Blackburn Rovers: Premier League icon Paul Ince called a "proven goalscorer" never showed that at Ewood Park | OneFootball

Robbie Fowler failed to make an impact during his time at Ewood Park

Blackburn Rovers endured a rather tough start to the 2008/09 Premier League season.

That summer had seen the Ewood Park club lose manager Mark Hughes after a successful spell of almost four years in charge of the Lancashire outfit.

The Welshman had departed to take over at Manchester City, while Rovers themselves turned to Paul Ince to take over in the dugout.

Ince arrived at Blackburn having just guided MK Dons to the League Two title the season before, although the step-up to the top-flight was seemingly a tough one for him to make at the time.

After a 3-2 win at Everton on the opening day of the season, Ince's side would win just two of their next 16 league games, leading to his sacking, with the club 19th in the table, five points from safety.

One player who perhaps did not deliver as Ince would have hoped in the lead-up to his departure from Blackburn, was Robbie Fowler.

Paul Ince had high hopes for Robbie Fowler at Ewood Park

In September 2008, Fowler signed a short-term contract with Rovers on pay-as-play terms, following a trial spell with the club.

The striker had been a free agent following the expiration of his contract with Cardiff City, and was seemingly keen to show he could still make an impact in the Premier League at 33-years-old.

A move to Blackburn also reunited Fowler with Ince, the pair having previously played together at Liverpool between 1997 and 1999.

Indeed, the then-Rovers boss was certainly confident in his former teammate's abilities, once he arrived at Ewood Park.

Speaking once the deal had been confirmed, Ince claimed that Fowler was a "proven goalscorer", while also adding "I believe he can still do it at this level".

Ultimately though, that prediction simply did not work out in the way that anyone connected with the deal wanted, or needed, it to.

Robbie Fowler struggled to make an impact at Blackburn

There is no denying that, over the course of his career, Fowler showed he was more than capable of scoring goals in the Premier League, but that was not something he was able to do at Ewood Park.

During the three-months his contract initially ran for, Fowler made just six appearances for Blackburn, only three of which were in the Premier League.

Of those three Premier League outings, one was as a starter in a goalless draw with Bolton, while he also came off the bench late on in a win over Newcastle, and defeat to Chelsea.

Beyond that, he was forced to settle for an unused substitute role in the league on eight more occasions.

There were also three outings in the League Cup, two of which were from the start as Blackburn did at least make it to the Quarter Finals of that competition.

Across those outings, though, Fowler was unable to find the net once, meaning he did not add to his tally of 163 Premier League goals, which even now is the ninth-highest tally in the league's history.

The fact Rovers were chasing and needed results in those games in which Fowler did not feature, perhaps suggests those sentiments over his goalscoring ability at that point changed rather quickly.

With that in mind, it is perhaps no surprise that the elected not to extend Fowler's contract when it expired on 12th December 2008, shortly after Ince's sacking, with Sam Allardyce replacing him.

As a result, in what was such a challenging start to the 2008/09 season for Blackburn, the signing of Fowler, in particular, is one issue that did not work out as the club might have hoped.