Leeds United have been told by Nigel Martyn that one of the signings they made in the past was a mistake.
In the summer of 2001, Leeds splashed the cash on new players and one of them was striker Robbie Fowler.
The attacker enjoyed a successful spell at Liverpool and his goal scoring record was one of the best in the world at that time.
The striker left Liverpool to join Leeds United and despite his goal scoring record being impressive at the club, Martyn has claimed that signing the player was a mistake.
Leeds paid £12m to sign the English attacker, who went on to score 14 goals in 33 appearances for the club.
However, that has still not impressed Martyn, who said on Undr The Cosh that it was a bad signing.
“It’s frustrating [administration],” he said.
“As players you’re not necessarily aware of what’s happening. We were just turning up, training, playing, that’s it. The thinking was we had got to third in the League, we want to challenge Manchester United and Arsenal and to do that we needed to buy players.
We’d spent a lot, we bought Robbie Fowler but you’ve got to ask why are Liverpool selling to a rival? Great footballer, great footballer. But it was a lot of money [£12m]. I’ve been on the receiving end of Robbie many times in a Liverpool shirt, he could score goals for fun,” Martyn continued.
“But he came to us with a hip injury and his mobility wasn’t as good as it could have been. We saw in flashes of how good he was, in a Leeds shirt. But he wasn’t as mobile as he was and Liverpool saw that.”
Fowler might not be the same player at Leeds following his move from Liverpool but he still had a decent goal scoring record for the Whites.
Martyn is being harsh with his judgement about Fowler. His transfer fee can be questioned though, as it was a lot of money back in 2001.
The financial consequences that Leeds suffered after that affected the club more in the longer run.
Top Photo by George Wood/Getty Images
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