I would be really interested if someone knew the real story behind Fowler and the reason hes dicked the last 6 years of his career?
For me one of the very best goalscorers I ever saw, he was right up there with the Shearers and Coles.
But for some reason wether it be drugs/lifestyle or attitude he just lost it bigstyle. I tend to think its a character flaw that had seen his fall from grace into nothing more then an average player at a relativly young age.
He has also leeched of Leeds for a good while which is poor form for a Multi millionare with over 100000 properties..
He's vehemently denied ever taking drugs.
The reason his form dropped was due to a couple of very nasty injuries that hit him when he should have been at his peak, and he never really recovered. He was then sold to Leeds and scored 14 goals in 30 games - which isn't a bad return for a player who didn't even want to be there. Then sold to City, where he looked even less interested a lot of the time, and only scored 20 in 79 games.
When you say he leeched of Leeds for a while, are you referring to his wages being partly paid by Leeds whilst he was at City? It was Leeds who gave him that contract, and I'd look at Risdale if you want to blame anyone for that. Once he was sold to City they aren't going to offer to make up the rest of his wages are they? Not when there's a contract that states that Leeds will pay it.
All in all though, his story is a sad one. Shearer was probably the best all-round forward in recent times. Fowler was the best natural finisher. That he never had a chance for England (due to injury and someone called Hoddle), was treated shockingly by Houllier, and that we never got to see him play at his absolute peak for long enough is a crying shame.
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