EYEBROWS were raised in the Liverpool boardroom when Rafael Benítez announced that Peter Crouch, rather than Michael Owen, was the forward he wanted to bring an extra dimension to his team, but when a manager has just won the Champions League in his first season in charge, his judgment is usually trusted. By agreeing to pay Southampton up to £7 million for the oft-maligned Crouch, the Liverpool board has put its trust in Benítez’s powers of alchemy.

At 6ft 7in in his bare feet, Crouch will be Liverpool’s tallest player since records began and, to judge from the grumblings of some supporters, he is also one of their more surprising acquisitions. To dismiss him, however, is to show ignorance of his improvement during the past 12 months, as well as his new manager’s ability to spot a player.

Hounded out of Aston Villa last August after scoring only six times in 43 matches, Crouch struggled initially to justify a £2 million price tag at Southampton, but a sequence of 15 goals in 24 appearances, including a goal and a man-of-the-match performance in a 2-0 victory over Liverpool, seemed to confirm his blossoming into a target man of genuine class, winning the admiration not only of Benítez but also Sven-Göran Eriksson, the England head coach, who gave him his debut against Colombia in the end-of-season trip to the United States.

Mark Lawrenson, the club’s former defender, trumpeted the new signing in his column in the Liverpool Daily Post. “People are not convinced, but I believe Crouch has been signed with the Premiership in mind,” he said. “I’d bet that Benítez has looked at last season — when Liverpool lost 14 league games — and thought, ‘I know how to play in Europe, but I need to change our style domestically’. ”

Lawrenson’s appraisal is correct. Even after the arrival of Fernando Morientes from Real Madrid, the team lacked aerial presence in attack, which Benítez believes was the main factor in their poor away record in the Barclays Premiership last season. While supporters and some directors dreamt of an Anfield return for Owen, the manager decided that the man to address those shortcomings was Crouch. His aerial prowess may be even more useful if, as seems likely, Benítez succeeds in luring Luis Figo from Real.

Liverpool will pay £6 million for Crouch, half of it immediately, with up to £1 million to follow depending on future events, with Harry Redknapp, the Southampton manager, expecting to be given about £3 million with which to strengthen his team for the Coca-Cola Championship campaign. The promise of money did not placate Redknapp, who questioned his side’s ability to return to the Premiership.

“I have now lost all three of my strikers from last season in Henri Camara, Kevin Phillips and Crouch,” Redknapp said. “Crouch and Phillips in this division would have scored 50 goals between them. We need to strengthen our squad because it is not strong enough to get out of this league.”

Crouch, 24, has agreed a four-year contract, with his wages, cut by 50 per cent after Southampton’s relegation, increasing from £4,000 a week to more than £30,000 and, subject to a medical examination today, he will join Liverpool’s training camp in Switzerland this afternoon and appear in a friendly against Olympiakos in Liechtenstein on Saturday.

Harry Kewell will miss the start of the new campaign after having a hernia operation yesterday. The forward is expected to be unavailable until September.

TALL STORIES

Jan Koller: lumbering 6ft 7in leading scorer for the Czech Republic
Niall Quinn: at 6ft 5in, the former forward was all arms, elbows and bruising defenders
Ian Ormondroyd: the 6ft 5in forward was possibly estranged cousin of Crouch, possessing skinny frame and floppy hair

Explore Football

• Premier League

• Football League

• Scotland

• European Football

• International Football

• TheGame

• Live Match Tracker

• The Fink Tank

• Fantasy Football