Peter Crouch’s time at Liverpool ended sooner than he would have liked and it was all because of one player who formed a connection with Steven Gerrard.
It was truly an honour for Peter Crouch to make the move to Liverpool in 2005. The giant centre forward had just finished bottom of the Premier League with Southampton, yet was able to join the club who had just been crowned as the champions of Europe.
Crouch made 64 top flight appearances during his first two seasons at Liverpool, but he would go on to only make 21 in his third campaign at the club.
This was due to the arrival of Fernando Torres from Ateltico Madrid. The Spanish striker was instantly a hit at Liverpool and scored 33 goals in 46 appearances across all competitions.
Crouch told The Managers podcast: “Three and a half I think [the length of time he was at Liverpool]. Yeah it was Torres that put paid to that, unfortunately. He came in and hit it off with Stevie and it was like watching my old girlfriend.”
Torres was a level above Crouch with his goalscoring ability and his arrival was the beginning of the end for the Englishman at Anfield.
However, Torres departed for Chelsea three years after Crouch joined Portsmouth, which has left the footballer-turned-pundit wondering if he made the right decision to leave Liverpool.
“He [Torres] came in and I was just like, something that does wrangle with me I suppose over the years was that he ended up leaving and I watched players that were playing up front there, [Andriy] Voronin and [David] Ngog, no disrespect to them, but I felt that I was better than them.”
Crouch went on to appear in every Premier League fixture Portsmouth played the season after he departed Liverpool. The striker then joined Tottenham Hotspur, where he continued to be an important player.
However, he has named Liverpool as the biggest club he has ever played for and had he stayed, perhaps he would have made his way back into the first-team.
He added: “And I felt maybe if I had stayed, I could have had a longer career at the club because I don’t feel that I kind of ever went to a bigger club than Liverpool.”
Torres too might have some regrets about leaving the Reds. He did have success at Chelsea, even winning the Champions League in 2012.
However, it was not the best move for Torres on a personal level, as he only netted 45 times in 172 appearances.
