Peter Crouch has revealed how he wanted to leave Liverpool in his early days – and admits he was 'devastated' to miss out on the Champions League final in 2007.
The former Anfield striker is a cult hero amongst fans following his three seasons at the club, with Crouch scoring 42 goals in that period.
Signed from Southampton in 2005, the player failed to find the net in his first 18 games, but broke his duck with a double against Wigan that December.
He would go on to have a solid career under Rafael Benitez, winning the FA Cup in his first campaign, before picking up a Champions League runner-up medal following defeat to AC Milan.
He moved to Portsmouth in 2008, but is still appreciated by Liverpool fans, and received a generous reception when starting for Stoke against the Reds last week.
Yet Crouch has admitted he struggled to adapt to life on Merseyside to begin with, and only started to settle when he ignored Rafael Benitez's tactical instructions.
He told FourFourTwo: “I went through a little barren spell – well, quite a big barren spell (laughs) – and I really just wanted to head back to Southampton as fast as possible.
“I was thinking 'what have I done?'
“Thankfully, I stuck it out. The manager wanted me to do different things to what I was used to. I was doing them and working really hard, but I was trying to score that goal while playing a lot deeper.
“It got to the stage where I was saying to myself: 'I'm going to have to start being more selfish', so I played higher up the pitch, perhaps against the manager's wishes (…) but I've got nothing bad to say about Rafa, he was first class.”
Benitez, however, opted to leave Crouch on the bench for 78 minutes against Milan in the Champions League final – despite scoring 18 goals that season, seven of them in that competition – with Dirk Kuyt given the nod up front.
Crouch added: “I'd say my biggest regret in football was not starting that game. I felt I should have been in the team.
“I'd scored a lot of goals that season in the Champions League and played pretty much every game, so not getting picked to start the final was devastating for me.”