Benitez has high hopes for Reds’ £7m signing Crouch

LIVERPOOL manager Rafael Benitez believes the imminent arrival of England striker Peter Crouch will bring a new dimension to the European champions.

The Reds have agreed a fee of around £7million (€10.12m) for Crouch, who has agreed a four-year contract and will sign after completing a medical tomorrow.

And Benitez, who guided Liverpool to Champions League glory in May, hopes Crouch will soon join his new team-mates at their base in Switzerland later this week ahead of Saturday’s friendly against Olympiacos in Liechtenstein.

“He is good in the air. He can keep the ball, he can play the ball. With Peter we will have other options.”

Crouch will become the European champions’ sixth summer signing and would almost certainly take their spending past the £20m (€28.9m) mark.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are bracing themselves for a storm of criticism from Australia over their medical treatment of Harry Kewell as the Anfield star undergoes his second operation of the summer.

Kewell last kicked a ball for Liverpool in the Champions League final in Istanbul, and had to be replaced by Vladimir Smicer before the break.

A shattered Kewell had an operation soon after the final to repair an adductor muscle tear, amid claims that he lacked commitment in some quarters.

Liverpool’s statement on their website today pointedly explained the new surgery was nothing to do with the operation he had after the European final.

“The injury is unrelated to the adductor tear operation the player underwent following the Champions League final in May,” it said.

But there is likely to be some criticism from Australia that this is a further problem for the player in an area of the body close to the last injury.

Kewell declined to travel to Bayer Leverkusen last season for a Champions League game, which enraged Benitez, and also had to be substituted in the Carling Cup final.