Southampton fotball

Tottenham had reportedly been interested in signing Crouch, who scored 42 goals in 135 games for Liverpool, but he has opted to rejoin Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who also coached him at Southampton in the 2004-05 season.

The Spurs boss began the expected Lane Drain by selling promising keeper Tommy Forecast to Southampton for 200,000 on Monday.

Benitez's decision to sign Crouch from Southampton in the summer of 2005 was increasingly questioned as the forward took until his 19th appearance to break his Liverpool goalscoring duck.