What next for Bowyer?

Bowyer's ability has never been in doubt

By BBC Sport's Rob Bonnet

Any takers for Lee Bowyer? I doubt it.

Bowyer is innocent in the eyes of the law as far as the attack on Sarfraz Najeib is concerned - though the victim has a civil action pending.

But he has done more than enough before that Leeds city centre incident last January to bring his profession and the game into disrepute.

This, remember, was not the first time that Bowyer had been charged with affray.

Last time, shortly after he became a Leeds player, the charge stuck after an incident in December 1996.

Since then there have been yellow cards (60 since he joined Leeds), FA bans, Uefa bans and now an FA investigation pending two further incidents.

Woodgate was found guilty of affray

When he opened his mouth in front of Leeds CID it was often to tell a lie.

When he opens it on the pitch, it is frequently to swear at the ref.

Bowyer was innocent of affray and Woodgate was not. And yet the drawn, strained features of the guilty man strangely invite our understanding.

Somehow we feel we know Bowyer already.

His ability is without question, but even as his form flourished before and during the trial, there was still something chilling about his ability to compartmentalise his professional duties from his personal predicament.

I first saw him play for Charlton against Norwich back in the mid-1990s. He picked up the ball on the halfway line, beat three or four defenders and hit an unstoppable shot into the top corner.

It was a marvellous goal, watched - if I remember rightly - by Roy Evans, the Liverpool manager at the time.

Bowyer is hoping to play for the full England side

If ever there was a piece of action to put on your show reel, then that was it. And yet Bowyer ended up at Elland Road.

And now - unless Bowyer swallows his pride and digs deep into his pocket - he has played his last game for Leeds.

Who will want him?

Assuming the Football Association is still prepared to consider him for England (and that begs a question or two), he'll need a Premiership club.

At the very least, the media hoop-la and scrutiny would be enormously disruptive to the buying club in the short-term.

Other considerations would - or at least should - weigh heavily on its board for the long-term.

Both the principled and pragmatic decision might be to leave well alone.

Serie A? La Primera Liga? If there were willing buyers, which seems unlikely for a number of reasons, would Bowyer want to go?

Is this a man willing to embrace a foreign football culture and all that it entails?

Learn the language, follow the diet, drink in moderation, live with the team at weekends, represent the club at all times?

Bowyer will have to pay up and do the community work he says he has done before with the club and is willing to do again or come to terms with the probability that his career will fall into premature decline.

He says he has been "victimised" by the club. The courts have said Bowyer was not responsible, but let's just remember who was the real victim that January night.