Cheshire-born Peter Crouch grew up in Ealing as a fourth-generation Chelsea fan. Having been named after his dad’s idol, Peter Osgood, Peter, in turn, named his rabbit “Kerry”, after his idol, Kerry Dixon. But when west London clubs began to take an interest in a 12-year-old Peter, his father preferred QPR to Chelsea. At 14, Peter was about to sign associate schoolboy forms for Rangers, but followed their manager, Gerry Francis, to Tottenham, instead. By the time he felt he was first-team material, Spurs’ manager was David Pleat. Rejecting Peter’s self-assessment, he sent him on ignominious loans to non-league Dulwich and to Sweden’s fourth tier. He was good enough to represent England in the 1999 World Youth Championship, but couldn’t get that first-team nod from Spurs.

So he returned, still only 19, to second-tier QPR. The most used player in their relegation season of 2000-01, he avoided the drop by moving to Portsmouth, for a fee that was “enough”, he judged, “to keep QPR in business.”

His 18 goals in 37 starts for Pompey in 2001-02 earned him a Premiership opportunity with Aston Villa.

It didn’t work out and David O’Leary dispatched him to win a Championship medal, on loan at Norwich. Fuming at O’Leary’s treatment of him, Peter joined Premiership Southampton in the summer of 2004. James Beattie had finished the 2003-04 season on a scoring streak but, conscious of “speculation” that Beattie would be leaving, Peter sensed an opening. Rupert Lowe drew his attention to an Echo headline about “furious” objections to the signing of an ex-Pompey player, but Peter felt that any anger on that score was exceeded by the hostile reaction from some Saints fans to his record at Villa: just six Premier League goals in 37 appearances. 

The St Mary’s faithful would have to reserve judgment on “two-meter Peter”, as he became affectionately known in some quarters.

Paul Sturrock, the manager who’d signed him, brought him off the bench on an opening day – at Villa Park, of all places – but was very soon fired. His successor, Steve Wigley, condemned Peter to “crap Tuesday evenings” – as he puts it – in the Reserves. It would be December before he made his first League start – and scored – for Harry Redknapp, the man who had sold him to Villa. Southampton’s third manager of the season now sold Beattie in the January window and the fans, at last, got a chance to see what Peter was made of. Despite being so gangly, he had a neat close-control and could lead the line. He even knew where the net was, finishing the season with 12 goals in his 27 appearances.

The awkward-looking ugly duckling had proved himself an elegant swan.

In his thoughtful autobiography, Peter gives the credit for that transformation to Harry Redknapp and “truly believes” that, if Redknapp had been at St Mary’s from the start of the 2004-05 season – and, by implication, starting him regularly – then “the club would never have been relegated.” That argument may find little favour with those Saints fans who despised Redknapp and/or attributed relegation to the sale of Beattie, but Crouch certainly seems to have won over many of his initial doubters – to the extent that he was voted the fans’ Player-of-the-Year.

His new admirers now included Sven-Göran Eriksson, who rewarded him, in May 2005, with his first cap, and Rafael Benitez, who was offering £7.5m to take him to Anfield. Notwithstanding that

he “loved playing for Southampton”

and that Redknapp assured him that the clause in his contract, reducing his salary upon relegation, would be struck out if he stayed, Peter moved to Liverpool. He went 18 matches, 15 of them starts, before scoring. He even told his father that he’d like to return to Southampton. Yet the England caps kept coming – three of them while he was goalless for Liverpool. And they kept on coming – 42 of them in all – including six in the World Cup Finals of 2006 and 2010. By then, he had been signed twice by Redknapp, first for a Premiership season with Portsmouth and then to play – at last – for Tottenham. Moving to Stoke in 2011, Peter finally put down roots, becoming their top Premier League goalscorer and also breaking the record for Premier League substitute appearances. He had a swansong final six months at Turf Moor during which he won a dubious last-minute penalty against the Saints at Turf Moor which deprived his old side two valuable points.