Cardiff City's biggest signing for many years - former England International Robbie Fowler - was officially presented to a large gathering of Press and Media at Ninian Park on Tuesday morning. Also present were Chairman Peter Ridsdale and Manager Dave Jones.
Peter Ridsdale: The last time I saw a media gathering as big as this at Ninian Park was when Robbie and I were with Leeds United who played an F.A. Cup tie here in January 2002. This morning I am very delighted that we can once again demonstrate to the doubters who felt that we would never get a new stadium built and never put a team together that could match our ambitions of reaching top-level status that we are now doing both.
I am delighted that we have been able to secure Robbie Fowler who is a major signing for this football club, and the large presence of the media here today demonstrates how our ambition is perceived outside of this football club and our aim to take this club from the Championship to the Premiership. I was asked a few weeks ago if we were a selling club - well, every club in the Championship is a selling club but what you do with the money that you get from transfers is very important. We signed Michael Chopra for ?500,000 a year ago, and now we've sold him for ?5 million.
Now we've signed Robbie and five others all of whom have strengthened the squad, and we will go into this new season with renewed optimism. From a personal point of view, I'm absolutely delighted to link up again with one of the best strikers this country has ever seen, and I am also delighted that Robbie has chosen Cardiff City to pursue the next couple of years of his career.
Dave Jones: Signing Robbie is a fantastic coup for Cardiff City and there is a big buzz within the Club and amongst the supporters. I'm really pleased about the whole thing, and I'm hoping that Robbie will help us go where we all want to be.
It's been well documented how it all came about, I came across him in a restaurant in the U.S.A. - in fact he'd gone there the previous night and couldn't get in, so it really was a chance meeting. Now it's case of Robbie getting down to pre-season training that for him starts today. We would expect his first appearance to be in the home pre-season friendly against FC Twente on August 4th.
Robbie Fowler: What made up my mind to join Cardiff City ?Well, football is the only thing that I've ever known. People have suggested that I should retire at this stage, but I still want to play and feel that I have a few good years still left in me.
The Chairman and Manager have been fantastic in bringing me here, and I'm absolutely delighted in the way things have turned out. A few clubs have come in for me, but would I rather be with a Premiership who were perhaps battling to stay in the division, or with a club that was aiming for promotion from the Championship and winning things?
I would rather be with a club that was winning things. There's been pressure on me before, and there'll probably be pressure on me to do well here. But I can handle that as I've done previously, and the next step as far as I'm concerned is to help Cardiff City get to the Premiership. The other players that the Chairman has mentioned as coming into the club this summer are all very good players.
The fact that I've played my career so far in the Premiership doesn't make any difference - I played in the local Sunday League before I joined Liverpool. I just want to play in a successful side, so to me it doesn't matter at this stage what division I'm in. Obviously I want to play in the Premiership again, and that's my aim with Cardiff City.
The manager has been great in the move - we met by chance in a restaurant in Florida during the summer and it's gone from there - perhaps it's Fate that we met up and that's why I'm here.
Robbie's just one of the lads - Purse
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