Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: J P Fear 
Date:Thursday October 26 2006
Time: 10:19AM
UK time is: 01:00:12
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Villa Should Have Kept Peter Crouch
Gareth Barry has criticised David O'Leary's decision to sell Peter Crouch to Southampton.
Villa made a massive loss on the now England striker only for Southampton to sell him on at a massive profit. Lets hope those days are now behind us.
Barry told Sky:
'Was it wrong to get rid of Peter Crouch? Yes. When you look at it now, definitely. What he has gone on to achieve is something special.' Adding 'He has dropped down a level (at Southampton) and bounced back to be a top England striker. It says a great deal about his character. I always felt during Crouchy's time at Villa, when he got his chance he did pretty well for us. His goalscoring record wasn't always prolific but his size and his ability caused teams problems.'
'It was very unfortunate for us that we let him go. I remember he scored twice at Leicester when we won 5-0 and was then left out for the next game. That summed up his time with us.'
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Your Comments
I've said it before, I'll say it again, his surname is actually Smith, it is just that he grew up with his parents continually saying 'Peter, CROUCH' to stop him hitting his head that everyone took it as his name.
The Fear
'It was very unfortunate for us that we let him go. I remember he scored twice at Leicester when we won 5-0 and was then left out for the next game. That summed up his time with us.' - Exactly Gareth, what must have Peter thought when that happened to him. Very poor managerial skills.
Tierney
It's a shame he never really got his partnersip with JPA up and running coz the few times they did play together they looked very useful. Said at the time we should have kept him and I'm just dissapointed to be proved right. Another DOL masterstroke!
DeanoVilla
Shame on you Tierney for suggesting that DOL had some management skills
Hoss The Villain
we would only play hoof ball with him, liverpool dont play that exciting with him in the squad he is just a target. if you keep him quiet we got a good chance on saturday. lets look to the future and try and get a world class striker.
samtozer
DOL...what a plank! need i say more haha
industrial_musical
You should never sell a young player when his confidence is high and in his final season here, he did try very very hard and the team could have built around him. Instead he was sold and he got in someone called Carlton Cole. I thought it would haunt O'Leary and it did. He was ridiculed big style for doing it but Graham Taylor's decision to bring him to the premiership proved totally correct.
baros10
Lets be fair if someone had said in 3 years Crouch would be 1st choice striker for Liverpool and England they would have bin detained for there own good. Alas hindsight is a wonderful thing. What ever did happen to that Savo geezer?
silkie villain
Hoss, despite how bad he was turning the team, you still can't deny that DO'L had some managerial skills. Two European Semis and 7th with us in his first year. Struggled with the consistency part though!
Tierney
just one of many mistakes, lets face it he left a lot of us scratching our heads, he started well but IMHO he allowed his battle with the deadly one to drag him and thus the team, down. UTV
steff_the_villan
Tierney was the consistency of spending millions you couldnt afford his problem then?
silkie villain
Not the consistency I was talking about no. Was more what he got out of the players and results he produced over time. Yes he spent a lot, but he was allowed to do it, so fair play to him in that regard I guess.
Tierney
Tierney, are you his love child?
Gazvilla
Definetely not! I for one was very happy that we got rid of him when we did. The squad we would of had and the season we would be having this season if we'd kept him would of been disastruous! I'm just saying, that he did have some managerial skills, not thousands upon thousands, but some.
Tierney
Agree re DOL. Relegation was a cert this campaign had he stayed. Re Crouch. Thought at the time that the 2m that we got for him was a great piece of business for us. In hindsight, obviously not, but even so was Cropuch the answer for us? I think not. Both he and the club benefited from his move to Southampton.
glensider
I must admit I was wrong and DOL did have some managerial skills. He managed to offend the Villa fans, he managed to alienate players. He managed to sign players that turned out worse than what we already had and he also managed to not play them. He managed to walk from the changing rooms to the dug out each game and then managed to stay expressionless and motionless throughout the game. He managed to cash his pay check each week. He managed to hold the Club to ransom to ensure that the backroom staff he loved so much would get a big pay rise otherwise they would leave. He managed not to talk to Sid Cowan’s or Tony MacAndrews throughout his reign even though he was a so called advocate of bringing the kids on. Oh and he managed to get a very nice pay off for bringing the Club a huge amount of success. A truly successful manager.
Hoss The Villain
We desperately need a target man, no doubts on that score, but theres a lot,lot better than Crouchy out there.
glensider
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