Fans’ reaction after the Charlton match. One has to be a legend to receive so much respect from the fans.
To begin with, Robbie Fowler is the reason I started watching Liverpool and later become their supporter. The first match I watched was the one where he scored a hat trick against Arsenal in less than five minutes back in 1995. I was spellbound by his performance, and paid a lot of attention to him and the club after the match.
Robbie Fowler’s days when he was still a lad in the team
One of Robbie Fowler’s trademarks was a piece of plaster across his nose when he was playing. I can’t recall when he stopped using it :-)
During my secondary school days, there were many friends around me who were very fond of football, particularly the Premiership. In my class, there were different club supporters, and you know back in those days, boys were very hardheaded about their supported team. Different people has different ways of expressing their affiliation, like keychain, school bag with the club’s crest, even the brand of the jacket worn to school must be die-hard loyal to the team. For me, I have some nicely laminated posters of Robbie Fowler as my desktop wallpaper (literally), and surprisingly, my teachers did not prohibit such ‘modification’ done to the school property. Those posters seem priceless now that Robbie Fowler is leaving.
Some of the posters of Robbie Fowler from the good old days. The double-page sized cut-out is from Mike when we were classmates in Secondary Four (2000)
Cool facts about Robbie Fowler from Match Annual 2000. Back then, he was the youngest among the first five Premiership players to have scored over 100 goals in the league. The others are Alan Shearer, Ian Wright, Les Ferdinand, and Andy Cole.
Back to football, Liverpool back in those days, which were more than 10 years ago, has almost nothing in common with the squad at the moment. Back then, the club’s performance was quite inconsistent. As the second runners-up of the Premiership this season, finishing five or six back then was nothing; with losses more than 10 matches per season was also quite common. But when they were in good form, they could really trash their opponents with four or five goals or even more, which was a hell lot of fun to watch. Robbie Fowler, as the leading striker of the team played a huge role in the success of the club back then. His performance pretty much decided the result of Liverpool’s matches. When he did not score, the drought may last a few matches; when he was back, he would give the fans two or more goals in a single match, and continue the spree until another drought hit.
Three of Liverpool’s players many seasons back: Titi Camara, Fowler and Rigobert Song. Now, all of them are history for the club.
Robbie Fowler has great speed, and a lethal touch in the penalty box. Just give him the ball, and he will eventually score most of the time. He is also quite aggressive in terms of tackling for a small player. Not surprisingly, he is one of highest goal scorers for both Liverpool and the entire Premiership. However, Robbie Fowler did not gain many caps as a national squad player for England. He was originally featured in England’s first-eleven for World Cup 98, but was dropped due to last minute injury. Many said that his absence gave way to the rise of Michael Owen, his teammate in Liverpool, who was his substitute to the World Cup.
Robbie Fowler is also quite a man of surprise. He once rejected a penalty against Arsenal, when David Seaman, the goalkeeper, was seemingly fouling him. I remember he won a Fair Play Award by FIFA after that. Some of his other behaviors on the pitch however, were both controversial and incomprehensible. He once sniffed the white line of the penalty box as a mean of celebrating his goal score, and was involved in a fight with Graeme Le Saux, a Chelsea defender and his England teammate after he waved his backside to him. Anyway, he made the headlines in all these incidents.
A few years after Gerard Houllier came to the club, it was quite clear to me that Robbie Fowler was not the first choice for the French coach, as he favored pairing Michael Owen and Emile Heskey upfront. The height of the coach-player conflict lead to his departure from the club to Leed United for 11 million Pound, and subsequently Manchester City for 3 million Pound. Personally, I think that his performances in both these clubs were never as good as his days in Liverpool, even though he scored some goals for them. He was also in and out of the injury list most of the time, which deterred him from gaining a consistent form in the Premiership.
It was such a delight for me, when the new gaffer, Rafael Benitez brought him back to Liverpool from Manchester City early last year. Even though his role has long been taken over by other younger and more promising players like Kuyt, Crouch, Agger, and so on, and that Fowler is more to a substitute than a regular first-eleven, it is always pleasant to see him back wearing the all red jersey on the pitch. Somehow, I think that Anfield is the only place for Robbie Fowler as a footballer.
The last match I watched him played was when he was substituted during the second leg of the Champions League semis against Chelsea. Too bad for him, Chelsea lost the penalty shoot-out even before Fowler could have a piece of the thrill.
At the age of 32, Robbie Fowler played his last Premiership match against Charlton. It was a disappointment that he did not score in that match, but the fans love him anyway. Before and after the match, he was given a long standing ovation by the audience at Anfield. Making him the captain of the team was just a bonus, but fans will forever remember him for bringing so much joy and inspiration to the club throughout the decade.
Fowler’s last match helped to seal second runners-up in the Premiership for Liverpool this season. Too bad he did not score.
All the best to you, God of Anfield!
