FOWLER WEEK: TONY BARRETT ON ROBBIE
As Liverpool Football Club and Robbie Fowler officially part ways
for the second time, liverpoolfc.tv pays tribute to a true Anfield
legend with a week-long series of articles.
The first time I set eyes on Robbie Fowler he was just 11-years-old
and his surname wasn't even Fowler.
As a kid he was Robbie Ryder and everyone involved in kids football
in Liverpool had heard of him. There was a huge buzz about him. He
played for a team called Thorvald - a team which no other team in
the city could live with - and Robbie was the star player.
I have to admit though that the first time I saw 'God' I was a
non-believer. I was watching a mate of mine playing an under-11s
game on Botanic Park and Thorvald were playing on the next
pitch.
At half-time in the game I was watching, I walked over to have a
look at Thorvald. Just to see for myself if this Robbie Ryder kid
was as good as people were saying.
As usual, Thorvald were administering a hiding to some poor team
who simply couldn't get near them. But it was their right winger, a
lad called Franny Tierney whom I'd played with in Liverpool
schoolboy trials, who really caught my eye.
Franny was electric - probably the most talented young footballer
I've ever seen - and as was always the case, he was pulling the
opposition leftback to bits. Ryder, by comparison, wasn't doing
much. He just seemed to be loitering in and around the box, not
getting too involved in the build up and, at times, he looked too
small and weak to make a big impression.
Thorvald ended up winning 4-0 and Ryder got two. Both were tap-ins
from about a yard and I can remember saying to my mate that I
didn't think he was anywhere near as good as people were making
out.
Thankfully, Liverpool had scouts who knew quite a bit more about
what makes a top class centre forward than I did.
A couple of Sundays later I was back at Botanic Park and my mate's
team were playing Thorvald. It turned out to be a massacre as
Thorvald won 26-0. And that's not a misprint; they really did score
26 goals without reply.
Ryder got 16 of them and my mate blamed me.
"Thought you said he was no good?" he shouted at me as he trudged
off the pitch.
"He's alright," I replied. "But he doesn't get to play against you
every week, does he?''
I'm pretty sure Robbie was already training with Liverpool by this
time and he was definitely a fixture in the Liverpool Schoolboys
team. Clearly there were those who hadn't needed to see him score
16 in a single outing to realise what a class act he was.
It would be another six years before I saw Ryder in action again
and, by the time I did, he had become known as Robbie Fowler and he
came with a very, very big reputation which had been forged with
Liverpool schoolboys, England under-18s and Liverpool
reserves.
Graeme Souness picked Fowler for the Liverpool first team in a Coca
Cola Cup tie at Fulham and those of us who made the trip to London
on a cold night in autumn were given a taste of what was to come as
the 18-year-old scored a typical poachers goal.~
It was his performance in the second-leg which made the rest of the
country sit up and take notice though. Fowler struck five times to
leave the Fulham defence looking like a kids' team's back four on
Botanic Park.~
After that he was asked if he'd ever scored more than five and he
said: "Yeah, I scored 16 once."
The newspapers set out to find the team he'd scored 16 goals
against and one of the Sundays ended up tracking down the lad who'd
been in goal that fateful day. They got hold of him and took him
down to Melwood to be reunited with Robbie. True to form, Fowler
gave him a bit of stick when he got there, but he also gave him a
load of training gear and made sure the newspaper looked after his
'victim' with a few bob for his troubles.
It's impossible to overstate just how popular Fowler was with the
Liverpool fans at this time. His love affair with the Kop was so
intense that only the one with Kenny Dalglish stands comparison in
the modern era.
And it wasn't just down to his goals. There was a cheekiness about
Fowler that most local fans could identify with and that endeared
him to us even more. Even when he messed up, he did so for the
right reasons. His infamous goal celebration against Everton may
have been ill-advised but most Liverpool fans would love to do
something similar given the opportunity. And his abuse of Graeme Le
Saux may have been immature and out of order but at least he'd
picked the right target to wind up.
Then there was the time he scored against Brann Bergen in a Cup
Winners Cup tie at Anfield and lifted his Liverpool shirt to show
off a t-shirt displaying his solidarity with the sacked Liverpool
dockworkers.
True to form, he was fined by UEFA for his actions but it was a
price well worth paying for Fowler as not only had he raised
awareness of the disgraceful way 500 workers had been treated by
their employers, it also inadvertently led to his status as a local
folk hero being set in stone.
It wasn't just about public displays either. Speak to dockers who
manned the picket lines during their lengthy dispute and they will
readily tell you about Fowler and his great mate Steve McManaman
regularly helping them out with donations.
Both Fowler and McManaman kept it quiet. They weren't doing it for
publicity but Liverpool being the village that it is, word soon got
out and they got the respect they so richly deserved for doing the
right thing by their working class comrades and for not forgetting
their roots.
Another thing that endeared Fowler to Kopites was he was so hated
by fans of our biggest rivals, largely because he had a knack of
scoring against them and then celebrating in front of them. Even
after he left Liverpool he was still doing it.
Who can forget the five fingers he raised to Man United supporters
in honour of Liverpool's quintet of European Cup wins when he
scored for City in the Manchester derby? Or the head smacking
celebration he did as he ran the length of the Bullens Road after
scoring at Goodison?
The more they hated Fowler, the more we loved him.
Hero status can be too easily awarded in modern football but in
Fowler's case he undoubtedly earned it - through his goals, his
genius, his generosity and, not forgetting, his pranks.
There are those who say Robbie Fowler is the greatest natural
finisher they have ever seen and the highest tribute I can pay him
is to say there is nothing to choose between him and Ian
Rush.
Had Fowler been lucky enough to play alongside Kenny Dalglish he
would no doubt have added another 100 or more goals to his
Liverpool total. He really was that good.
In his prime, before injuries took their toll, he pretty much
guaranteed goals. Right-foot strikes, left-foot shots, headers,
volleys, scorchers from distance, tap-ins from a yard out and
flukes off his backside - Fowler could do the lot.
Not bad for a kid who started off on Botanic Park and didn't look
that good!
http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N156263070702-1648.htm
