What Paul Ince thought Robbie Fowler could offer Blackburn Rovers I do not know - and what Fowler thinks he can offer the Premier League in general I still do not know.

"We want to see his sharpness, but he still has his sharpness, you never lose your natural ability. He has plenty of that, he has scored goals all his life. It’s like riding a bike, you never forget", mused Ince after taking the 33-year-old ex-Liverpool legend on board.

Much of what the new Blackburn boss has said is true. You do never forget how to ride a bike but that’s what Fowler would need to keep pace with his new team-mates due to his lack of fitness. It’s also true that you never lose your own natural ability but if you can’t keep up with the rest, it’s rather futile. Diego Maradona would crucify the lot of us in a five-minute kick-about in the local park but throw him into a competitive game now and it’s a no-no.

Just ask the Cardiff City punters what it was like watching a puffy, red-faced Fowler bumbling around the pitch last season in his monumental total of 13 games. It was embarrassing. In his day, Fowler was a quite brilliant striker but he was very unfortunate to have been around Merseyside when that genius of a manager Gerard Houllier was overseeing things.

A total of 120 goals during his first spell at Anfield was a good return for the boy from Toxteth. A goal ratio of one every two games was not to be sniffed at (no pun intended). Yet, it could have been so much more for a goalscorer of his natural ability.

The boyhood Liverpool fan didn’t want to go to Leeds in 2001 and that was the year we really lost a true goalscoring talent. The determination and swagger of Fowler just wasn’t there for Leeds or Manchester City and now unfortunately it is too late in what could have been a far more successful career for him to do anything about it.

According to Ince, Fowler has two weeks to prove his fitness and see if he can do a job for Blackburn. I think it’s more than plausible that he will be shown the door before a ball has even been kicked for the new season. A supersub maybe?

Fowler has had his time, his fun and his glory days but it’s time he retired. He needs to realise he has nothing more to offer - not at Premier League standard, anyway.

Having said that, 33 is not old for a footballer these days and if a player looks after himself throughout his career, then the days at the end can be extended without him ever looking out of the game. Take Gordon Strachan and Peter Beardsley, for example. They weren’t ones for hitting the headlines for partying and enjoying their youth - but look how long they both played at the highest level.

Fowler cannot imitate that and even if he does win himself another crack at the top, he has lost most of the attributes that helped to make him the player he was.