Peter Crouch to Chelsea. This one has legs.
The Blues are on the look-out for a striker, or… front-man, to give Alvaro Morata a bit of respite. A bit of competition would be nice for the Spanish international but respite will do no harm.
Chelsea have found themselves linked with Edin Dzeko, Andy Carroll, Christian Benteke and Wilfried Zaha in the past week. Few of us were expecting Carroll’s name to feature but no-one would have called Crouch making the switch from Stoke to Stamford Bridge.
Crouch is 36, has 10 league goals in the past three years and has not played international football since November 2010. He can still ruffle defenders but he’s not the force he used to be and hardly the answer for last season’s Premier League champions.
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, today, told the press that they would be the first to know when his side made any purchases or loan moves. Until then, he declared:
“I’m not interested in this conversation, also because this is disrespectful for my players, for the other players, for the players of the other clubs.”
While Conte would not be drawn on the subject, Jermaine Jenas was happy to step forward and give his take. The former Tottenham and England midfielder is all for Chelsea bringing Crouch on-board. He told BBC Five Live:
“People will be saying, ‘Look, he’s 36 years old… ‘ but it’s looking like it will be a year-and-a-half deal… maybe a year, I don’t know.
“It’s a no-brainer, really, in terms of the money Chelsea will have to pay for him, what the wages will be and what he’ll bring to the table… as a second option, by the way. Yeah, I can understand why that deal cou;d get done.”
As the man himself said, a no-brainer.
'It's a no-brainer'@JJenas8 thinks that Peter Crouch would be a very astute signing for #CFC.
Agree?
📻 https://t.co/NI1sjtpg98 pic.twitter.com/Ezhs2RfL1N
— BBC 5 Live Sport (@5liveSport) January 19, 2018
During the same show, Jenas said Manchester United should stick with Luke Shaw at left-back even though he believes Spurs’ Danny Rose is the better player.
He also said, a tad more sensibly, that David De Gea is the only United player that could expect a pay rise to match the reported £500,000 per week salary for transfer target Alexis Sanchez.
