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Crouch retires

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I remember him explaining his move away on his podcast. Basically he wanted to play more and we had the super human version of Torres. No way he’d get ahead of him.

Then a matter of months later we were left with Veronin.

I know, just weird that we even agreed to sign Voronin in the first place.
Crouch would have gotten more than enough games as Torres back up.
 
He’s gutted looking back but it was the right choice at that moment in time.
 
I almost always say "Alright mate" cos I'm convinced I know them from somewhere, before instantly realising that no, you don't him, that's Sami Hyypia, you complete bellend.

TBF they usually just say hello back politely.

Me & @Piedro saw John Barnes pre match once & said hello. I don't get people who just stand & start having a full on conversation with them, although when you go the corporate ones where a legend does a speech you often end up having a chat if they 'work the room' afterwards, which is sound.

You’re lucky Barnes didn’t start talking back - you’d have be there for about 3 hours hearing his life story.

Barnes, Fowler, McManaman & David James are all pretty sound - Hamann too when he’s not hung over.
 
He was shite on the wing.

Had to run through plenty of that playing fullback on local amateur pitches in my 11-a-side days.

As for Crouchy, he was a better player than he was often given credit for. Now he's retired at 37, made for life, with Abby Clancy to come home to (that's if he ever leaves the house in the first place) and I don't begrudge him any of it. Peter Crouch YNWA.
 
Nope. I've seen him chatting to people after the match when it was the old main stand and my mate had tickets in that lounge next to the European Cup, but I don't approach footy players, even sound ones like Crouch. What are you meant to say?

I am like this, and was even as a kid. It's partly shyness and partly because I fucking hate showing deference, or nerves or admiration or anything similar to people who are used to it and expect it (and in some cases even deserve it)

Plus there's the whole 'what are you meant to say' thing, which is cringe as Woland pointed out. They don't need another platitude or 'I think you're great' comment, and imagine actually queuing up in order to say that?

And fuck autographs too. Worthless.
 
Some autographs are hardly worthless. Some idiots pay good money for that shit.
 
Yeah fair play. He is/was a cracking player. One that seemingly was smart, articulate and very funny. He'll go far in the punditry world. He's tailor made for it. I'd called Crouch a 'legend' for LFC.
 
Nice enough guy and had some memorable moments, sure, but was never good enough to lead the line for us and all in all was frustrating to watch.
 
I am like this, and was even as a kid. It's partly shyness and partly because I fucking hate showing deference, or nerves or admiration or anything similar to people who are used to it and expect it (and in some cases even deserve it)

Plus there's the whole 'what are you meant to say' thing, which is cringe as Woland pointed out. They don't need another platitude or 'I think you're great' comment, and imagine actually queuing up in order to say that?

And fuck autographs too. Worthless.

I’ve never understood the autograph thing at all.

A photo with your hero or idol I get.
 
I loved Crouchy to an extent, but my frustration was with the rest of the team when he played. They almost always started lumping the ball to him. And he was not very good at fighting for the high balls, with his arms all over the defender’s shoulders and giving fouls away. We’d have seen a better player had we played it on the ground and let him work his way into the game.
 
I am like this, and was even as a kid. It's partly shyness and partly because I fucking hate showing deference, or nerves or admiration or anything similar to people who are used to it and expect it (and in some cases even deserve it)

Plus there's the whole 'what are you meant to say' thing, which is cringe as Woland pointed out. They don't need another platitude or 'I think you're great' comment, and imagine actually queuing up in order to say that?

And fuck autographs too. Worthless.

A friend of mine who has absolutely no clue about football once incidentally shared a table in a Viennese coffee house with Michael Konsel, the former Austria goalkeeper who played for Roma at that time. He had no idea who he was and started a friendly conversation just like with anybody.

Konsel first thought he's taking the piss until he realized the fucker really had no clue. My friend chatted to him for about 15 minutes and began to smell the coffee when the conversation turned to their occupation. When Konsel mentioned that he plays football, he first thought it was his hobby and asked him if he plays with his friends or in a club! But then people started to ask Konsel for autographs and the penny finally dropped.

We met him as soon as they parted company and Konsel shook his hand and thanked him for the nice talk, which he really seemed to have enjoyed.
 
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A friend of mine who has absolutely no clue about football once incidentally shared a table in a Viennese coffee house with Michael Konsel, the former Austria goalkeeper who played for Roma at that time. He had no idea who he was and started a friendly conversation just like with anybody.

Konsel first thought he's taking the piss until he realized the fucker really had no clue. My friend chatted to him for about 15 minutes and began to smell the coffee when the conversation turned to their occupation. When Konsel mentioned that he plays football, he first thought it was his hobby and asked him if he plays with his friends or in a club! But then people started to ask Konsel for autographs and the penny finally dropped.

We met him as soon as they parted company and Konsel shook his hand and thanked him for the nice talk, which he really seemed to have enjoyed.
Boss story
 
My mum used to walk the dogs with Daniel Agger around Calderstones park without having any idea who he was. She thought he was a foreign student, but told her he owned a few bars and restaurants over here. I think it was months before she found out who he was.
 
A friend of mine who has absolutely no clue about football once incidentally shared a table in a Viennese coffee house with Michael Konsel, the former Austria goalkeeper who played for Roma at that time. He had no idea who he was and started a friendly conversation just like with anybody.

Konsel first thought he's taking the piss until he realized the fucker really had no clue. My friend chatted to him for about 15 minutes and began to smell the coffee when the conversation turned to their occupation. When Konsel mentioned that he plays football, he first thought it was his hobby and asked him if he plays with his friends or in a club! But then people started to ask Konsel for autographs and the penny finally dropped.

We met him as soon as they parted company and Konsel shook his hand and thanked him for the nice talk, which he really seemed to have enjoyed.

It's been too many years since I last visited those coffeehouses and stuffed my face with cake and lashings of whipped cream washed down with the actual coffee. Slurp.

When I was a student we had one guy in our college who played for the university first team. Many in the college football club used to fawn all over him, but he was actually a really quiet, modest bloke who was embarrassed by all that. He much preferred this kind of quiet chat with those of us who weren't even college first-teamers but simply enjoyed the game and the socialising without all the preening. Always like to hear about sportsmen/women who can't be doing with the showing-off..
 
I think we all remember the time Rafa stuck him out on the left wit that useless cunt voronin on the other side.

Shudders
 
The only cunt I’ve actually ever fawned over is Daniel Sturridge, it was when he was at his peak for us, and I was living in LA, he was in the Nike shop in Beverly Hills getting his free gear. I wandered round the shop whilst he was on his phone for half an hour before actually speaking to him, I literally didn’t have a clue what to say so I was just like “Daniel Sturridge?” then just told him I was a fan and had a chat about America etc
 
I loved Crouchy to an extent, but my frustration was with the rest of the team when he played. They almost always started lumping the ball to him. And he was not very good at fighting for the high balls, with his arms all over the defender’s shoulders and giving fouls away. We’d have seen a better player had we played it on the ground and let him work his way into the game.

Yes, I was frustrated by this too – and when Crouch left it it happened again with Andy Carroll, then with Benteke. Big strikers like this can use their frame to protect the ball and lay it off to onrushing teammates – this can be super effective, use it! Instead too many players resort to lumping it in the general direction of a "target" man, as if they can magically make a high ball stick to them. 9 times out of 10 it leads to loss of possession, but somehow because a target man had a theoretical chance to win that header, it's his fault and not the passer's.
 
I recall Carragher was more guilty of hoofing the ball towards Crouch than anyone else. But while it remained an option I think it was used much less once the novelty of having such a huge target wore off. I also think Crouch's holding play was a massive contributing factor to one of Gerrard's most productive seasons. The thing that used to confuse me was the number of times Crouch was subbed off and Pennant was brought on ... There was a point when Pennant was putting more crosses into the opposition's area than any other winger, but for some weird reason it SEEMED that Pennant and Crouch were hardly on the pitch at the same time.
 
Carra did that especially frequently at RB, where his "distribution" consisted of lumping the ball forward every. Single. Time. His use of the ball was light years better when he played LB and had to think more about what he was doing. More often than not it wasn't a problem at CB either because there he'd just give the ball to the midfield and let them get on with it.
 
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