bigmick wrote:LFC2007 wrote:bigmick wrote:my problem was with the initial fee on his head of 15 million quid. Quite clearly we would never have got that in a million years, but thankfully everyone has seen sense in the end.
I'd have preferred no fee to be mentioned, but as it happened Rafa chose to test the market and placed a £15m valuation on him, I think it quite unlikely he actually expected to get that amount. Though if you set the price slightly higher than you expect you may just get slightly more. I don't think there was ever much of a risk of pricing him out of a move, esp with Pompey's strong interest. This 'we'd be lucky to get £5m for him given that we've p!ssed him off and he only has a year remaining on his contract' lark doesn't appear to have been an accurate assessment of the situation.
Ah I misunderstood LFC. That said I don't think I ever said "we'll be lucky to get 5 million for him" (infact I'm almost certain I didn't). I did say though that if we stuck to the ridiculous initial valuation we would would price him out of a move, and we would have.
FWIW though, 8 mill plus add ons or whatever it is is about as good as we could have hoped for under the circumstances. keeping him here last season has probably cost us conservatively in the region of 4 mill in lost transfer revenue, but these things happen.
In fairness to the manager, I suspect that the 4-5-1 wasn't something he was planning at the outset of the season, and as such he probably envisaged Crouch playing a much bigger part than he did. We did kind of stumble upon the method to some extent, and once we'd found it we stuck with it and I of all people can't criticise Rafa for that.
All in all it's a decent conclusion to an interesting episode for club and player. He was an excellent signing in the first place, a really good spot by Rafa and few gave him a chance. The manager then showed huge stubborness in continuing to pick him through his initial drought, and was rewarded with a player who was worth comforably more than we paid for him. Then bizarrely, when Crouch was in the form of his life Rafa seemed to lose faith in him and rotated him out of form. Obviously the signing of Torres (another excellent buy) meant he was always second fiddle (or third behind Kuyt for the first two thirds of this season) and in a team which only plays with one striker, he was bound to get limited opportunities.
Good luck to him though, and a fair priice for the club in the end given the circumstances.
I detect a suspecting hunch that that's probably a fair assessment, maybe, but you never know, perhaps.
FWIW, initial valuations are rarely adhered to, and given Crouch's situation I don't think Rafa ever expected to achieve a price of £15m.
I exaggerated in that other post btw, though you did say £10m would be unbelievable, so we've got ourselves an unbelievable deal (add ons incl), not just a fair one
heard the same rumours meself john . Abi clancy will be the ruination of crouch . Anyway well done peter lad , thanks for the memories and good luck for the future.
...... another fantacy bites the dust..... or white powder 
as long as the players look after their health
by 
