Anyone need goals? Why former England, Liverpool, Tottenham, Southampton and Stoke striker Peter Crouch was back at Portsmouth

The former England striker popped into the Blues’ training ground this afternoon to meet Danny Cowley.

Crouch, however, has no intention of lending his services to end Pompey’s frustrating 357-minute goal drought.

Instead the reason for his eye-catching Roko presence centres on a documentary currently being filmed for Discovery.

Having been appointed director of football at Dulwich Hamlet, the former Spurs and Liverpool man has sought the Blues’ head coach’s advice – and enquired about potential loan recruits.

The documentary is being produced and directed by Pompey supporter Adam Darke.

And Crouch, who scored 35 goals in 88 appearances over two spells for the Blues, is hoping to use his own long-standing Fratton Park allegiance to help him succeed.

Darke told The News: ‘The documentary follows the progress of Dulwich Hamlet, who face financial challenges like a lot of clubs at that level.

‘It’s Crouchie coming back to the club where he went on loan as a 17-year-old, so he has an emotional connection there.

‘The premise of the documentary is him trying to help the club, but through the course of the film it broadens out to the struggle of clubs at that level.

‘As director of football, is a new role for Crouchie and quite daunting. He doesn’t really know how football at that level works.

‘However, the idea is he comes in and builds a football infrastructure, signing players, trying to sell players so they can bring in money for the club, and helping out the manager on the football side in any way he can.

‘At the moment, Dulwich are a couple of players short. Crouchie was talking to Danny about the possibility of some kind of link-up with Pompey.

‘Maybe some of the young players could go on loan and the two clubs could help each other out.’

The opening three episodes of the documentary are expected to be shown around Christmas.

The remaining five episodes are scheduled at the end of the season, hopefully portraying an entertaining campaign for all the right reasons.

Darke added: ‘As there’s not an under-23 team at Pompey, Danny was saying there are a few young players lost in the system who could do with first-team minutes, even at a lower level.

‘Crouchie was looking and analysing video clips, seeing who might be right for Dulwich – but it would also have to be right for the player and the club.

‘This is very early exploration of what might be a relationship between the clubs, with Dulwich’s manager, Gavin Rose, also needing to be involved.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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