Benitez slapped £15million price tag on Crouch

• zocoss

  8 May 08, 22:56

  BENITEZ: CROUCH WILL COST £15MILLION

  
  

  Rafael Benitez has slapped a £15million price tag on England striker Peter Crouch on the day that he lost his first-team coach Alex Miller and confirmed that Harry Kewell will leave Liverpool. And the Anfield chief also revealed that he had held talks with Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill over the potential transfer of midfielder Gareth Barry to Liverpool.

  Benitez accepts that Crouch could have his head turned after a frustrating season when he has found first-team chances hard to come by - but the Spaniard insists he will not be leaving on the cheap.

  "Crouch wants to play every week but knows he must fight it out with Fernando Torres," Benitez said. "We keep seeing Portsmouth linked with the player but we have had no offer as yet. "A £15m price tag would not be unreasonable."

  On Kewell's departure, Benitez added: "We have tried to come to an agreement with the player and his agent, but that has not been possible. "Kewell will leave the club at the end of his contract." It is believed that Kewell has rejected a new deal on reduced wages.

  Benitez also explained further the pending saga over Barry, and revealed that nothing more will happen until after this weekend's closing round of league matches. He said: "I have spoken to Martin O'Neill, he knows my ideas. "But we agreed to wait until the end of the season for any more discussions."

  Benitez has also seen coach Alex Miller leave the club to take up a management appointment in Japan with JEF United Chiba. He said: "We have some names to consider and will make an appointment soon."

   

• reyes

  9 May 08, 01:26

  i dont why rafa want to ruin crouch life?

  he dont play him often though he score a decent rate goals than kuyt or voronin.

  when he want to leave, he slap a heaven figure! denying him a chance to leave.

   

• SiMiLaiEh*

  9 May 08, 02:14

  rafa is an idiot

• sand king

  9 May 08, 07:44

  1st thing to change in Liverpool the next transfer window is a new manager.

• redDUST

  9 May 08, 08:23

  £15m is a fair assessment. if malouda/chelsea can cost the same, crouch should command even more. this is a wacky league where everything is overpriced and if liverpool were to be conservative, it is shortchanging itself.

  crouch outside of liverpool may not do as well. if there is no supplier of balls to him, he can't score. he got no speed and can't dribble.

• iceFatboy

  9 May 08, 09:02

  Originally posted by redDUST:

  £15m is a fair assessment. if malouda/chelsea can cost the same, crouch should command even more. this is a wacky league where everything is overpriced and if liverpool were to be conservative, it is shortchanging itself.

  crouch outside of liverpool may not do as well. if there is no supplier of balls to him, he can't score. he got no speed and can't dribble.

  he got no speed, can't dribble,  then why buy him in the first place?? . but can you see him eye 2 eye?? he's EPL answer to yao ming.

  15m, he should be scoring @ least 10 goals per season or more but he can't even play 2 or 3 first games in a row!!

  what's the logic?? selling someone who seldom plays for 15m,this rafa is certainly mad.

• iceFatboy

  9 May 08, 09:02

  kewell for 20m cause he can dribble, score??!!!

  wake up your idea,man...

• zocoss

  9 May 08, 11:20

  Crouch fury over £15m price tag

  

   

  PETER CROUCH has been left raging after boss Rafa Benitez slapped a £15million price tag on his head. The Liverpool manager insisted yesterday that he will not let the beanpole striker leave on the cheap. And the Spaniard is prepared to keep Crouch for the last year of his contract and lose him for nothing — rather than sell him for less than his transfer value.

   

  But England star Crouch, 27, is outraged at Benitez’s stance — and he feels the Reds are going back on a pre-season gentleman’s agreement. He is adamant Liverpool said they would help him engineer a move this summer, as long as he did the business when called on and did not kick up a fuss when left out.

   

  Crouch believes he kept his side of the bargain and believes the extortionate price tag is an insult that will effectively mean seeing out his Anfield contract from the bench.

   

  Portsmouth are desperately keen to take the 6ft 7in hitman back to Fratton Park but are not keen to pay much beyond £8m.

   

  But Benitez said: “If we receive a very good offer — and by that I mean £15m — we will consider it. I’m happy to keep him.”

• sebosebo

  9 May 08, 11:26

  I agree that Crouch should not go cheap, but 15mil is a tad too exorbitant, 10mil would do.

  and if Liverpool were to really sell Crouch, its our loss man. He does not score enough but he did gave opposing defenders a really hard time whenever he plays. i still hope Crouch would stay and Benitez would give him more playing time, he should look at the contributions of Kuyt and especially Voronin.

  as for Harry kewell, its so long and thanks for the good memories. get ur overpaid GBP65k (thats more then Riise, Arbeola, Skrtel, Lucas) ass somewhere

• reyes

  9 May 08, 11:39

  even crouch has come out and slam rafa.

  whomever compare malouda to crouch is not a fair assessment.

  malouda was playing first time football at lyon before joing chelski.

  crouch was not and 15million is not worth it.

  rafa has lost touch with footballing world or he finally trying to bootlick hicks or shit so that they can give him money to spent on more tom, dick and  harry player.

• Saltiga

  9 May 08, 19:29

  or rather, Chelsea pays in a class of their own, so we probably shouldn't be comparing transfer pricing between Chelsea and the rest of the world

• a-Lost-9uY

  9 May 08, 22:22

  to mi, Crouch is nt bad le..

  sad to c he always nt even at subs bench

• redDUST

  9 May 08, 22:35

  Originally posted by iceFatboy:

  he got no speed, can't dribble,  then why buy him in the first place?? . but can you see him eye 2 eye?? he's EPL answer to yao ming.

  15m, he should be scoring @ least 10 goals per season or more but he can't even play 2 or 3 first games in a row!!

  what's the logic?? selling someone who seldom plays for 15m,this rafa is certainly mad.

  bro, you answer your own question on crouch.

  as for kewell, he came with high rep. his injury did him in. he did not come on 20mil. where is your source? 

• redDUST

  9 May 08, 22:37

  Originally posted by reyes:

  even crouch has come out and slam rafa.

  whomever compare malouda to crouch is not a fair assessment.

  malouda was playing first time football at lyon before joing chelski.

  crouch was not and 15million is not worth it.

  rafa has lost touch with footballing world or he finally trying to bootlick hicks or shit so that they can give him money to spent on more tom, dick and  harry player.

  crouch not 1st 11 b4 he came to liverpool?

• mackee

  10 May 08, 06:24

  i think he's overpriced man, how can pool ask for 15mil pounds for someone they barely start?

• Poolman

  10 May 08, 06:33

  If other clubs cannot afford 15 million on Crouch .... then they can go hunt for a cheaper 6ft 4 source around the world , of his class .

  Hey ! Crouch is class act .

  He don't wear the England's jersey for nothing .

• Undertakerpoppin

  10 May 08, 06:34

  testin 1 2 3

   

   

   

   

   

  keep on movin',folks,hope this shit wouldn't buggin your asses.

• Saltiga

  10 May 08, 08:01

  Originally posted by Poolman:

  If other clubs cannot afford 15 million on Crouch .... then they can go hunt for a cheaper 6ft 4 source around the world , of his class .

  Hey ! Crouch is class act .

  He don't wear the England's jersey for nothing .

  valuation is very very subjective so we'll leave for the market to determine it.

  i beg to defer your saying of he don't wear England's jersey for nothing, England doesn't have any proven goal scorer after Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer so he is just the balance of whats left then he is the best that there got, cause there is nothing there to choose from in the 1st place

• dragg

  10 May 08, 08:48

  benitez has the habit of slapping high price tag on his own players but offers little for potential players.  15 million to sell crouch but 7 million to sign gareth barry?

   

• redDUST

  10 May 08, 12:11

  Originally posted by dragg:

  benitez has the habit of slapping high price tag on his own players but offers little for potential players.  15 million to sell crouch but 7 million to sign gareth barry?

   

  
  ............+players

• redDUST

  10 May 08, 12:12

  in any case, it is always the starting point in any negotiation; sell high, buy low. what is wrong with that? after the dust settles, the fair value will emerge.

• I_love_my_toilet

  10 May 08, 12:19

  how come chelski not interested ?

  i tot any price greater n equal to 15m they sure will be aroused ^^

• redDUST

  10 May 08, 12:27

  Originally posted by I_love_my_toilet:

  how come chelski not interested ?

  i tot any price greater n equal to 15m they sure will be aroused ^^

  chelsea is gunning for messi, mah, 100m value. 15m is loose change to abro, so he is not interested. like richman here, ask him buy $100 seiko watch, he'll say "pls dun waste my time."

• reyes

  10 May 08, 17:28

  redust,

  i think your comparison is not logical. compare apple with apple.

  courch join liverpool from southamton  for less than half the amount of 15 million.

   

  he play 1/4 season football at liverpool and liverpool want to sell him double the amount!

  i must say again, when moulouda join chelski , he was lyon top playerand play regularly.

  would you pay the same moneyto a  player that has proven everygame at top levelto one who play just 1/4 of the season?

   

   

   

• redDUST

  10 May 08, 20:33

  Originally posted by reyes:

  redust,

  i think your comparison is not logical. compare apple with apple.

  courch join liverpool from southamton  for less than half the amount of 15 million.

   

  he play 1/4 season football at liverpool and liverpool want to sell him double the amount!

  i must say again, when moulouda join chelski , he was lyon top playerand play regularly.

  would you pay the same moneyto a  player that has proven everygame at top levelto one who play just 1/4 of the season?

   

   

   

  is the french league the same standard as english? if judging by your so-called logic, anyone playing regular football and in the 1st eleven, like even the s-league 1st 11 and `top player' like nor alam shah should also be benchmark with the english premier league pay and play scale as well?

  what about shev? he is top of the heaps in serie a but a flop now. how would you then rate shev should he go? of course his value will drop. just becos he comes expensive, will he go `expensive' as well?

  molouda, the player in question, is mediocre in the chelsea line-up. the rest of the team made him look good. but he costs 15m because chelsea, or rather mourinho wants him in. if that is his `fair' value, so be it.

  you compare what is the value of the player now. like shares, past historical value is not indicative of current or future performance. crouch is still prolific by any standard in the games(however little) he play. just because he comes in at a `lesser value', must he then leave at the same `low' value? if, for instance, king kev feels he is worth 12m and take crouch over to nufc, who's for you and me to argue?

  we all know rafa has purposely put a high value on crouch to state his intention that crouch will not leave liverpool `on the easy' or `cheap'. he is a proven scorer and and england international to boot.