Liverpool are in talks with Peter Crouch over a new deal at Anfield.

[Bender]

Liverpool are in talks with Peter Crouch over a new deal at Anfield.

Crouch's future at Liverpool has been the subject of intense speculation for some time as the player has struggled to hold down a regular place in Rafa Benitez's side.

The likes of Manchester City and Portsmouth have been linked with the England international, but Liverpool are ready to end speculation over Crouch's future by tying him down to a new long-term contract.

Benitez says talks with Crouch are ongoing and that the player has expressed a desire to remain at the club.

"We have been talking about a new contract with Crouch and the player has told me that he wants to stay," said Benítez.

"The agent was talking to Rick Parry and said that the player wanted to talk."

[bigfooty]

If Kuyt goes at the end of this season, with Voronin perhaps, then I'd be happy to go with Crouch, Torres and a new quality striker as our 3 main front men.

[AFII]

So nothing will really happen in the next few months.

[JPK]

If true then only Voronin will leave out of the strike force this summer.
Kuyt is Rafa's favourite and I dont think he will sell him.
Cant say I will be happy if he signs.He misses far too many chances and I was hoping he would be in the clearout this summer.

[AFII]

Peter Crouch feels at home in big games for England
PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool star laps up the big-time Crouch savours high life after 'growing up' in a Swedish ghetto Bolton v Liverpool, tomorrow, kick-off 1.30pm
David Maddock 1/03/2008

Since the 2004/05 season, Bolton have won as many home games against the Big Four as they have lost

With one of the best goalscoring ratios in England history, you would expect Peter Crouch to be fazed by nothing.

He is an established international player and a vital member of the Liverpool squad. After four years at the top of his profession, he has been in the thick of things in the Champions League, the World Cup and crunch Premier League matches.

But when the Anfield forward paused to reflect at the end of a breathless European encounter with Inter Milan last week, he could not resist the merest hint of a smile in acknowledgement of how crazy it is that he is part of such a remarkable story.

"Don't get me wrong, I feel I belong where I am, I feel at home playing for England and playing the biggest games in the Champions League," he explained.

"When I am training with all these top players for Liverpool and England, I don't feel out of place. I feel part of it and worthy of being there. But at the same time I know it's been a long road for me to get to where I am and I'll never, ever forget that.

"Players like Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, they were always going to make it from the youngest age. Their careers were almost mapped out for them as soon as they started playing.

"Their talent was obvious and it must come as second nature for them to play in the biggest games. But for me it has never been quite so easy.

"I loved it out there against Inter, I really did, every single second. I love those nights, that emotion of European football. But I remember too that when I was younger I was playing a different kind of European football."

Crouch is referring to his spell with Swedish part-time side IFK Hasselholm.

He joined on loan from Tottenham when he was still an impressionable teenager, albeit a rather imposing one. Not for him the pampered lifestyle of the young football star, the potential England player who is revered and exalted at every step.

Crouch had to wash his own kit, cook his own meals and find his own way to Sweden to chisel out an existence with a bunch of other young hopefuls on a housing estate the locals called 'The Ghetto'.

"Being Sweden it wasn't too bad, I don't suppose it was the same notion of a ghetto that we had in South West London. But when I went to Hasselholm the players asked me where I was staying and when I told them they were shocked.

It was pretty rough and it was a pretty tough standard of football too, very physical for a young lad who was still trying to catch up with myself and my growing rate. But I loved it, I had a fantastic time out there.

"I was at Dulwich Hamlet too around that time in the Isthmian League and it was a million miles away from the lifestyle Premier League footballers have these days.

"In Sweden, a bunch of us used to live in digs in the 'ghetto', go out together, learn together, laugh together and I reckon it taught me a lot." These days he is one of the most recognisable faces in the Premier League and one of England's most popular players, a fact confirmed with his use by big companies such as EA Sports in their advertising campaigns.

He sits in a hotel room happily promoting their latest release, FIFA Street 3. His picture is plastered over the front of the game alongside Ronaldinho and Rooney, and the former QPR, Portsmouth, Aston Villa and Southampton man smiles about how he arrived at such an exalted position.

"I think where I came from helped me. I'm not knocking those players who were always going to be big stars but I think I can keep my feet on the ground and appreciate what I have because of those days in Sweden and Dulwich," he explained.

"There's no doubt it helped me so much to develop my career, both physically and emotionally. I am a better person and a better player for it. It toughened me up mentally, but also gave me a good perspective.

"It makes me appreciate what I have. I had a long hard road to get where I am.

"But I want to keep going, I want to win the Champions League this year, I want to break England scoring records. I want to continue that journey and I know I will."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...9520-20336015/

[carlton]

Hmmm there's quite a bit of activity going on isnt there? Mascher, Crouch, Rafa saying he's told Gerrard some of his summer transfer plans. Hicks is up to something?

[PaulLinehan]

i reckon that we could tie down crouch simply to get a better fee for him....

at the end of the day, we dont want him to go for cheap with not long left on his contract

[Shaggy]

Good. Hope he stays.

[tomasjj]

Sign it Peter. THen we can sell you in the summer...

[bobbyfallon]

Sign it Peter. THen we can sell you in the summer...

hope your right

out ta ****

[Dhav]

If Kuyt goes at the end of this season, with Voronin perhaps, then I'd be happy to go with Crouch, Torres and a new quality striker as our 3 main front men.

Use Babel as a makeshift striker and you have your 4 front men, then go and get a quality winger, and Rafa will have to use his ingenuity to hopefully get us a couple of reasonably priced but good quality fullbacks in the Evra mould. Then we're in business.

Easier said than done admittedly.

[AFII]

We need to sell at least two of Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin.

Nemeth need to get a chance as the fourth choice striker next season.

[bobbyfallon]

We need to sell at least two of Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin.

Nemeth need to get a chance as the fourth choice striker next season.

crouch 8m
kuyt 6m
veronin just **** off

new quality striker 25m

torres, new striker, babel, nemeth