http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=285095&cc=5901
Rex Gowar
LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Hernan Crespo was holding back tears when he
boarded a train in the small coastal Japanese town of Hirono 16 months ago
after Argentina's shock elimination in the first round of the 2002 World Cup
finals and he refused to speak to reporters.
But Chelsea's new striker was a relaxed, happy and optimistic man full of
the joys of playing football in England when he spoke to reporters recently at
Stamford Bridge.
Crespo, who joined Chelsea in a ￡16.8m transfer from Inter Milan in
August, said that moving to London was another step in a career on the
ascendant.
'Am I growing? Yes, there's no doubt. I'm living the way I would always
have wanted to live,' he said. 'We can talk about the money but that's two
seconds, I don't even sit down, I say yes, no, and that's that.
'I play because of the passion I have for football. When I score a goal I
don't shout 'Ah, afterwards I'm going to ask for more money'; there's no way.'
Crespo loves the Premiership and with no commitments with the Argentina
team until late March he can put all his energy into his new club.
'The Premiership is a different style (of football) but at the same time
fascinating,' Crespo added. 'It's great to see the crowd get into the match
and they give you everything.
'There's a dynamic in the match. It's great to play in and at the same
time to live it the way the fans do because they know that if you missed a
goal you haven't killed anyone, you missed a goal because you're human.
'You can feel the crowd and when you score and they go 'Yeaahhh' it's
something incredible, beautiful. The truth is they live the game the way it
should be, as a spectacle, a sport.'
Crespo, who grew up in the Argentine game where tricking opponents is
regarded as an art form, said he also admired the code of fair play.
'I like it because they're straight, they go for the ball as if it was
the last but they get up and shake hands. They repudiate (cheating) and I like
that because I like clean play.'
However, he admires the clever play of Argentina colleagues such as Pablo
Aimar and Andres D'Alessandro or new Chelsea team mate Joe Cole.
'There's also cheek, that's also nice, but when you exaggerate one way or
the other that bothers me.'
Crespo said he was attracted to Chelsea by the club's ambitions following
their takeover by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who spent heavily on
strengthening the squad in the pre-season.
'I'd like to be able to write a small part of the history of this
revolution because there is a serious project,' he revealed.
He said being the team's leading scorer in the domestic championship or
the Champions League would be a contribution but his eyes were on a first
league title in Europe after missing out with Parma, Lazio and Inter.
'Being the top scorer is not the main thing but it can be an objective,
why not? It would be satisfying after finishing top scorer in Argentina and
Italy.
'If you look at the scorers' table today, I'm giving an advantage. I've
played seven of the 14 matches, not all from the start, and scored five goals.
'When we get to March we'll see what I dedicate myself to, the scorers'
table, the championship or the Champions League.'
All that, however, is the easy part of Crespo's new life in England
because settling into a non-Latin country is proving harder, what with
learning the language and sorting out everyday problems.
'Going into a service station, for example, and saying 'Can you pump up
the tyres because they look a bit low to me', right,' he says with a shrug and
resigned grin.
'My wife?' he laughs. 'What a good question. Well, you just have to get by
, you've got to live with it, it's not easy.'
Crespo has moved into a house in the southwest London district of Barnes
on the banks of the River Thames with his long-time Italian partner Alexia.
He said that at least he had the experience of a previous big move when he
left River Plate for Parma in 1996.
'My difficulty (in Italy) was on the playing side. I had to get more used
to that than the social. Here it's the other way round. I wasn't worried about
playing here.
'I'm convinced that if you can play well in Italy, be the player who makes
a difference there, you can play anywhere in the world.'
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