Crouch to Portsmouth

My holidays have been very eventful. Even in the possible event of an uneventful holiday, I would still have a lot to write, just about the tiny little things in life that I think are worth to be given some thinking.

But today I read the papers, and The Star gave a big headline inside their sports column, "I had to escape my Kop hell". Wtf. It's not wtf with Crouch. It's wtf with The Star.

I've been against The Star ever since they started extracting articles from The Sun (The Sun is a daily newspaper in the UK, I'm not referring to the free newspaper here in Malaysia). First, a Liverpool fan should not read The Sun, and so does their articles. Well, I don't buy The Sun, but their articles got through to Malaysian media to the newspaper my parents subscribe. Obviously whoever the person in charge of selecting articles for the sports section is definitely not a Liverpool fan, or if he is, is a very ignorant fan I guess.

But worse than that, after extracting The Sun's articles, they make their own headline for the article. If one would read through, Crouch clearly said he is not bitter with Rafa. He is just frustrated with the rotation policy. He will leave Liverpool but he will still be a supporter.

OK fuck with The Star and their The Sun articles. Let's talk about Crouch. I like him. Maybe not since day one. But unlike some Liverpool fans who have totally turned into 'Don't play Crouch' fans during his unfortunately long spell for his first Liverpool goal, I think the guy has talent. Huge talent. Fast forward a few seasons ahead, I think he is real class, but unfortunately he is a shadow of Torres. Torres is a class of his own, anyone else are made to look average. Truth is, Crouch is not average. He is the best striker for Liverpool after Torres. But again, unfortunately (for him and fortunately for Liverpool), Torres never gets injured, and he plays at his best as a lone striker and Gerrard just behind him. So with that, Crouchie gets only nine Premier League starts.

As a professional, he sure gets frustrated with the rotation policy. Even when he scores a goal or two, he still gets the bench the next week. He often voiced his frustrations in interviews albeit in a very professional manner. He is a good player, but he is an even better person. He is very polite, never arrogant, always work very hard (yup, he always cover a lot of grass when he's on them) and at times funny (his robot dance video is available in his wikipedia page).

I won't go very technical on why he is an excellent striker, but I would say Liverpool lost a great player in Crouch, that Torres don't have a second best striker as his backup anymore, but it is good for him that at least he goes to a place where he might get more appearance and hopefully more goals (but hopefully not against Liverpool).

As for The Star, well, there's nothing much I can do. This is not a 'freedom of speech' country. There are no better papers than The Star. Even if it is a very bad paper, The Star is still pretty much 'the best', or more appropriately, the least worst. Oh fuck it.