Most likely venue for Robbie Fowler's next appearence?
In what was surely the most inevitable story of the year so far comes news that Robbie Fowler will not play for Cardiff City again this season. You do wonder if it is a sad but inevitable end for a player whose illustrious career has been on the wan for some time and long before he arrived at Cardiff.
Fanfared as our biggest ever signing, I well remember feeling chuffed with the news. The club shop has record sales of the new shirt with thousands getting Fowler printed on theirs but where are they now? You hardly ever see anyone sport them, it symbolises how it time has been.
Perhaps a sign of things to come was that Robbie arrived at the club overweight and unfit even though he was playing Premiership football for Liverpool only 4 months beforehand. His debut saw him taken off in a friendly after 20 minutes ... injured again.
Robbie got a run in the team but despite earning a reported £25k a week, his performances justified a fraction of that enormous wage, double the most ever paid to a City player any time before. Slow of pace and thought but with tricks, Robbie was lost at Championship level, looking as if he was taking part in a knockabout or testimonial in contrast to everyone else.
The epitaphs were being written then Robbie provided his one and only good spell. Six goals in six games, half of them the coolest taken penalties I've ever seen, and I thought he was turning a corner but normal service was soon resumed as games passed him by, he looked tired before an hour had gone and City were struggling.
His last start was November 6th and all we saw was a shadow of the man he was and someone who played for Cardiff City, not on merit, but because of his name. His partnership with Hasselbaink, an unmitigated disaster. Cardiff have come good only since it was dissolved.
City have the option to take Robbie for next season and, amazingly, a club insider seems to think it may be an option. Cut your losses City, Robbie retire gracefully. Fowler will only fall further behind and get even more unfit with another 7 months away.
He promised so much but delivered so little, what a pity
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