Vale make Robbie Fowler their new top target

Jul 12 2007 by Tim Rostance, Liverpool Daily Post

Robbie Fowler (158)

PORT VALE chairman Bill Bratt has confirmed the League One club have made an approach to sign former Liverpool and England striker Robbie Fowler.

The 32-year-old is a free agent after leaving Liverpool at the end of last season and is a target for Coca-Cola Championship clubs Leicester and Cardiff and has also reopened talks over a move to Sydney FC, according to reports in Australia.

Whether or not a player who has scored 162 Premier League goals would fancy playing against the likes of Yeovil and Cheltenham remains to be seen but Bratt was prepared to take a chance on the move.

He said: “We’ve approached Robbie Fowler’s agent to see whether he would be interested in playing for Port Vale.

“We obviously can’t afford to pay him what other clubs can but he’s a very wealthy man anyway and we hope he may want to play for the pleasure of it.

“I believe Cardiff are offering him £8,000 a week and we can’t match that.

“But it’s a chance for us as far as I’m concerned. We’ve asked the question and if the answer’s no, it’s no.”

Vale’s average home attendance was just 4,724 last season as they finished 12th in League One but Bratt hopes that the lure of regular football in Martin Foyle’s starting line-up may persuade him to move to Vale Park.

Bratt said: “I believe he has other offers but he may fancy the club and it may be something he wants to do.

“You don’t go from being a brilliant player to a bad player overnight and we think he would be a superb addition for us. We can offer him regular football and at his age that may be what he is looking for.

“We have enquired about his availability and we have to wait for his agent to get back to us before we can discuss terms.”

Fowler’s agent George Scott said: “I’ve had many a good night in Stoke-on-Trent, so you never know.

“Robbie is ruling nothing out, especially if it is an ambitious club and he can see himself going there and taking them up to a new level.”

Meanwhile, Djibril Cisse has claimed he rejected a possible move to Bolton before signing for Marseille. The France striker, who completed his switch from Liverpool on Monday for a reported fee of around £6million, three years after joining for £14m, revealed he also had suitors Spain. But he admitted the prospect of Champions League football at his home-town club was too good to turn down.

“The situation was clear with Liverpool – they didn’t want me to stay and I wasn’t going to force them to keep me,” he said. “For me, it was OM or nothing. People wanted to send me to Bolton or Atletico Madrid, but I said no.

“To go to a club in the third level of the English (Premier League), that doesn’t interest me. Here I have less money, but I have the Champions League. Some clubs were offering not far off double the salary but I am from Marseille and I have always supported this club.”