Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce wants to sign Stoke City and former England international striker Peter Crouch this summer, according to The Sun.
Aston Villa recently completed that signing of former Chelsea and England captain John Terry and want to add another player with international experience to their ranks. Manager Steve Bruce wants to put together a team capable of challenging for promotion back to the Premier League this season and has identified Crouch as a target.
Following a disappointing 2015-16 campaign in which he scored only two goals, Crouch came back into the Stoke team last season and managed ten goals in 29 games in all competitions. Seven of these goals came in the Premier League and helped Stoke to finish a solid 13th in the table.
Crouch is believed to still be in first-team plans at Stoke for the coming season but would get the opportunity to play regular first-team football if he made the decision to sign for Aston Villa in the Championship.
The 6ft7in striker has played for Villa before, making 43 appearances for the club and scoring six goals between 2002 and 2004. However, he failed to hold down a regular first-team place before leaving and rediscovering his form in front of goal at Southampton.
[interaction id=”59620a7bf2d4938713c39dcb”]Crouch is earning around £4 million a year at Stoke and would not be keen to take a pay cut to drop into the Championship. Therefore, Steve Bruce does not want to pay a big transfer fee for his services. However, a big promotion bonus could be enough to tempt Crouch to sign.
At 36, Crouch has bags of experience that could prove vital in a promotion push with Villa this season. However, fans may be doubting just how many of Villa’s 46 Championship games Crouch would be able to play in given his age.
