Robbie Fowler insists he would be interested in managing Aberdeen – if the job was available now.
The former Liverpool striker, who was in the Granite City today to play in the Scottish Senior Open’s celebrity pro-am, discussed the vacant Dons job in glowing terms on his podcast earlier this year before Stephen Glass was appointed at Pittodrie.
He labelled the Reds a sleeping giant and was impressed with the squad former Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes had left behind following his departure from the club.
However, Fowler, speaking at Royal Aberdeen, believes his positive comments were taken out of context as he was manager of Indian side East Bengal at the time.
He said: “I’ve been up in Scotland in many times and the fella who does my podcast with me is Scottish. He mentioned Aberdeen and I spoke about it, but I was in a job at the time.
“If it was the same situation happening now, of course I would be interested because I think they are a big club, a little bit of a sleeping giant.
“Stephen Glass, who was at Newcastle and over at Atlanta, is in there now and good luck to him. Fingers crossed he does a good job.”
Fowler, 46, left his position at East Bengal earlier this week by mutual consent and it is clear his season in charge of the club was a frustrating one.
Despite a troubling campaign, the Englishman – who played with Aberdeen’s 1999 Open champion and Senior Scottish Open host Paul Lawrie in today’s pro-am event – is proud of the team’s performance during an unsettled period for the club.
Fowler said: “Certain promises were made to me which weren’t kept. There are new owners in, but the old owners are still involved in some capacity and I’m not a big believer in what they were trying to do.
“The new owners wanted to put money in and back the club and it became a political mess which I didn’t want to be involved in.
“People don’t understand what my staff and I went through last season. It was incredibly difficult.
“We had 10 days of pre-season and finished ninth in the table. It doesn’t look great, but it was a massive overachievement with the team we had and the preparation we had.
“It was a team built for the league below. The new owners wanted to go into the ISL, the top league.
“It’s the equivalent of going into the Scottish Premiership with Alloa and trying to win the league. It was tough.
“We were an hour away from our training ground, three hours away from the ground, and in a bubble in the hotel. It was a nightmare.
“I knew the situation before I went over with the bubble and being based in the hotel, but not about the training ground, stadium or pre-season, so it was not ideal.
“We did the very best we could and I massively mean it when I say ninth was an incredible overachievement.”
Fowler’s spell in India was the third country on managerial CV, following spells in Thailand with Muangthong United and Brisbane Roar of Australia.
Despite a challenging year in India, he has not soured on management and is eager to get back into coaching as quickly as possible.
He said: “I want to put my hat in the ring. I love the game and still feel I have a lot to give. If it was up to me, I’d still be playing, but I’m not in the shape to do that anymore.
“I’ve managed in three countries and I’m confident in what I can do and how I manage. I bring out the best in people and where I’ve been so far I’ve generally done okay, regardless of what people think.
“I’m very professional and want to get back involved as soon as possible.”
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