Venables resigned to Fowler departure

Leeds boss Terry Venables was tonight resigned to losing Robbie Fowler to Manchester City as he came to terms with his side’s defensive collapse at Stamford Bridge.

Shortly after Chelsea had completed a late comeback to secure a 3-2 triumph, Venables confirmed that Fowler would tomorrow decide whether to move to Maine Road.

The Leeds striker has only recently pulled out of a switch across the Pennines but City managed to revive the deal yesterday.

Fowler, who had been concerned at City’s attempts to restructure the original deal, is understood to have already held fresh talks with the Maine Road club ahead of the end of the transfer window on Friday.

Venables, who is frustrated at a lack of communication by the Elland Road board over the past month, still does not want Fowler to leave.

But he has at least been assured the transfer fee would save him losing Jonathan Woodgate to Newcastle.

Venables said: “It looks like the clubs have agreed a fee and I think there will be some sort of decision from Robbie on Wednesday.

“It’s not really strange. The deal was arranged before and Robbie felt he didn’t want to go at the last minute.

“But City have said they’d like to do the deal again. It was decided that the board would accept the offer and we’re back to where we were before Robbie turned it down.

“The ball is back in his court. There must be a change in his mind to now be thinking about it, whereas before he didn’t want to go. He will decide on Wednesday whether it’s yes or no.”

Asked whether he is resigned to losing Fowler this time, Venables, who spoke to the striker earlier today, replied: “Yes I would say so.

“As much as I don’t want Robbie to go, I realise someone has to go at this particular moment.”

There is at least one silver lining for Venables in that he would be likely to keep hold of Woodgate, although he has been told that Newcastle have not made an official bid for the centre-back.

“I’m assured that if the Robbie Fowler deal goes through, there will be no other players leaving,” he added.

“As far as I know, Newcastle have not bid for Jonathan Woodgate. I keep reading there has been a bid but I’m assured by the chairman that there hasn’t been one.”

Venables, who admitted he would be relieved to get to February, nevertheless admitted he had not been kept completely in the loop over the past month.

“I’ve been kept fully up to date as to what’s gone on with Robbie over the past few days. We’ve spoken about this communication issue before,” he said.

“There have been times when the communication maybe hasn’t been as good as it should have been but recently I have felt we are up to speed.”

The uncertainty over Fowler’s future certainly added to Venables’ woes in the wake of his side having twice lost a lead at Stamford Bridge.

Harry Kewell struck first early on and although Eidur Gudjohnsen equalised with a superb overhead kick, Teddy Lucic put Leeds back ahead on 65 minutes.

However, Frank Lampard equalised with a deflected effort with 11 minutes left before Dominic Matteo’s late own goal decided the game.

Venables admitted: “We’re very disappointed not to at least get a point. You can’t blame Dominic Matteo though, he would have cleared that 99 times out of 100. It’s just one of those things.”

Chelsea showed their character in coming back to secure their second win within the space of just over 48 hours following their FA Cup triumph at Shrewsbury on Sunday evening.

Boss Claudio Ranieri added: “We showed great character and great heart, and Frank Lampard was fantastic – as was the goal by Eidur Gudjohnsen.”