Another England match, another goal for Peter Crouch. Sure, the one against Mexico yesterday was hardly artful, in fact, it was illegal on two fronts: handball and offside.

But to speak of that Mexican injustice misses the point. Peter Crouch somehow, someway finds the back of the net for England at an astonishing, befuddling, flabbergasting, headscratching, have-to-rub-your-eyes-twice-when-you-read-the-numbers-to-make-sure-your-vision-hasn’t-failed-you… rate: 21 goals in just 38 matches, and 17 in the 18 he’s started. Perplexing to say the least.

One of the most dimensionally-awkward players in the history of the sport, Crouch, on paper, should seemingly be a role player, one where when you’re pumping the ball in the box late in a game you’re losing, he can ruffle a few defenders and even grab the odd goal.

But that is not Peter Crouch. In his finest moments, Crouch is an outstanding center-forward. Yet, he is not simply a CF for which you simply whip crosses in and let him tower over defenders to pluck easy goals. In fact, his heading accuracy and power is lamentably below-average, particularly for a man of his enormous stature. Oddly enough, it is his feet that are his best attribute.

For the beanpole that he is (just being realistic here, people), you would never expect Crouch to have a deft first touch. But his touch is remarkably efficient, as his long frame disguises the distance at which the ball bounces off his foot, for he can quickly get a second touch on it due to his long legs. This ability allows him to be quite good at holding up play for fellow players to join the attack, and with the array of attacking talent at England’s disposal, such abilities from the man playing with Wayne Rooney up front could prove vital in South Africa.

That ability to drop deep could, of course, cause problems because Rooney likes to do the same, but with Crouch, England have a striker whom they can pump the ball long towards and cause defenders problems with his height (see Mexico), or another option to play the short ball while he is stationed deep, allowing Rooney to play higher to run onto passes from Gerrard or Lampard.

And Rooney can, frankly, play up top with anyone, as he is England’s most positionally-intelligent player.  He can adapt to any striker he plays with, so fear not. Crouch simply provides more options for England (this without even mentioning the havoc he can wreak on set plays, particularly for teams lacking height).

The question for Capello is: what do you want that second CF to do? Because, sure, Emile Heskey can serve you as more of a battering ram, and can allow Rooney to impose himself on the match, but his hold-up play is a step below Crouch’s, and don’t even get started on actually putting the ball in the back of the net. The game is, and the World Cup this summer will be, determined by goals. And Crouch is simply on fire for his country in that department. So the question begs: a) Heskey, whom “Rooney plays better with?” Or b) a man that actually scores goals?

For England, Crouch has become a proficient finisher. Something about the international stage brings out the best in his scoring abilities, because at club level his numbers are quite pedestrian. In Liverpool’s 2006-07 run to the Champions League final, Crouch finished second to only Kaka (2007 world player of the year) in goals scored. Underscoring his surprising technical ability was his absolute stunner of a goal against Galatasary in the group stages that season. One of the great goals of the past decade:

There is something to these startling international statistics. In World Cup 2006, England won their first two matches with Crouch in the lineup alongside Michael Owen, scoring in the win over Trinidad and Tobago. In game three of the group phase, Rooney returned against Sweden, relegating Crouch to the bench. Crouch did not start again in the tournament as Sven-Goran Eriksson utilized Rooney as a lone striker to little effect.

Perhaps the reason Crouch excels in international settings is due to unfamiliarity. In England, clubs understand his abilities and his limits, they see him year in and year out. While there can be no doubt that the United States, Algeria and Slovenia will attempt to simulate defending Crouch in training (in the chance that he actually sees the field in SA), there is simply no player with his ridiculous height on the world stage, and simulation will prove fruitless because few players have his odd skill set. His 18 goals in 40 European appearances over the past 5 seasons, and his 21 goals in 38 England appearances prove that Europe and the rest of the world have found little success in stopping Crouch.

Even though soccer is hardly a game of statistics, another adage holds just as true: stats don’t lie. Peter Crouch scores goals for England, and it would be naive to see this stopping any time soon. He is a handful for defenses that don’t understand his unique game, and he gives England their best scoring option alongside their talisman Wayne Rooney. His record speaks for itself, and he deserves to start in South Africa.

What do you think? Leave comments below about your thoughts on the phenomenon that is Peter Crouch.

Tottenham Hotspur has done it. They’ve struck gold by qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in their history. And they did it in style at the ground of the club who had the best chance of beating them to the honor.

Before Peter Crouch headed the ball into the back of the Manchester City net, I was planning on writing an article about him tonight. This is a player who never gives up and caused Manchester City problems all night by knocking the ball down for fellow teammates running on to the ball, and almost scoring earlier after his header hit the post.

But it wasn’t just this game where Crouch showed his prowess. He’s been doing it throughout his career but has never seemed to get a consistent run of games at Liverpool or Tottenham. But even when he was at Liverpool, he always added a lot of depth to Liverpool’s attacks and scored some brilliant goals in the Champions League. Earlier in his career, at Portsmouth and Aston Villa, he did get a regular starting position more frequently and it was at those two clubs where he shone.

Having said that, Tottenham’s 1-0 victory against Manchester City Wednesday night was a brilliant team performance. What impressed me the most about Spurs was the way they defended. Whenever City attacked down the wings, Tottenham quickly closed down the attacks and often prevented City from sending in deadly crosses. In particular, when Adam Johnson attacked down the right wing, Spurs defenders knew that Johnson would cut to his left to try to float the ball into the box. But each time the left-footed Johnson tried to do that, Tottenham defenders were right on top of him and quickly extinguished the threat.

I’ve always liked Peter Crouch especially when he’s been utilized for his skills on the ball rather than in the air. Wednesday night’s performance was a perfect example of what he can bring to England and he must be part of the squad perhaps instead of Emile Heskey who has had little playing time for Villa.

For Manchester City, it’s back to the drawing board. In the past few games they’ve showed the lack of creativity they so desperately needed Wednesday night. They came close many times, but Craig Bellamy again had a poor performance which I thought brought the team down. At the same time, City looked vulnerable in the back and had a difficult time dealing with the pace of Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon, although the latter was less influential than he usually is.

It’s been a long time waiting for Tottenham supporters around the world. But they did it in style and were deserved winners. It’s been an incredible season for Tottenham Hotspur and they now face the prospect of playing Burnley on Sunday knowing that a win against the Clarets and an Arsenal loss versus Fulham will put Tottenham in third place in the league and knock their hated rivals down into fourth. I don’t see it happening, but the pressure is all on Arsenal at this stage. Crazier things have happened before.

All great relationships come to an end, the natural course having run as far as it can. Sometimes they start passionately and brightly and quickly burn away to nothingness. Sometimes, they are a slowly burning and taut affair that consumes all within them in a supernova of passion oblivious to all around them. Occasionally, despite saying the opposite, things simply aren’t working. The public face presents a lie, when everything behind the scenes falls apart.

Of course, finishing 7th is no insult and 6th is not out of the question but this is Liverpool. European Champions on 5 occasions, runners up twice. League Champions 18 times and runners up on 12 other occasions. The most decorated club in English League history can end up qualifying for the Europa League because Portsmouth are not allowed to enter. Is it good enough to be surviving on scraps thrown by clubs imploding financially? Simply put, no it isn’t.

I saw Benitez’s post match comments on Sunday and was astounded. You can’t position yourself as a champions of the fans and then refuse to commit yourself to confirming whether you intend to be at the club next season. Benitez owes that to the Anfield faithful at the very least. They have backed him 100% throughout his consistent battles with the owners and the boardroom and now he throws it back in their faces. I think most fans of other clubs would be hard pressed to have kept the patience with a manager like the Liverpool fans have with Rafa Benitez.

Of course, his supporters will always point to the 2005 Champions League final victory and to a lesser extent, the F.A. Cup victory the following season over West Ham United. Last season saw Liverpool come within a whisker of winning the title but ultimately missed out due to the points dropped against “lesser” sides. The beginning of the season saw them lose as many leagues games in 8 days as all of last year. Complaints about Real Madrid tapping up Xabi Alonso were treated with the contempt they deserved after Benitez had spent most of the summer of 2008 trying to flog him.

He claims the club needs 4 or 5 great players, unlike the majority of the 77 he’s signed. With the exception of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, every single player at Liverpool is a Benitez signing. Incredibly, of the 77 players he’s signed, 30 of them have been sold on. His supporters claim the board have tied his hands in regards to the money he’s had to spend, but looking at his transfer record, honestly, can you blame them? A scatter gun transfer policy that currently sees Liverpool using Mascherano as a right back and a £7 million left back in the reserves. A depth of striking talent after Torres that a Championship club would be embarrassed to have at its disposal.

This refusal to commit himself to Liverpool next season surely treats the fans like idiots. He has more support from them and delivered probably less than any Liverpool manager since Graeme Souness’ dreadful tenure in the early nineties. He eventually fell on his sword and resigned after they were beaten by Bristol City at home in the F.A.Cup in January 1994.Yet the 3 seasons he’d spent there were littered with dreadful signings, arguments and badly judged media interviews, such as with the Sun newspaper on the 3rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Yet even he won the F.A. Cup in 1992.

Souness finished 6th, 6th and 8th and the club were at the weakest they’d ever been in the modern era. Liverpool have finished outside the top 6 twice in the last 20 years and only 4 times in the 47 seasons they spent in the top flight since winning promotion back to the top division in 1962. Of course, they may still finish 6th but that’ not Benitez’s weakness for me, it’s his refusal to treat his supporters with the respect they deserve after all the support they’ve given him and tell them if he’s staying.

Perhaps of course, he’s playing the protection card, asking the board for the moon and then quitting when they quite rightly tell him to get stuffed. Only then will he consider the offer from Juventus that is on the table and has been for weeks. Added to this the fact that he absurdly claims he’s trying to meet up with the new chairman after canceling two scheduled meetings in the last fortnight weakens his position even further.

Liverpool’s fans deserve better, the club deserve better and no-one is happy. Rafa looks fed up and coming from a family of Liverpool fans, they’re fed up. The relationship has run its course and if Rafa Benitez really cared about Liverpool he’d do the right thing and quit. When you get to a point in a season where you want your team to lose to stop a rival club winning the title, I think that’s all you need to say and that’s a fact Rafa. It can only get worse from here.

2006 was a disaster for England’s much vaunted strikers in so many ways it was depressing. It was clearly Sven Goran-Eriksson’s nadir as the England supremo as his eccentric choices left England woefully short of options. Michael Owen was so off the pace as to be redundant and his World Cup collapse when he ruptured his cruciate ligament against Sweden. Wayne Rooney’s frustration blew up in the Quarter-Final when he was sent off for stamping on a sensitive are of Ricardo Carvalho and Peter Crouch tried his best but simply couldn’t carry the teams striking options. As for Walcott, he may as well have stayed at home.

Fast forward 4 years and things despite the odd injury scare here and there are much rosier for Fabio Capello. Wayne Rooney is in the form of his life, Jermaine Defoe has made himself a crucial member of the squad, Peter Crouch’s reputation is more positive and certain players are jostling for the remaining squad places. The question is, who will make up the 5 strikers that Capello should choose as his options up front.

There’s no point discussing Rooney and Defoe. They’re on that plane unless something incredibly cruel happens but the 3 other positions are a free for all. Certain players over the last 18 months have made cases to be included but some will face the cruelest cut of all and miss out on a chance of going to South Africa. It’s those strikers I’m focusing on and deciding just who should join the first two names I’ve mentioned.

Yet, I have to say that it is some relief that Michael Owen is injured. Surely I can’t be the only person who was sick of his constant bleating in the media week after week. Capello rightly judged Owen to be damaged goods and whilst no-one can doubt up to 2005 he was one of the Premier strikers in world football, he is no where near the level he was. Capello knows that Owen simply cannot cope with the demands of top level football anymore, which is a shame.

Owen will probably never add to his goal tally for England, which currently stands at 40 and it is a sad way for his career at international level to finish. It looked for years as if he would smash Bobby Charlton’s record, but that achievement looks set to become Wayne Rooney’s mantle. With Owens absence, the stage looks set for someone to come in from the left field but surely the highest scoring English striker in the Premiership, Darren Bent.

With 24 league goals this season for Sunderland and pace to burn, Bent should be a shoe-in but something just seems to rub people up the wrong way with him. In any other country, Bent would probably be in the squad without doubt. He reminds me of Mario Gomez, the German striker, who scores goals for fun in the Bundesliga but has yet to find that form at international level and his goals have all come against lower rated international sides.

Should he be there? Yes, he should and I don’t feel he’s had a fair crack of the whip internationally. He deserves a chance to go to South Africa this summer and you have to wonder just where Sunderland would have finished this season without his goals. Of the target men that Capello seems to use, Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch have all had difficult seasons but Crouch has continued to perform for England when he has had the opportunity. That alone should subside any fears that his absence from the Tottenham starting line up may have and I’ll be amazed if he isn’t one of the picks up front.

Cole has been involved in a dreadfully difficult season at West Ham United and he is not alone at Upton Park in seeing his form suffer. Heskey has meanwhile seen his form go up and down as Aston Villa have continued to prove that they are back as a consistent challenge at the upper end of the table. Heskey does so much for his team mates that I’m sick of trying to explain why strikers don’t have to score goals to be good.

It’s not been the easiest season for his team mate Gabriel Agbonlahor either, but Villa are still chasing down 4th place in Premiership. For all his pace, he’s still too wildly inconsistent for me at league level never mind international level. I wouldn’t take him if I had a fit Darren Bent to choose.

Of the other two options, both would usually be laughed out of hand, but this season has seen both of them receive praise that has been short throughout their careers. Firstly, Bobby Zamora has had the season of his life at Fulham and has been touted as a possible option for England but he seems to have been patched up more than the 6 million dollar man over the last few weeks. He apparently needs an operation but Fulham have delayed surgery until the England World Cup squad has been announced. I’m sorry Bobby, but I just think there are better options available.

The other choice, may make you laugh, but I think it’s a disgrace he’s never been picked for England. Bolton Wanderers fans will tell you just how good this lad has been for years, but Kevin Davies is so underrated it’s become something of a joke. Yes, he perhaps doesn’t score as many goals as he should but his work rate, strength and technical ability are consistently overlooked. If Crouch wasn’t fit to play, he’d be my first reserve.

So the five strikers I’d take are, Wayne Rooney, Jermaine Defoe, Peter Crouch, Darren Bent and Emile Heskey. What do you think? Who would your choices be? Please leave me your comments as usual.

How is it that an international striker with 16 goals in 34 games for his country and a Premiership strike rate of one goal in under every 3 games simply keeps being moved on? Now I could understand it if the player in question was a boorish, thuggish hooligan who whines about not being treated fairly and then beats up team mates in training, attacks children in hotels and puts lit cigars out in youth players eyes.

Yet Peter Crouch comes across as a genuinely nice lad, pleasant, well spoken, always gives 100% wherever he plays and has a zero reputation for assaulting members of the British public. Crouch looks set to leave Portsmouth for a second time and seemingly has a straight choice between Fulham or re-joining Harry Redknapp for a third time at Tottenham.

With a transfer price of £12 million being already accepted form Sunderland, which Crouch has turned down due to geographical location, Crouch looks set to move for the 7th time on a permanent deal. His career has seen him sold by Spurs, QPR, Pompey, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Southampton. He’s had loan spells at Norwich City, Dulwich Hamlets and IFK Hässleholm making 9 different clubs he’s turned out for in just 9 years.

Why does no-one rely on the likeable striker? His longest spell at one club was the 3 seasons at Liverpool he spent from 2005 until 2008, even finishing as top scorer one season but deemed not as good as Andrie Voronin or David Ngog. Here’s a lad that is never late for training or has his picture taken falling out of nightclubs every night of the week. Surely something else must be going amiss?

Crouch is one of those players, in football terms anyway, who stands out simply through his physical characteristics. At 6′ 7″, he’d hardly be noticed on a basketball court, but on the pitch he’s a giant. The popular misconception about Crouch is that because he’s tall, he must be good in the air. Whilst he’s no slouch, it’s certainly not the strongest part of  his game but surely everyone knows that now don’t they?

He’s a good footballer, you don’t score over 100 goals in your career by luck, or hit a hat trick against Arsenal which was deemed as one of the perfect hat tricks * and not be skilful. Crouch can play football; he’s just a lot taller than a lot of people that also play the game. As is the current state of the world we live in, anyone who’s slightly different suffers from bad press. Now I’m not saying that Crouch is the world’s best striker, but he will always try for the team he plays for.

It seems he now faces a straight choice between two of England’s best club managers for where he wants to take his career. Does he take a risk with someone he’s never worked with before in Roy Hodgson or go with the familiar manager in Harry Redknapp. I’m a massive fan of Hodgson, he’s easily the most under rated manager in the Premiership by some distance but Redknapp may have the upper hand here. Some Spurs fans think he’s garbage and shouldn’t be brought back to Tottenham. That’s the problem with being a Spurs supporter; we’ve too many fans who still think it’s 1962 or 1984.Crouch would be a great signing. No arguement.

Anyone who thinks Peter Crouch isn’t good enough for Tottenham needs to take a reality check. These are the same fans that never gave Darren Bent a chance and if he chooses Fulham over Spurs then it’s Tottenham’s loss.  Personally I’d love to see him back at White Hart Lane and if he goes to Fulham then they have a player that will always give his all.

* A perfect hat trick is deemed to be one when a player scores one with his left foot, one with the right foot and with a header.

The Premiership season begins on August 15th, just under four weeks away and for most clubs in the top flight, July has seen them scurrying about trying to strengthen their squads. At Fratton Park however, Portsmouth find themselves hampered by the current process of due diligence for Sulaiman Al Fahim’s proposed takeover to be completed. As such, no new players have come in and the board have allowed Glen Johnson to leave for £17 million.

The board have now accepted an offer of £12 million from Peter Crouch and it seems a simple matter of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s. The only question is where Crouch will end up. Sunderland were in the driving seat but the player would like to remain in the south of England which would have put Fulham in the driving seat until Harry Redknapp threw his hat in ring. Having signed him twice before, Redknapp would now appear to be the favourite to see Crouch finally return the club where his professional career began.

Of course, this misses the bigger picture here, that of Portsmouth Football Club. The last few seasons have been eventful at Fratton Park, even by Pompey’s standards, but overall it has been a significant, if not a completely positive period in their history. Until Redknapp left for Tottenham, it had been a period of continual improvement and the F.A. Cup win was the icing on the cake for the whole project. The first team squad had the most quality it had seen in years sprinkled throughout it, with England internationals in every department.

That squad as of today looks threadbare even before Crouch’s departure. So far, 9 players have left the squad. Johnson, Davis, Djimi Traore, Lauren, Little, Thomas, Pamarot and the loan deals of Jermaine Pennant and Amand Traore have concluded. At the moment, the club have 15 professionals on their books. Kanu and Sol Campbell are currently considering new one year deals to extend their time at Pompey.

Now I know that takeover’s seem to take a matter of days when it comes to Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City’s buy outs, but they did take time, we just weren’t so aware of the facts that we are when it comes to the Portsmouth deal. Yet the clubs fans need it resolving as soon as possible. The playing squad needs strengthening as a matter of urgency because if not, it could be too late to get a squad together before the kick off in August.

The news that the shirt manufacturers, Canterbury, have also gone in to administration has meant that Peter Storrie has been having to work hard to secure an alternative. Yet, when you’re the third highest paid executive in the Premier League, it shouldn’t take too much to bring in a new shirt manufacturer, with Umbro leading the charge to take over the contract.

By all accounts, the deal should be concluded in a matter of days, but with no manager, no shirt manufacturer and now the smallest first team squad in the Premiership, Sulaiman Al Fahim is going to need to hit the ground running to get the club ship shape. A new manager is paramount as a first decision to get the transfer targets already positioned; I’ll be amazed if Al Fayed hasn’t got a manager already on board to takeover. For all the good work that Paul Hart did to rescue the disaster that was Tony Adams’ reign, he has made it clear he wants to return to the academy.

I just hope everything get’s sorted soon for Portsmouth and their fans. It’s a terrific club, with some of the most passionate fans I’ve ever come across. They don’t deserve to get caught in the blocks once the season kicks off, three relegation scares in 5 years will be pushing their luck.

In Part 1, I described how the 2006 World Cup drew me into football.  With the World Cup finished, I was hungry for more. I turned to the English Premier League to slake my thirst…

Part 2: Inhaling the Premier League…

When the World Cup ended I went into withdrawel. I bought a Playstation2 and a used copy of FIFA 2006. I ordered the Review of the Season DVD 2005/06. I scoured Netflix for any and all football related films (not much to choose from… I think Bend It Like Beckham, the original Fever Pitch and Green Street Hooligans made up their entire football library at the time). And I read Fever Pitch (Nick Hornby’s fine book)… twice. I knew none of this was close to a substitute for the real thing. But it’s what I had.

I was eager to find a Premier League side to follow, but unsure how to choose one as an American. How I wished I had geography or genealogy on my side—was it too late in life to adopt an English grandfather?

Two problems arose in my search for a side…

1)Limited access to the matches:

I didn’t have cable and could only watch the FSC matches at the nearby British soccer pub (see Part 1). And while the Coat of Arms opened early for World Cup matches, by the fall they were back on their normal schedule. I couldn’t catch many of the matches live. I watched some replays there, but lining up my schedule with the pub’s schedule with FSC’s schedule was hit or miss to say the least. And Setanta USA was nowhere to be found. (The Coat got it right after I moved to Boston.)

I felt confident one or two SFMs (Spectacular Footballing Moments) could direct me toward the right club. A call for me to answer. Initially, I felt drawn to Liverpool. Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard stood out for me in the World Cup (see Part 1). And I’d been a childhoon Beatles fanatic, watching my father’s videos of Help and A Hard Day’s Night until the reels were worn down. Reading everything I could. So I was enthralled with the Scouse accents and the city of Liverpool from a young age.  But in 2006, I wanted some kind of footballing sign to assure me. An awe-inspiring goal. A come-from-behind win. Some moment to capture me on an instinctual level like the countless SFMs that seduced me during the World Cup.

If I’d been in Boston then, I would have had plenty of Irish pubs with all the right channels and been surrounded by loads of supporters. The live feed and the lively atmosphere I craved.

With that kind of access I would have seen Crouch’s 80th min header in the Community Sheild. Daniel Agger’s 25-yard blast against West Ham. Xabi Alonso’s goal-from-his-own-half(!!) against Newcastle. John Arne Riise’s long scorcher against Tottenham. Seeing these shots from distance in match context could have pushed my Liverpool curiosity into a full-blown seduction. (Any shot from outside the box that went in seemed completely earthshattering to this newbie. I still long for a 25-yard+ blast when Gerrard or Alonso run onto the ball in promising spots.)

But then there was my other problem:

2) I overthought the decision too much:

Given little access to the matches, I compromised my desire for spontaneous matchday inspiration by working too much logic into my search. I should follow a London side, I thought. I had friends in London. There’d be places to stay when I travelled over to watch matches. I knew the city. I loved the city. I’d find a London side. The fact the Simmon’s article agreed with this thinking reinforced my attempt at process.

That season London had six clubs in the Premier League. Chelsea, Arsenal, West Ham, Fulham, Charlton and Tottenham Hotspur.

Chelsea was out. I’d read up on Roman Abramovich sinking his own money into the club to buy up the best talent, essentially dropping all business pragmatism for instant success. No thank you.

Arsenal was tempting after reading the brilliant Fever Pitch. But I was seeking a club in the English Premier League after watching England play in the World Cup from an English pub in New Hampshire surrounded by raucaus English folks. While I enjoyed their style of football, Arsenal didn’t appear to have any English starters. Thus, I couldn’t get excited about supporting the Gunners.

West Ham had an allure, but Green Street Hooligans put me off them, as it did for Simmons. I blame Elijah Wood.

Fulham didn’t do anything for me at that point. They didn’t have Clint Dempsey yet. Dempsey was the only American to score during the World Cup and he was a standout player for the New England Revolution, my local side. He would debut for Fulham in late January, but by then I was already falling for Liverpool. Dempsey would thank me by scoring his first Premier League goal against Liverpool. If he’d gone to Fulham in the previous summer, it might have been a different story.

Charlton. Ah, Charlton. A solid mid-table side for years, but in 06/07 they were known to me as the side who are slightly better than Watford. Charlton were relegated in May.

And so, plagued by logic and overthinking the matter, I briefly flirted with Tottenham Hotspur. I didn’t witness any magical moments to draw me to the club. I liked Robbie Keane and they played in London. That was about it. I hadn’t found that SFM. I think I was getting tired of looking. I just wanted a club.

Thankfully, around this time, I got access to just about all the matches on Setanta and Fox. My Irish co-worker Noel (a Manchester United supporter) took pity on me and my co-worker Tim (another American seeking Premier League action) and started taping the Fox matches. An Mancunian regular named George (City supporter) started taping the Setanta fixtures for us. I cleared my head. I could finally watch every match aired in the States.

The tapes weren’t as good as watching live, but it was easy enough to avoid the scorelines in New Hampshire. So on the 2nd of January, I sat down to watch Liverpool v. Bolton Wanderers from the day before. It was scoreless until the 61st minute when Jermaine Pennant ran onto Dirk Kuyt’s pass and lauched in a screaming intercontinental ballistic missile into the box. There was Crouchie. Waiting and hungry—he’d been goalless in 11 league matches.

I’d seen YouTube clips of bicycle kicks. But I didn’t imagine Peter Crouch in all his 6-foot-7-inches of awkward-looking glory could pull one off. (He’d already scored one against Galatasary in September, but I didn’t know about it yet.) Now, he launched himself at Pennant’s ball, which was about to streak behind him. His body twisted in the air like a convulsing stork and he met the ball in mid-air, launching it past Juusi Jääskelainen. One-nil.

In no time at all, Liverpool were on the attack again. Kuyt launched his own cross into the area. As two defenders converged on the ball, Steven Gerrard steamed in, jumped, parted the white sea, and volleyed it home with the side of his foot. I was in heaven. Two SFMs in 60 seconds!

Later, Dirk Kuyt would run onto Luis García’s through-ball and, under pressure, finish from the tightest of angles. Across the face of goal and in. Brilliant.

I said goodbye to the practical reasoning of following a London club and returned to the call of my initial instincts. I watched the next few Liverpool matches with greedy abandon. Sadly, Arsenal knocked Liverpool out of the FA and Carling Cups in succesive matches, but then there were wins against Watford, Chelsea and West Ham with Crouch scoring three more times. My first ninety minutes of Derby Day action was a let-down, with neither Liverpool nor Everton finding the net.

And then I watched the 2-1 loss to Newcastle away…

Strangely enough, it was the Newcastle loss that sealed it for me. That bitter result in the rain. So much Liverpool dominance but not enough finishing. Bellamy’s early goal made me sure Liverpool would have the day, but the Magpies pulled it out with a goal from Martins and a converted penalty from Solano. But I was with Liverpool all the way. I was as mesmerized by their loss as any of the recent wins. It was feeling the true sting of the dissapointing result that made me realize Liverpool were the side for me. I was invested. Watching them grit it out in the rain in the Northeast, squandering chances somehow pushed me over the edge. Right reasons or not. I’d be for Liverpool from then on.

(That was meant to be a 500-700 word piece. Inevitably, it got away from me there. If you’re still with me at the end… thanks for reading! Let me know in the comments how you came to follow your own club. Next week: What Makes A Classic Match?)

Ah, isn’t buying a football club the easiest thing in the world. Look how quickly Abramovich bought Chelsea, the Glazers bought Manchester United and the Abu Dhabi group picked up City. Compared to the protracted nature of the proposed takeover of Portsmouth, even buying Newcastle United may be easier.

When Sulaiman Al-Fahim reappeared in May to announce he was to buy Portsmouth, I wasn’t surprised, just perplexed. I’d forgotten that the buyers of Manchester City had quickly jettisoned him last autumn when he started making wild statements to the press about transfer targets and wages. Well, now here he is again and it seems another can of worms has been opened over the takeover.

The English press, well known for its balance and refusal to use knee jerk headlines, has been all over the Pompey takeover this weekend. From the Guardian, to the Sun to the, erm, Daily Star, rumours abounded about who was actually involved in the deal. First we had Premier League Chairman Dave Richards getting embroiled in the takeover before going on a media blitz to say he had no involvement or had set the deal up.

Then amazingly, international fugitive and former owner of Manchester City, Thaksin Shinawatra then came out claiming he was not involved at all after he was reported to be involved. Finally, expecting Adolf Hitler to be involved in some freak time machine/cryogenically frozen worm hole scandal, disappointingly it then seemed that Al-Fahim’s Hydra Group was owned by the brother of Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansoor.

Ok, have you followed this so far? Good. Now after all that, what must the Portsmouth fans think of it all? The Fratton Park faithful, who have seen more than their fair share’s of ups and downs over the years, must have thought they’d seen most things, but even this little pot-boiler must be an unusual set of events even in Portsmouths history.

With no manager with Paul Hart’s temporary contract now having run its course, Glen Johnson tipped to leave very soon and now Peter Crouch coming out in the press to admit his disappointment and frustration at events, it could hardly be duller. Add to that Chief Executive Peter Storrie’s annoyance at the wild speculation surrounding the Al-Fahim’s bid and Crouch’s comments and you have a situation that will have the Pompey fans wondering if Godzilla may turn up coming out of the Solent next and stomp his way through Fareham on the way to the cricket ground.

When the dust finally settles, I truly hope that Al-Fahim is as good as his word, the Portsmouth fans deserve it. The last 10 years have been like a day out at Southsea fairground for the loyal fans of Pompey. This is a club that deserves and needs some investment on a continual basis, as great a ground for atmosphere Fratton Park is, it looks well past it sell by date. The new proposal for the ground that came out last year looked fantastic; it’s such a relief to see a ground so different to the normal identikit shoeboxes that seem to pop up these days and let’s hope the new owners agree to it.

New investment is crucial though for Portsmouth to compete both on and off the field and the sooner Al-Fayims due diligence is completed, the better for the fans. After all, they’ve a certain other clubs recent relegations to warn them of the promise of good times that are always around the corner but never arrive.

Until late October, Portsmouth seemed destined for a mid-table season. After a rough August start against Chelsea and Man United, the trophy-winning club won four out of seven matches, looking frisky once again. Then Harry Redknapp left for the Tottenham and the seam exploded. Tony Adams had no perceivable managerial skill. Financial problems forced the sale of Defoe and Diarra. Fortune followed the clubs geography and they currently sit in 15^th place, just three points above water.

Form: Portsmouth have not played particularly well, winning just two out of eight and losing four. Though, all of the losses were to clubs in the top half of the table, and Pompey did hang with Liverpool and Chelsea. Had they been lucky they could have picked up a few more points. They scored a big victory over Everton. Jumping back on track isn’t inconceivable.

Schedule: Pompey have a rather benign squeaky bum journey ahead. They host Arsenal and travel away to Old Trafford, but the rest of the matches are winnable. West Brom, Bolton and Sunderland come to Fratton Park. Portsmouth play Hull City, Newcastle, Blackburn and Wigan away. They also have the game in hand, although it will be against a Manchester United team probably sorted by that point, so it will be irrelevant. If Portsmouth can pull things together, their schedule won’t stop them.

Injuries: Health could hinder Portsmouth a little bit. They need Crouch’s thigh injury to heal completely. He has 11 goals. No one else on the team has more than three. He’s essential. They also need Pennant and Traore back fit as well to provide some creativity in midfield.

Prognosis: Based on their ability, Portsmouth should not be in this position. On paper, they have decent, often above average, talent at every position. They have experience. Many of those players tasted success in the FA Cup last season. The team’s performance should reflect that. Tony Adams deserves the blame. Portsmouth has presumed leaders like Sol Campbell and David James. They should stay up.

Alex Ferguson will be singing the praises of Manchester City today after Liverpool stuttered, spluttered and failed to find the winning goal they needed to have any chance of winning the title. From a fantastic position before Christmas, Liverpool have thrown point after point away to allow Manchester United to catch them up, draw level and now pull too far away to catch.

7 points with 12 games to go may not seem too far a distance for Liverpool, but honestly, can you see United losing 3 games whilst Liverpool keep winning. It’s never going to happen and Ferguson has been proved right when he questioned if Liverpool had the experience and stomach for a consistent title challenge in January. Benitez has seen his side falter and his stubborn insistence on playing two defensive midfielders, even in home games, has cost them any hope of the title. Why is he obsessed with playing Lucas? I cannot understand his inclusion in the Liverpool starting line up, especially with the attack minded Babel on the bench.

It’s a decision that confuses me when they need to win games. Lucas is never going to offer anything, his passing was its usual dreadful range of over hit passes, under hit balls, awful first touches and safe sideways passing. Why is he in there rather than a more attacking midfielder? For some reason, Benitez doesn’t seem to come under anywhere near the level of criticism for his transfer dealings that he should. How much money has he wasted in his 5 years, £100 million? £150 million? Liverpool’s two most consistent players, Gerrard and Carragher, in his tenure were already there, Torres has simply been injured too many times this season and the cover he has for him simply cannot cope with the pressure of a title challenge. Selling Robbie Keane after treating him like a diseased leper, becomes a worse decision every time Liverpool drop points or fetch on David N’gog to try and salvage something.Peter Crouch, Jermaine Pennant, Scott Carson, Craig Bellamy, Mark Rodriquez, Fernando Morientes, Gabriel Paletta, Jan Krompkamp and Mo Sissiko have all been bought and sold under Benitez. The side cry out for a decent left back, but he sold their best one to Blackburn Rovers, there is no quality cover for Gerrard and Torres. The reserve side is full of cheap South American imports that won’t push themselves in to the first team.  Lucas cost £6 million. That alone is a travesty.

After 3 years of not winning anything after 2 of the luckiest cup final wins in the history of football ( The 2005 Champions League and the 2006 F.A. Cup) you have to question his future as manager of Liverpool. Why should he be offered a new contract? How many points will Liverpool finish behind Manchester United, if they even manage to hold on to second, which is no guarentee with Chelsea and Aston Villa still breathing down their necks. What excuses will we be given next? It’s always someone else’s fault that Liverpool don’t win games and his childish outbursts are frankly absurd. He picks the team, chooses the tactics, plays midfielders up front, centre halves at right back and strikers on the wing. Is Alex Ferguson brainwashing him to pick such unbalanced sides?

Does he honestly believe that his defensive strangulation of football can deliver another Champions League? Will he try to suffocate Real Madrid at the Bernabeu on Wednesday night, a side transformed under Juande Ramos since he was parachuted in to save their season in January. 8 wins on the trot have seen Madrid eat in to Barcelona’s lead, cutting it from 12 points to 7 and perhaps the Champions League is more realistic proposition for Madrid than it is for Liverpool. A bad result on Wednesday night will be the end of Liverpools season that promised so much 6 weeks ago to be over before the end of February. They will be fortunate to finish 10 points behind Manchester United and lucky if they get anywhere near the Champions League final. Benitez has thrown the Premiership title away and if Liverpool want to win it, they need a new manager.