Question: If you don't have a proven goalscorer, then sign two of the biggest-name strikers in the game (albeit in the twilight of their careers), what do you do with them?

Answer (choice of two): Do you throw them into the first-team at the earliest opportunity – even if it’s only as emergency substitutes until they are fully fit?
Or do you leave them to cool their heels for a month of more and stick with an flimsy attack which subsequently fails to put the ball in the net in 300 minutes of home football?

In the case of Cardiff City, ageing superstars Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink aren't even deemed up to sitting on the bench - even though Liverpool legend Fowler has been with the club for a month and ex-Chelsea and Leeds ace Hasselbaink scored twice in his midweek debut for the reserves.

'Fowler's only action since he was signed on July 21 has been 20 minutes in a pre-season friendly - plus a mega-boozing session in a city centre bar which made local headlines in South Wales'


Fowler's only action since he was signed on July 21 has been 20 minutes in a pre-season friendly against Dutch club Enschede - plus a mega-boozing session in a city centre bar which made local headlines in South Wales.

Two weeks ago, manager Dave Jones told us the great man was ten days behind with his fitness after missing the pre-season build-up. Yet a fortnight on, the man they called 'God' at Anfield was still not deemed up to sitting on the bench against Coventry yesterday.

Is there something we don’t know? Could it be that the fanfare with which the 32-year-old hitman arrived at Ninian Park was merely a smokescreen to hide the departure of the fans’ hero Michael Chopra to Sunderland? Is Fowler perhaps completely blown out and we are going to be told shortly that he’s retiring from football and won’t be playing for us after all?

The Hasselbaink situation is almost as curious. Here we had a guy with a proven track record at the highest level with Leeds and Chelsea, who was keen to get back into the game. And unlike Fowler, was deemed to be pretty well match fit when he passed his medical 10 days ago.

The two goals the Dutchman scored in the reserve team's 4-2 win over Hereford showed he has lost nothing of his sharpness in front of goal. But manager Jones reckoned he ran out of steam after half an hour or so.

Fair enough - but why should that preclude Hasselbaink from at least a place on the bench in a vital Championship game four days later? What better when things are going wrong (as they did again yesterday) than to bring on a big-name striker to batter the opposition defence?

Jones should have known from the opening game of the season, a 1-0 home defeat by Stoke, that he desperately needed to strengthen his strike force ON the pitch. Not have his ageing superstars picking up massive wages for doing nothing but train – not even warm the bench.

Ironically, Cardiff were given a 'get out of jail' card against Stoke when they were awarded a late penalty. In the absence of regular spot-kick taker Darren Purse, new signing Steve MacLean took it - and saw his shot and follow-up effort saved by keeper Steve Simonson. Had Fowler been brought on for just the last 10 minutes or so to try to peg back Stoke's lead, everyone knows he wouldn't have missed that penalty.

Fast forward two weeks, and deja vu. Cardiff 0 Coventry 1 - late penalty for the Bluebirds. This time Darren Purse hits the bar. No Fowler, no Hasselbaink, no goals, no points.

Even the home Carling Cup tie against Brighton failed to produce a goal from the front men. Centre back Roger Johnson was the only scorer in a 1-0 extra time win. Ironically, by the time the Coventry match finished, Jones had moved Johnson up front in a desperate effort to salvage something.

OK, Cardiff did win at QPR last week, so perhaps all is not lost, even without the golden oldies. But there are now huge question marks over the way the club sold Chopra for £5m and spent not a penny of it on new players. The debt as they invest in the new stadium project is obviously huge – and with a man like Peter Ridsdale at the helm, they’ll be screaming ‘’What do you expect?’’ in Leeds, plus no doubt plenty of other places.

There’s also something bizarre about the fact that Ridsdale was chairman at Elland Road when Leeds signed Fowler and Hasselbaink. Some sort of old pals’ act? I’m not even going to go there.

I felt before the season started that selling Chopra – the third proven goalscorer Cardiff have sold in four years after Robert Earnshaw and Cameron Jerome - might well mean Cardiff being relegated this season. But then I have always been a supreme pessimist.

If Fowler and Hasselbaink are on at least £30,000 a week between them, as has been reported, then all I want to know is when are they going to start earning it. Or could it be that the deal is they only get paid for playing? If Cardiff really are as skint as I suspect, that might just make sense.