Fowler's Kopped

I'M GOING HOME ... Fowler is back in Liverpool's red

ROBBIE FOWLER last night admitted his sensational return to Liverpool had left him gobsmacked.

The ex-England striker, 30, completed a free transfer from Manchester City and said: ?I?m so happy it?s frightening.

?I?m chuffed to bits. I can?t really believe it?s happened. It?s probably still not sunk in yet.

?Just travelling back to Anfield was great and to get in that office and put pen to paper was something I?ve wanted to happen for a long time.?

Fowler?s amazing return to Merseyside came on the day police cautioned Kop star Djibril Cisse for assaulting his pregnant wife.

It is the second time the French striker has been cautioned by cops and places a huge question mark over his Anfield future.

Cisse, 24, has been at loggerheads with boss Rafa Benitez after failing to nail down a regular first-team place. And the arrival of Fowler will put even more pressure on him.

Fowler, who scored 171 goals in 330 games for the Merseysiders, added: ?It will be nice to get in that red shirt again and just to walk out at Anfield will be amazing.

?Stuart Pearce has been very, very good. I wanted it to happen more than anyone, Stuart understood that and helped me get here.?

Fowler has signed a £20,000-a-week deal until the end of the season and will give up around £300,000 in wages by quitting City. But that is peanuts to a man worth an estimated £25million.

Boss Benitez said: ?We have signed a player with so much passion for this club and I think he will act as an example to every player here in how much he loves Liverpool.

?I?m not sure I?ve ever seen a player so happy to be joining a club.?

City boss Stuart Pearce felt he could not stand in the way of Fowler.

He said: ?Liverpool are his dream club.

?If I refused him this opportunity of fulfilling his ambition it would not be good for him or City.?

Liverpool Football Club can confirm that Robbie Fowler will wear the Number 11 shirt on his return to the club he first joined as an 11-year-old.

The Toxteth-born striker previously wore the No.23 shirt when he first broke through to the first team before taking over the No.9 shirt for the rest of his stay at the club.

Rafael Benitez has spoken with delight about the signing of Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler and admitted that he's never seen a player happier to join a club.

Speaking at Anfield on Friday night, Benitez told liverpoolfc.tv: "My idea is for Liverpool to take one step forward and I think Robbie can help us make that step.

"We have signed a player with so much passion for this football club and I think he will act as an example to every player here in how much he loves Liverpool.

"It is a boost for the team, a boost for the supporters and a boost for Robbie himself. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player quite so happy to be joining a club before.

"I think it's a signing that will lift everyone who loves Liverpool Football Club because Robbie is a great finisher who can help us reach a new level.

"He hasn't been signed because he loves the club; he's been signed because he's one of the best goalscorers ever to play in the Premiership and he can score goals for us right now. He's got a wealth of experience and he gives us more attacking options. He's a different kind of striker to what we have at the club and that is good for the team.

"People can talk about having a lot of money to buy players but we've just signed a player with a passion and a heart for this club that no amount of money can buy. We are close to a very high level right now but with Robbie we can go even higher."

# To date Robbie Fowler has scored 171 goals in 330 Liverpool appearances.

# His last appearance for Liverpool was against Sunderland at Anfield on November 25th 2001.

# His last goal for Liverpool was the one that completed his hat-trick at Leicester City on October 20th 2001.

# Robbie made a goalscoring debut for Liverpool with an effort against Fulham at Craven Cottage in 1993.

# In the second leg he scored his first goals on home turf as he hit all five in the 5-0 win over Fulham.

# Fowler has scored nine hat-tricks to date for Liverpool with seven of them coming in the Premiership.

# He is sixth in the all-time list of record goalscorers for Liverpool, one goal behind fifth placed Kenny Dalglish.

# The Young Player of the Year in both 1995 and 1996, he scored 18 goals in his debut season, and became the first Liverpool player for six years to pass the 30 goal mark in 1994-95.

# In February 2001 he became the first Liverpool captain to lift a trophy since 1995, holding aloft the Worthington Cup in Cardiff, after he had spectacularly opened the scoring against Birmingham.

# Robbie holds the record for the fastest Premiership hat-trick against Arsenal in 1994. His treble against the Gunners came in four minutes and 33 seconds.

bloody hell, thats he best news i heard in ages, i still think cisse is great and that benitez doesnt give him enough opportunities, but to have the quality of fowler back is a dream come true, remeber that perfect hatrick against arsenal, cheers for the good news

wow!!

can we get my Baros back too ??? :'(

He will come to instead who ?!?! -*-

Goalden balls

Ian Rush says LIVERPOOL fans must think they have died and gone to heaven.

The man they always called ?God? is back at Anfield. At this rate, even I might have a chance of pulling on the red shirt again!

But if Liverpool supporters are ecstatic that one of their all-time favourites is back in the fold, it is nothing compared to how Robbie is feeling.

He texted me yesterday and said he was the happiest man in the world. That it was a dream move for him and his family.

I know exactly how he is feeling. It is only when you leave Liverpool that you realise just what a brilliant club it is, just how well they look after you.

Of course, they say you should never go back. And, to be quite honest, the situation is not quite the same as when I returned after a year at Juventus.

I like to think I was still in my prime whereas Robbie is 30 and not exactly a 90-minute player these days.

But Rafa Benitez is not stupid. He knows Liverpool desperately need a finisher ? never more so than last Sunday when they outplayed Manchester United at Old Trafford and still lost.

A week earlier Robbie had come on against United and scored the goal which made sure Manchester City took all three points.

And that is what Benitez is looking for. A big-name player for the big games. A player Peter Crouch and the other young players at Anfield cannot fail to learn from.

Bring Robbie on for 20 or 30 minutes and he can make all the difference. The opposition know that as well.

Yes, he has had his problems over the last few years but great goalscorers never lose the knack of putting the ball in the net.

When he left Liverpool, he was gutted. He never really thought it would come to that.

You looked at him and it was like his heart had been broken. A man without a home. Except, of course, he?s got about 83 of them!

There will be some Liverpool fans who think the deal is wrong, that it?s just window-dressing, that there?s an ulterior motive behind it all.

Yet returning to the club and the city which means everything to him is all the motivation Robbie needs.

This is the one club that will give him all the reasons he needs to go out and prove he can still do a job.

Robbie, who lives just down the road from me, is a fantastic lad and he knows more than anyone else what this move is about.

He will not be expecting 90 minutes and he cannot play two games a week.

But he can give Liverpool the cutting edge they have lacked up front for some time.

Liverpool fans were bitterly upset when Michael Owen failed to rejoin the club at the start of the season.

But they could never have expected this ? the return of another of the club?s greatest goalscorers. However, you cannot compare the two. Michael would have played week in, week out.

At the same time, Robbie can give Liverpool an extra 10 points a season ? the difference between finishing above or below United. Maybe even catching Chelsea.

Credit should also go to City boss Stuart Pearce, who has been fantastic the way he has looked after him.

So welcome back Robbie. Liverpool fans have missed you.

When he was a young kid at Anfield he beat my record as the quickest player to 100 Liverpool goals by a game or so. Mind you, he was quite good then!

Only joking .........Ian Rush

wat about tmrw night??