As a summer of big spending kicks into gear, it could be said that there will not be many bigger moves than that of Peter Crouch from Liverpool to Portsmouth. At about £11 million and at 6ft 7in, Crouch, the England striker, will probably represent better value — certainly per inch — than any other signing.

Yet for club and player, the switch to the South Coast was not only about size. Nor money, for that matter. Portsmouth needed a younger equivalent for Kanu, their 31-year-old Nigeria forward, and Crouch wanted to play regular football. Taking a pay cut to forsake the citadel of Anfield for tatty Fratton Park bothered him not a jot.

“It was a huge wrench to leave a club like Liverpool,” Crouch said yesterday. “But I wasn’t getting the right amount of games. I started only nine Premier League matches last season and that’s not enough if you want to be playing for England. I felt at times that I was doing well and scoring, but then I was still not playing. Any forward will tell you that they work best when they’re playing every week.”

After three years at Anfield, Crouch could take no more. The rotation system employed by Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, had frustrated him and he was never a member of the elite guard who were as good as guaranteed a first-team place.

“Rafa had his ideas, but my idea was to play every week,” Crouch said. “That certainly wasn’t the case for me towards the end there. I have no bitterness towards the manager, they were his decisions. And with such a big squad, I knew there would be chopping and changing. I accepted that.

“But unless you were totally indispensable — like Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres or Jamie Carragher, who knew they would play every week — everyone else had to fight for their positions. There’s a fine line between rotation, and playing a good level of games, and not playing as much as you’d like. Towards the end it got a bit too much.”

If Crouch, 27, could not convince Benítez of his capabilities, Harry Redknapp, the Portsmouth manager, needed no persuading. Redknapp may have sold Crouch twice — from Portsmouth to Aston Villa for £5 million in 2002 and from Southampton to Liverpool for £7 million in 2005 — but it was more to do with his cash value to the clubs that Redknapp managed than any lack of faith in him.

Crouch’s return to Fratton Park — home of the FA Cup winners — on a four-year contract is likely to spawn the ultimate little-and-large combination up front, alongside the fleet-footed 5ft 7in figure of Jermain Defoe. “It should be the ideal partnership,” Redknapp said. “A little quick one and a tall lad who can hold the ball up and bring people into play.”

It would appear, also, that Crouch comes highly recommended. Among his admirers are Sven-Göran Eriksson, the former Manchester City manager and one-time England head coach, and Avram Grant, the former Chelsea first-team coach. “I saw Sven the other night and he said that Peter is a top player,” Redknapp said. “And Avram said to me last week that, if he had stayed at Chelsea, he would have been interested in taking him there. I don’t think I’d have been able to get him if Chelsea were in for him.

“Peter’s shown a lot of character. He could have stayed at Liverpool. But it’s not a financial move for him, he wanted to play football. Sitting there every week not playing or playing a bit-part was not what he wanted out of his life. He’s made a good decision.”

Crouch’s decision, though, could spell upheaval for John Utaka, his new Portsmouth team-mate. Utaka, the Nigeria winger, has been renting Crouch’s apartment in nearby Port Solent. “I might have to kick him out,” Crouch said. “He might be homeless after today.”