The Man, the Legend....the TRIBUTE!

Name: Robert Bernard 'Robbie' Fowler
Born: 9 April 1975
Nickname: "God"

Fowler's career began with Liverpool, with whom he made his debut in 1993. Fowler scored 120 premiership goals for Liverpool in an eight year period. He subsequently played for Leeds United and Manchester City F.C., before returning to Liverpool in January 2006.

As of May 2006, Fowler is the fourth highest goalscorer in Premier League history, behind Thierry Henry, Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.

Liverpool – Standout Moments

• Scoring first-team debut in Liverpool's 3–1 win in a first round Coca Cola Cup tie at Fulham on 22 September 1993.


• Scored all five goals in the second leg at Anfield two weeks later – the fourth player in Liverpool's history to score five in a senior fixture.
  
• First league hat-trick against Southampton in only his fifth league game.
  
• His first thirteen games for the club yielded twelve goals, and he finished his first season at Liverpool as the club's leading scorer with eighteen goals in all competitions.
  
• 1994-95 Season: Played in all of Liverpool’s 57 matches, including the victory in the 1995 League Cup final
  
• Scored a hat-trick in four minutes and thirty-three seconds against Arsenal, a Premiership record.
  
• Voted PFA Young Player of the Year in two consecutive years (1995 & 1996), a feat equalled only by Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney.
  
• Throughout the mid and late 1990s, Fowler was widely considered to be the most natural finisher playing in England.
  
• Scored more than thirty goals for three consecutive seasons, up to 1997.
  
• Scored twice in a 4-3 victory over Newcastle, a match considered the best of the decade.
  
• On December 14th 1996, he scored four against Middlesbrough F.C., the second of which reached a century of goals one game quicker than his mentor, Ian Rush.
  
• In 1997, after scoring a goal in a Cup Winners' Cup game, he lifted his Liverpool shirt to reveal a T-shirt supporting sacked Liverpool dockers for which he picked up a fine, but greatly increased his popularity on Merseyside.
  
• 1997 – won a UEFA Fair Play award for admitting that he had not been fouled by David Seaman at Highbury after a penalty had been given. After unsuccessfully trying to convince the referee to change his decision about the penalty Fowler took it tamely and Seaman saved, the ball rebounded however and Jason McAteer tucked it home.
  
• 2000-01 Season – Robbie’s most successful season, appearing in three finals scoring 17 goals, and lifting three trophies in a unique Cup Treble – League Cup (where he got the Alan Hardaker Man of the Match award), FA Cup, and the UEFA Cup.
  
• Liverpool’s final game of the 2000-2001 season was against Charlton in which Fowler scored twice in a 4-0 victory that assured them Champions League qualification for next season.
  
• In October 2001, he scored his first league hat-trick for three years, helping Liverpool beat Leicester City 4–1, but was dropped for the following league game. His last appearance was against Sunderland when he was substituted at half-time.

Leeds United & Man City

• Despite his popularity with Liverpool fans, a combination of off-field controversy, disputes with Gérard Houllier and training ground arguments with then Assistant Manager Phil Thompson, led to Fowler's departure to Leeds United F.C.
  
• In total he scored 15 goals in 31 appearances for Leeds; a goal every two games.
  
• In the 2002-03 season, Fowler was transferred to Manchester City following a protracted transfer saga. Fowler ended the 2004-5 season as the club's joint top goal scorer, and gained the approval of the fans, finishing in the top three in the fans' Player of the Year poll.
  
• In January 2006 he scored Manchester City's third goal in their 3–1 win against local rivals Manchester United F.C. after coming on as substitute. After scoring, he ran to the United supporters, holding up five fingers (Liverpool's five European Cup wins vs United's two). Fowler made only one more appearance for Manchester City before returning to Liverpool.
  

Return to Liverpool

• In 27 January 2006, Fowler rejoined Liverpool from Manchester City.
  
• Fowler was in the Istanbul crowd when Liverpool won the Champions League in 2005.
  
• Fowler's return against Birmingham City F.C. in February 2006 was labelled by the press as the stuff of fairytales, and he came on to a rapturous reception in his first appearance for Liverpool in four years.
  
• He had three goals ruled out for offside, before finally scoring on 15 March 2006 in a home game against Fulham, who he scored his first goal against on his Liverpool début 13 years earlier.
  
  
  
  
  
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• Fowler's next Liverpool goal meant he overtook Kenny Dalglish in the club's all time top scorers.
  
• Fowler finished the 2005-6 season scoring on a more consistent basis than Liverpool's other strikers.
  
• On the 25 October 2006 Fowler was named as Liverpool's captain for the first time since his return (he scored just before half-time and Liverpool won 4-3)
  
• On 24 February 2007 he scored 2 penalties against Sheffield United - his first in front of the Kop since his return to Liverpool.
  
• In his last game at Anfield for the club against Charlton Athletic FC on the 13th May 2007, Fowler was given the captain's armband one final time. He was substituted minutes from the final whistle and given a standing ovation. Harry Kewell scored an equalising penalty to tie the match 2-2 for Liverpool in the 90th minute. Had Fowler not been substituted, he would have taken the penalty.
  
  Regardless, the crowd still chanted his name as match finished and applauded him for his years of service.
  
  Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Fowler

THANKS FOR EVERYTHING, ROBBIE!

You were my favourite player growing up, and I think you will always be my all-time favourite Liverpool boy...

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE!

Saucer of milk, table eight (aid)?

What is the story with 'Sir' Bob? Why is it that someone else having a good idea means he gets a bee in his bonnet? Put a little birdhouse in your soul, Bob, and let Gore have his moment! Just because it's a gig to raise awareness of an issue, doesn't mean he is stealing your glory! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all, so maybe you should just shut the hell up and let the man get on with a worthy bloody cause.

Or can noone else but you HAVE a worthy cause? Is that the issue here, Bob? I mean, do you not think that starvation and poverty have at least SOMETHING to do with environmental issues (i.e. famine caused by drought, homelessness due to flooding, over-felling of trees using local peoples resources, landslides caused by deforestation)?? Get a grip, Bob, and get over yourself.........

Geldof snipes at Gore over live concerts
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, May 13th 2007, 4:00 AM

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Bob Geldof, who organized the Live Aid and Live 8 benefit concerts, criticized the Live Earth music events Al Gore is putting together this summer, saying they lack a specific goal, according to a Dutch newspaper report Saturday.

The Live Earth concerts will be held in cities around the world on July 7, with proceeds funding a yet-to-be-named foundation to combat climate change, under Gore's direction.

The shows will take place in London; New York; Tokyo; Shanghai, China; Johannesburg, South Africa; Sydney, Australia; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Organizers have also promised an event in Antarctica.

"I hope they're a success," De Volkskrant newspaper quoted Geldof as saying in an interview.

"But why is (Gore) actually organizing them? To make us aware of the greenhouse effect? Everybody's known about that problem for years. We are all (expletive) conscious of global warming," he said.

Geldof, former front-man of The Boomtown Rats, organized the mammoth Live Aid concerts in 1985 to benefit victims of famine in Ethiopia and the Live 8 concerts in 2005 for African debt relief. He has dedicated much of his career to advocating on behalf of humanitarian causes.

"I would only organize (Live Earth) if I could go on stage and announce concrete environmental measures from the American presidential candidates, Congress or major corporations," he told the newspaper. "They haven't got those guarantees, so it's just an enormous pop concert or the umpteenth time that, say, Madonna or Coldplay get up on stage."

Geldof also criticized the former vice president's choice of the name Live Earth.
"It sounds like Live 8," he told the paper. "We're getting lots of responses from people who think we are organizing it."
Gore could not immediately be reached Saturday for comment on the newspaper report. He was in Rio de Janeiro, where he implored people to attend that city's Live Earth show.

"An estimated 2 billion people will be watching around the world, but the single largest event anywhere in the world will be here in Rio. I want to invite every person who cares about the environment in Brazil to come to the event here in Rio," Gore said.

Gore said the concerts would mark the beginning of multiyear campaign to fight global warming. He said the concert was a fitting way to kick off such a campaign because "the task of saving the global environment is a task we should all approach with a sense of joy."

Geldof also could not be reached to confirm the remarks, made at a conference in Budapest, Hungary. The Volkskrant is one of the largest national papers in the Netherlands.

The headliners of the London Live Earth show at Wembley stadium are expected to be Madonna, the Beastie Boys, the Black Eyed Peas, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Keane and Foo Fighters. At the U.S. concert, to be held at Giants Stadium outside New York, Bon Jovi, the Dave Matthews Band, Kanye West, Rihanna, John Mayer, the Smashing Pumpkins and Fall Out Boy are slated to perform.

The concerts will be broadcast in the U.S. by General Electric Co.'s NBC network and on more than 120 networks around the world, and streamed live online.Gore wrote the best-seller "An Inconvenient Truth," and later starred in a documentary film of the same name that popularized the science showing a link between human carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

Come on Bob, why can't we all just get along, eh?

WE DID IT AGAIN!!!

Yet again, Liverpool storm Anfield and power their way through to another Champions League Final.

But the doubters still say nay - that Liverpool are a 'lucky' club, and have got through by the skin of their teeth, and that they have no chance in the final.

What else do we have to do to prove ourselves? We beat Barcelona and Chelsea in this campaign - arguably two of the strongest teams in football at the moment - to take us to the final, yet Liverpool fans still have to listen to the neverending stream of bullshit that comes from other supporters. Yes, we're inconsistent. Yes, we sometimes fall to 'easy' teams. But reaching the Champions League final twice in three years, as well as winning an F.A. Cup in between, is not the mark of a good team - it's the mark of a GREAT team!!

What a match, what a team.....and what a confirmation of greatness. Come on Liverpool!!

Terry cries again!!

And Jose was no better....here's a little sampling of some of his comments post-match:

From Chelsea FC website - 'What we speak now is for today and tomorrow and in a couple of years, nobody remembers. Chelsea was the better team and should have won the first-leg by two or three-nil, Chelsea was the best team tonight and Chelsea was the best team in extra-time.'

'It is difficult but we are strong characters and that is the reason why we arrive in such a situation.'

'We believe always there is a next chance and there is another year. I think we deserve to be in a final.'

From BBC website - "It is a moment when everybody has to be strong, my players have a lot of reasons to be proud. "

"We were the best team today, even against a team only playing for the Champions League."

"In extra-time we were the only team who tried to win, but football is like that and the penalty shoot-out is part of the game. My players did a great run in the Champions League."

"I respected Liverpool always in my words. I don't need to say more and today I think the best team was Chelsea."


And Benitez was his usual magnanimous self, praising both his team and his opponents, whilst showing that Liverpool were the best team on the night:

From BBC website - "We had confidence because our players practice in every training session.

"Pepe Reina is a player who is always good with penalties."

"Every player and every supporter deserves the win - the atmosphere was amazing."

From Liverpool FC website - "Maybe it was better than when we beat Chelsea in 2005 and I am really, really proud of my players, Chelsea are a very good side with some good players and at times it was difficult to control them. They had a lot of free-kicks but we defended really well and worked so hard all through the game."

"Our supporters were fantastic and the atmosphere was amazing and we are going to enjoy this victory."

"Pepe Reina was fantastic in the penalty shoot-out and he is an expert when it comes to that."

"This is a really important victory for the club and for the future."


Steven Gerrard was overjoyed after guiding his side to their second Champions League final in three years:
"The first time round was special but to do it again after being a goal down to a magnificent team like Chelsea is unbelievable," he said. "Together we achieved it.

"The atmosphere helped, the manager's tactics, everything was spot on. But we crossed the line and we stuck together.

"We have the best goalkeeper in the world. But all credit to Chelsea."


Kuyt, who scored the crucial penalty, added: "It was very special for me - it will be my first final in my first year at Liverpool. We just believed in it. Pepe Reina was fabulous."


And the final word must go to the man with the golden finger who, like Midas before him, is quickly finding out that money does not a winner make!!

LIVERPOOL F.C.!!!