Firstly - this whole Harry Redknapp business of ringing up Redknapp telling Hodgson to forget about Crouch...
Hodgson said: "Peter expressed an interest in coming here and then we had some dealings with his agent.
"But it soon became clear to us he was on his way to Tottenham. Harry made it clear to me that's what would be happening.
"We're old friends and he rang me up to tell me. He said he rang me to spare me from any heartache!
I mean I didn't know adults behaved this way, although for some reason Redknapp acting in this unbelievable immature manner almost like a school hood bully - Man that guys pisses me off...
Secondly...
This whole Smalling lark - Granted he suprised in his ability to play in Europe but in 4 of the 5 games he started for us he's been on the losing side. I mean i'm not saying it's entirely his fault but he did score an own goal against chelsea which ended up being the decisive goal and other blunders and tbh his head is obviously away with the fairies and I don't believe he will be able to do a job for us for the rest of the season. That said though as far as things go I think we've got a good deal out of it and I'm much more excited about the signing of Buchtmann than the potential future of Smalling!
Hodgson has inside information denied to us. If he knew that Redknapp wanted Crouch and Crouch wanted Spurs then its reasonable for him to shrug his shoulders and move on.
The interesting thing about Smalling is that he currently isn't good enough to break into our team. How he'll develop with ManU who knows and he may or may not be up to it if Hangeland or Hughes get injured but right now we simply don't need him.
You have to reckon that Ferguson and Wenger are more likely to be right than wrong but I'm not personally convinced about Smalling.
Agree with Tony on both counts. Like to add, Crouch at 12 million plus wages or Elm for 500k. plus less wages. Who needs Crouch, I am sure Elm will prove to be much better value for money. "Arry can "ave 'im.
Quote from: jarv on March 06, 2010, 01:17:23 PM
Agree with Tony on both counts. Like to add, Crouch at 12 million plus wages or Elm for 500k. plus less wages. Who needs Crouch, I am sure Elm will prove to be much better value for money. "Arry can "ave 'im.
totally agree
To be fair, Crouch is a much better player than Elm. It's possible that in the same role in our team setup the two would be comparable, but one of the tall men has a list of accomplishments including a superb international goal/strike rate (regardless of the opposition), and at 27 years of age the other might be something of a late bloomer.
That said, a Crouch-AJ partnership would probably work better for him than a Crouch-Zamora partnership, and I personally wouldn't want the large transfer cost to put any undue pressure on Roy to play him (as he could be accused of doing w/ AJ).
I think Smalling will be a quality player in time and if we had Crouch in our team I think we would be better for it. On the other hand the deal for our Club is a good one for Smalling and Crouch is actually out of our price range IMO.
