Now, soot me down in flames if you like, but hear me out.
Peter Crouch is available from Stoke for a knockdown £1 million. OK, he’s 33, but don’t we need to learn the lessons from last season and have like for like cover for Andy Carroll? He plays much the same game as Carroll, has scored consistently wherever he has played. Now that we have made our Allardyce bed, we need to lie in it and recruit players who can play to a system, even if some of us don’t like it.
I have always thought Crouch was a very underrated player. Just because he isn’t pretty to watch doesn’t mean he isn’t skilful. In fact he has a very good first touch and if you look at some of the spectacular goals he has scored over the years it is testament to what a good player he actually is. He’s certainly not prolific, but like Carroll, contributes much more to the team than just goals. But his 32 goals in 116 games at Stoke isn’t bad. Having said that, last season he only scored 8 in 34 in the Premier League.
He’s surely got to be worth paying £1 million for, as long as his weekly wage demands aren’t too horrific.
The papers are full of rumours of us signing Michu from Swansea. This would be a risky signing bearing in mind he, like Carroll is very prone. There’s no doubt he knows where the goal is – look at his record the season before last where he scored 18 Premier League goals in 35 games. Last season he only scored 2 in 12, but also bagged 4 in 7 Europa Cup games. The club is said to be looking at paying £6 million for his services and negotiations have reached Board level. £6 million for a 28 year old striker who has proved he can score at the top level. Doesn’t seem too bad.
I think we need five strikers this season. If we pulled these two off we’d have a front line of Carroll, Zarate, Carlton Cole, Michu and Crouch. Well it’s certainly better than last year, but three of those five are very injury prone – which is why we’d need 5 strikers in the squad rather than 4.