Liverpool legend opens up on call from Chelsea boss before being 'forced to leave'

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"I felt as though I was forced to leave. I answer it and it's Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea, and he said, 'The club have agreed a fee, and we've got an affidavit, we want you to come and chat.' I was taken aback because 'I'm happy at Liverpool, I don't want to go anywhere.

I had a quick conversation with him [Vialli], 'I'll come back to you, I'll have to speak to the club,' because I was getting a phone call saying 'the club are getting rid of you,' but I needed to speak to the club. "So I went in the next day, and the manager denied it, and I just sort of knew my days were numbered.

Then Leeds came a few weeks later, and I just knew, for my own sake, sanity, my own health, if you like, that I probably just needed to leave. "I think if I'd been allowed to have been at Liverpool, and only Liverpool, for all of my career, I'd have taken that all day long." Leeds United eventually secured Fowler's signature for £12m in late 2001.