Vital Cardiff City reviews the season on a player by player basis. Today it’s the turn of striker Robbie Fowler …
Robbie Fowler
Striker
Free transfer from Liverpool
Fowler? Fowler? Oh yes! The aging ex-Liverpool, Leeds United and Manchester City striker did sign for Cardiff City pre-season – it`s just that we`ve yet to see anything much from the man once known as ‘God`. Fowler was a big name bought by Jones, and came with ringing endorsement from Benitez amongst others – at only 32 surely he could do a job and would be unlikely to lose his predatory instinct?
We weren`t to know early in the season as Fowler spent a lot of time being paraded at Ninian Park. It wasn the end of August the first time we saw Fowler out of his suit in a league cup game against Leyton Orient. Four league outings followed where Fowler appeared short of match fitness – we were told because of a lack of pre-season training (why not?!?) but he did grab two goals in a televised game against Preston North End before hitting two more in the next game against West Brom – things began to look up.
Fowler netted two penalties in the next five games as our disappointing form continued but there were few signs that he remained the same player as before.
We saw one minutes worth of action in December, a brief appearance against Bristol City before Robbie was flown all over the world, to experts in Germany and USA, before an operation on his troublesome hip injury which would see him out for the season. Rehabilitation went better than expected and there was even talk of a comeback for the FA Cup final – though after 6 months out that always seemed unlikely. He ended the season with 6 goals in 16 appearances (some very brief) but three were penalties and there was plenty left to prove.
A pay-as-you-play deal looks a strong possibility for Fowler nest season as Dave Jones re-affirms his belief that a fit Fowler is a 20 goal a season man in this league. The key word is fitness.
Season rating 4
