Crouch seeks Reds talks - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

Crouch seeks Reds talks

Peter Crouch wants showdown talks with Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez over his Anfield future.

The England striker, whose contract expires next summer, has started just nine Barclays Premier League games since the July arrival of Fernando Torres and has been linked with a move away from the club.

The 27-year-old, who cost the Reds £7million from Southampton almost three years ago, told the Daily Mirror: "When all is said and done, I don't think I can have another season like this year where I've started nine Premier League games. Out of a 38-game league season, nine games is not the amount you want to be playing."

He continued: "I'll have to speak to the manager and see what his plans are. I need to see him and sort things out. I have to find out what he wants from me next season and whether or not I can continue with that. In some ways, I want to feel wanted.

"I'd like to speak to the manager and the club before I commit to anything and know whether or not I'll be here next year."

Benitez claims Crouch was offered a new deal midway through this season but the player insisted contract talks amounted to an informal "five-minute chat".

Crouch said he would love to commit his future to Liverpool, but not at the expense of his England career.

He denied having any contact with Portsmouth over a return to the club where he spent just under a season until March 2003.

But he is flattered at all the attention from rival clubs, adding: "It's always nice to know that if things did go completely wrong for me at Liverpool, I'd have options to go somewhere else and it's not the end of the world if things don't work out for me there."

Sport in brief in Pictures

Don't Miss
The Glamour Awards - stars turn on the style

Glamour Awards

Stars turn on the style
Duchess of Cambridge is pretty in pink at her first Buckingham Palace garden party

Garden party

Duchess of Cambridge is pretty in pink
FIRST review of Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi blockbuster Prometheus

First review

Is Ridley Scott's Prometheus any good?
Fair-weather goths

Fair-weather goths

The sultry shades of summer darks are coming out of the shadows
London gets ready for the Diamond Jubilee - in pictures

Diamond Jubilee

London gets ready - in pictures
Dog save the Queen: Corgis surge in popularity

Dog save the Queen

Corgis surge in popularity
'He’s a better ex than he was a husband', says Boris Johnson's ex wife

A better ex than husband

We talk to Boris Johnson's ex wife
TV Baftas - in pictures

Best of the Baftas

Stars on the red, white and blue carpet
You big softie: Has Giles Coren put down his poison pen?

You big softie

Has Giles Coren put down his poison pen?
Pop star Paloma Faith, former Labour minister and Tory blogger back gay marriage video

Gay marriage

Pop star, former Labour minister and Tory blogger back gay marriage video