“My assessment of Peter Crouch when I came in this summer was that he was a lad lacking a lot of confidence," the Villa boss told the clubs official website.
"He was looking in general to maybe go somewhere else and see if he could get that confidence up.
“I got the impression that he’s come here and a £4.5million price-tag meant big expectations. That’s a lot of money and you should have big expectations as fans.
“I sensed a lad that was lacking a lot of confidence and we felt that if he was going to improve here, he needed to go out, get his confidence up somewhere else to see if he can come back and do well here.”
| Recent Career History By Club (1999 onwards) | ||||||
| Team | Debut | Apps (+ sub) | Goals | Yellows | Reds | |
| Norwich | 13/09/2003 | 2 (0) | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Aston Villa | 30/03/2002 | 14 (7) | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Portsmouth | 11/08/2001 | 38 (0) | 19 | 7 | 0 | |
| QPR | 12/08/2000 | 41 (5) | 10 | 8 | 1 | |
| Recent Career History By Season (1999 onwards) | ||||||
| Season | First App. | Apps (+ sub) | Goals | Yellows | Reds | |
| 2003/2004 | 16/08/2003 | 2 (1) | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2002/2003 | 18/08/2002 | 7 (6) | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2001/2002 | 11/08/2001 | 45 (0) | 21 | 7 | 0 | |
| 2000/2001 | 12/08/2000 | 41 (5) | 10 | 8 | 1 | |
| Appearances 95 (+ 12 as sub); Goals 33; Yellow cards 17; Red cards 1 | ||||||