Peter Crouch looks set to see out his career in the super-sub role for Stoke City.
The 36-year-old has been forced to settle for a bit-part role for the Potters this season but he’s flourished when given the chance, with no teammate scoring more than the veteran forward this season.
Crouch recently signed a one-year contract extension at the Britannia Stadium and he remains an absolute nuisance for defenders late on in games with his strength and matchless aerial prowess.
The 6 ft 7 in frontman will continue to outleap his marker until the day that he hangs up his boots and he is fondly remembered at every club he has represented.
It may have taken Crouch 18 games to find his first goal for Liverpool however he is still a cult figure among Reds fans for his three years of service at Anfield.
But Crouch’s biggest career regret came when he was on Merseyside, as he laments the fact that he did not start the 2007 Champions League final against AC Milan.
“I’d say my biggest regret in football was not starting that game. I felt I should have been in the team,” Crouch, who scored seven European goals on the road to the final, told FourFourTwo.
“I’d scored a lot of goals that season in the Champions League and played pretty much every game, so not getting picked to start the final was devastating for me.”
Crouch’s goal drought when he arrived at Liverpool from Southampton for a fee of £7 million was a huge talking point at the time as the pressure intensified on him with each game that passed.
In the same interview, he has revealed why it took him so very long to break his Liverpool duck and it how it required him to defy manager Rafael Benitez’s instructions to get on the scoresheet with a double against Wigan in December 2005.
“I went through a little barren spell – well, quite a big barren spell – and I really just wanted to head back to Southampton as fast as possible,” Crouch said.
“I was thinking ‘what have I done?’
“Thankfully, I stuck it out. The manager wanted me to do different things to what I was used to. I was doing them and working really hard, but I was trying to score that goal while playing a lot deeper.
“It got to the stage where I was saying to myself: ‘I’m going to have to start being more selfish’, so I played higher up the pitch, perhaps against the manager’s wishes.”
