Crouch: I’d like to manage QPR

Peter Crouch says he would like to manage QPR.

Crouch, who was raised in Ealing, played for the R’s before going on to play for England and the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham.


Several attempts to take him back to Loftus Road in the final years of his career failed for a variety of reasons – he always believed he would return for a second spell at the club.

Speaking on Paddy Power’s From The Horse’s Mouth podcast, the 39-year-old said: “I’ve always wanted to go back, having started out there as a kid, and always thought I would go back as a player.

“I was 19, still living at home with my parents and I used to walk to training.

“We’d play on the Saturday and most of my mates were fans and had season tickets, and they’d always bet on me to score the first goal.

“If it came in, we were all out that night and I must have scored about seven or eight ‘first goals’ that year. I’d look up at the crowd and see all the boys dancing and singing!

“I get to play for QPR, we’ve won the match, and I get to walk out of the ground to the local Irish pub Jono’s on the Uxbridge Road.

“It was one of the best times of my life and I always wanted to go back and do that again.”

He added: “Obviously it would be very different now but I’d still get that buzz.

“If I had to manage one, it would be good to go and manage QPR.”

Crouch also recalled an FA Cup game against Arsenal in 2001.

Rangers, who were relegated to the third tier that season, were thrashed 6-0 and Crouch came up against a seasoned England defender in Tony Adams.

“He was strong, he read the game, he was good in the air. He just gave me an absolute lesson,” Crouch said.

“I was 19 and just thought ‘I’m not ready for this level yet’. He gave me a schooling and it was amazing.”