Modern football has brought in more discipline and forced players to take care of their health more but it was like that back in the days as Manchester United legend, Gary Neville claims Robbie Fowler could’ve been greater if not for the drinking culture at Liverpool, Softfootball understands.
Neville, who recently disagreed with Ruben Amorim on benching Kobbie Mainoo is a huge fan of Fowler. A player fans fell in love with because of his goalscoring ability and the honesty at which he played the game.
Speaking with former Liverpool midfielder, John Barnes on the Overlap’s official podcast, Neville said:
Robbie Fowler to me was the most natural goalscorer I’ve ever seen as a kid… If Robbie Fowler had grown up at United under Sir Alex Ferguson’s guidance in that sort of dressing room to be fair, where we weren’t to go out at the same levels as you were and I knew what the Liverpool lads were doing because we could see them sometimes in Cheersleaders in Manchester and in different bars. My point is that…. I knew because we played with England and there was a group of Liverpool players at that time, there was a big drinking culture and maybe there was at Man United dressing room a little bit but I felt like it was a lot more under control, particularly in young lads. Are my right to say that if Robbie Fowler had been in that Alex Ferguson dressing room, he would’ve been like at 300 goals in the premier league and he’d been completely different.
Fowler scored 28 Premier League goals in the 1995/96 season, the most by an Englishman for Liverpool in a single season. He scored 183 goals in 369 total appearances. 128 Premier League goals for Liverpool.
He left Liverpool in 2001 for Leeds United, later played for Manchester City before returning for a second spell with the Reds from 2006-2007.
Here is the video shared by Overlap’s official podcast of Neville talking about Robbie Fowler. Watch below.
"Right foot, left foot, tap ins… everything!" 🤩
Robbie Fowler was a complete striker. But in a Man Utd shirt? 😅 pic.twitter.com/8dfwvrjkyD
— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) January 30, 2026Neville doesn’t feel Carrick should get the Manchester United job on a permanent basis even if he is a huge fan of the former Red Devils midfielder, who joined the club from Tottenham Hotspur.
