It seems like after his excellent performance Saturday, Peter wants to play first team football every week and who can blame him? Here's what he said from The Times Website:
Peter Crouch ready to fly from Anfield
Peter Crouch has given the strongest indication that he is planning to leave Liverpool at the end of the season. The England striker has been offered an extension to his contract, which has one year to run, but is reluctant to sign because Rafael BenÍtez cannot guarantee him first-team football.
Crouch has been a peripheral figure at Anfield this season, making his first Barclays Premier League start in more than two months in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Arsenal, and is ready to move on in search of more regular appearances. Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur have expressed interest and Portsmouth, his former club, could join the race for his signature, with Liverpool prepared to sell rather than risk losing him for nothing in 12 months’ time.
“I’d love to stay, it’s a fantastic club and I love everything about it, but I’ve got to be realistic,” Crouch said. “If I want to have any aspirations of playing for England or furthering my career, then I have to be playing. And that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. It can be disheartening and I’ll have to look at it. What I will do, when called upon towards the end of this season, is give my best and then look at it in the summer.”
Crouch gave Liverpool the lead at the Emirates Stadium with a well-taken goal and created chances missed by John Arne Riise and Andriy Voronin, but the striker acknowledged that he has no chance of keeping his place for tomorrow’s Champions League quarter-final, second leg against Arsenal at Anfield.
“It’s pretty clear I probably won’t start on Tuesday, to be honest,” Crouch, 27, said. “I think obviously if the manager plays one up front he’s more than likely to go with Fernando [Torres] and rightly so, he’s been fantastic this season. But for me, I have to work hard in training and, when given the opportunity, I have to do as well as I can.”
BenÍtez has not given up hope of convincing Crouch to stay, even if his opportunities are likely to be limited. The Spaniard insisted that his team would not be practising penalties before Arsenal’s visit, even if a shoot-out seems the most likely outcome after three 1-1 draws between the teams this season.
“Peter Crouch is a very good professional,” BenÍtez said. “That is the reason why we offered him a new contract and I have confidence he will sign. I do not believe too much in practising penalties. I believe sometimes it is more the heart than the quality of the players. You know which players will be good when they are called from the halfway line. It is not just quality. It is to be calm and to know what to do.”
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