Fowler Play: Red Alert

I was thrilled to get a call last October inviting me back to Liverpool as a club ambassador and a mentor/coach at their Academy.

Steve McManaman, Rob Jones and myself go in once or twice a week and work with the youngsters. They’ve got all our numbers, so they can ring at any time looking for advice or whatever and it remains strictly between us. It’s not easy being an emerging English player at the moment. When I was a kid, I’d walk past Anfield and – okay, I admit it! – Goodison and think, ‘I could be playing there one day’. A lad walking past Man City now is going to go, ‘I don’t stand an earthly. Even if I do get into the squad there are three or four foreign signings ahead of me whose big price tags have to be justified – and more on the way’.” The dream’s sort of been destroyed.

A good example is Daniel Sturridge when he was at Chelsea. He was getting his game and scoring goals, but come the transfer window the cash was splashed and he was further back in the pecking order again. With the Liverpool Academy lads, I can point to Raheem Stirling and say, ‘That’s what happens when you put the work in!’

We got him from QPR, but he’s learned his Premier League trade at Liverpool and benefited from Brendan Rodgers being a brilliant man-manager. A year ago, it could have gone either way for Raheem. He was having problems off the pitch, so Brendan took him to one side and said, ‘This is what you can be if you do it my way; or this is what you can be if you do it your way’.

A sign of how outstanding he’s been this season is that Steven Gerrard – not a man to throw out the compliments – keeps talking Raheem up in interviews. Personally, I think he’s done enough to make it into the England World Cup starting XI. Of course, Roy Hodgson may have different ideas! Incidentally, with home advantage, my money’s on Brazil to win the tournament.

In some ways, I think the kids at Liverpool have it a bit too good. From the age of 14 or 15 when they join the Academy they get the best of everything, which is great for those who keep progressing through the ranks but not so good if you’re one of the 18 or 19-year-olds who’s suddenly deemed surplus to requirements. Some lads are like, ‘Right, I’ll go to Tranmere and break into the first team there’. Others who’ve become used to life at Liverpool don’t have the appetite to join what they regard as a lesser club. Lots of them just drift out of the game. Ian Rush started at Chester; Kevin Keegan was at Scunthorpe; Seamus Coleman, who’s really impressed me this season, came from Sligo Rovers. Personally, I think you’re lucky if you can be a professional footballer at any level.

Brendan Rodgers has made it clear he’s a big believer in bringing talent through; there are a couple of lads knocking on the door who’ll probably get their chance next season.

No one’s going around the place shouting it, but there’s a quiet belief at Liverpool that maybe we can sneak in ahead of Chelsea and Manchester City, who’ve got the stronger squads, and win the title.

We certainly have the fire-power upfront. I was at Man City when a 14-year-old Daniel Sturridge got to train with the first team. Normally at that age it’s all about potential, but he was doing stuff some of the senior pros weren’t capable of!

I can’t understand why Rafa Benitez let Daniel go for what even then looked a bargain £12 million whilst persevering with Fernando Torres, who’s scored some important goals this season for Chelsea, but isn’t the player he once was. It happens to us all. And if I knew why and how to sort it, it’d be me in the Stamford Bridge dugout rather than Jose!

Footballers – and I include myself in this – are essentially big kids. They need to feel wanted, which is what Brendan Rodgers did when he brought Sturridge to Liverpool. He told him: ‘You can be a star here’. He gave him the confidence and freedom on the pitch to prove he’s a top, top player.

Brendan’s biggest achievement, though, is managing to keep Luis Suarez at the club. Most of the people I know at Liverpool thought he’d leave during the summer. Even compared to my time, players have so much power in terms of forcing moves through. If they’re really not happy somewhere, they’ll get their transfer. Brendan toughed it out though and said, ‘I know you want to play in the Champions League and someone of your calibre should be playing in the Champions League but look, do us a favour and get us there’ – and Luis bought into it. I don’t want to tempt fate, but his behaviour and attitude this season have been spot on. He’s held his hands up and accepted his punishments, like I had to do.

“One that cost me a fine and a suspension was my line-sniffing celebration when I scored against Everton. Their fans had been giving me the ‘Robbie Fowler is a smack head!’ treatment for a while so I had this little plan for what I’d do if I got a goal. It was stupid, but thirty-two grand well spent! Joking apart, it was banter rather than badness on both mine and the Everton fans’ part. You get slagged, you slag back: that’s the way I was brought up.

The devil is probably the wrong word, but you’ll always see a bit of nastiness in the top notch players. Roy Keane is a good example – both physically and verbally he was horrible to play against. But I never had a problem with him and he’s never had a problem with me that I know of. I kept hearing stories about him off the pitch, y’know, ‘He’s this, he’s that’ – but on the couple of occasions we’ve met he’s been the nicest man.

Roy’s brilliant as a TV pundit, and I think Ireland are in good hands with him as their number two. The fact that the FAI were prepared to hire him following the World Cup bust-up tells me that as an organisation they’re moving in the right direction. If there are still any weaknesses in their set-up, Roy’s the man to expose them!

With thanks to Carlsberg. Robbie was talking to Stuart Clark.