASON

Yes Villa was right to sell him. If they hadn't he would not be in the England squad. You also need to pass the ball to Crouch and work around him and with him. This is something currently beyond Aston Villa. Your club is unfortunately relying on kicking the ball into the corner of the pitch and hoping one of your blind striker’s runs with the ball in the right direction. I prey that your plight eases over the next few seasons; however, this article is fairly typical of the average Aston Villa fans mentality. If Vassel scores a hatrick next season you'll probably ask for someone’s resignation and blame the horrendous form down to that particular sale. Crouch gets golden boots at the world cup and before you know it there’s 100,000 Villa fans tearing up their season ticket and tattooing “Ellis Out” in their forehead. Can't villa fans be positive? Can't you stop moaning? Enjoy the fact that you have a football club in the premiership. This talk of Boycotting games at Villa Park is pitiably weak, carry on with this outlook and you’ll be looking at a club in the conference. Ok voice your opinions and be proactive but don’t make the situation worse.

Cpt. Mainwaring

You stupid boy :-)

Beovilla

I humbly suggest a lot of the 34% who claim to have said at the time we should have kept Crouch are liars.

Steve W

As others have mentioned, why are we always harping on about "what might have been?" The fact is that Crouch did not do the business at Villa. His confidence was low and DOL did him a favour by loaning him out (2 goals in 11 games at Norwich) and then selling him, rather than letting him rot in our reserves. Redknapp didn't play him at Soton UNTIL Phillips and Camara got injured, then he had a hot spell and his confidence came flooding back. The bottom line is that if he was still at Villa Park he would not be a regular and his career would be at a standstill. He has improved (with his confidence raised) over the past year or so. Remember his first three months at Liverpool? No goals! Finally, the most recent hype is based on the fact that he scored three against Jamaica - let's not get carried away here.

gmvillan

Agreed, at VP Crouch looked out of his depth, a Championship quality striker at best. At the time of his sale to Southampton I think that most supporters were very relieved that we were able to get 2m for him. His early days at St.Mary's could hardly be deemed a success either, and for a time it looked as though he would struggle there also. All credit to him for turning his career around so dramatically, but the time was right for him to move on from B6, and while in hindsight its easy to say we gave him away, his performances and goals for ratio in the claret and blue prove otherwise. Out of interest son_of_cher, where is Marcus Allback plying his trade nowadays? Your comment that he's doing well, I find interesting.

glensider

Allback is at FC Copenhagen. Doing well, but not exactly the hardest league in the world.

Beovilla

I actually quite liked Allback, maybe not a world beater but too good for the Danish league which is a very similar standard to the one here in Norway where average players like Robbie Winter are hailed as the best in the country. Allback always gave his best for Villa, which is more than can be said of some players, and in his last few games was really playing for his future and scored a few goals (which is again, more than can be said of some players). Back on topic - Crouch is VP history so lets just claim some of the credit for aiding his developement (well we have to get something positive out of the deal ;-p) and forget about him, the same with Vassel and the many other under achievers we have had over the years (do you think the under achieving has anything to do with the club's ambitions and the leadership from above.....I wonder....)

Villain Of The North

if we get millner he would supply a lot of chances for a good striker.

south coast villain

If my memory is right Crouch scored a hatrick at Leicester , then Dol dropped him, and didnt play him again.

Erod

Does anyone remember the Spurs game a few seasons ago? It was the first game of the season. At White heart lane. Crouch got so many chances he could have had two hat tricks but they all came to his head. I'll never forgive him for that day.

ooahPaulMcGrath

Crouchy's goals tally speaks for itself whilst he was at Pompey. Now with Liverpool and England he is being played to his strengths, and looks like he will be a success in Germany

bluepompeyjohn

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