Birmingham City’s firebrand midfielder Lee Bowyer gave up fishing for compliments a long time ago, but it is his goals which are making people sit up and take notice right now.
Four for the season, including last week’s crucial winner against Fulham is almost as remarkable a tally as his single yellow card.
Almost! Bowyer knows better than anyone that it will take more than a low-profile lifestyle and fatherhood to convince some of his critics that he has changed.
Eight-month-old twins Charlie and Amelie are keeping his hands full and when he can he is happy to swap the baby powder for a rod and just go and lose himself by a river.
Bowyer is a mad-keen fisherman and can proudly boast to have taken delivery of a 54lb carp. The 32-year-old East Ender whiling away the hours quietly in the open air is something some would find hard to picture.
In fairness, his life has read like something straight out of an Albert Square script at times, but Bowyer insists his life off the pitch has been quiet for some time.
Scrapping with team-mates, court cases and numerous indiscretions did combine to give Bowyer the fiercest reputation in football.
Now the former Leeds, Newcastle and West Ham star is a big fish in Brum and reveals that last summer he quite literally got away from it all with an idyllic fishing break in France. Bowyer said: “I went to France for one week, came back for two weeks and then went again for a week.
“It was just to do nothing but fish for a couple of weeks.
“I’ve been doing it for around 10-12 years now and I catch big fish. It’s a decent standard.
“I love carp fishing and the biggest I have caught is 54lbs. It’s just something I enjoy.”
So complete was his escape-from-it-all break that he admits he completely lost track of what was happening in the world of football.
“To be honest, I don’t really take any notice of the summer dealings. The only move I knew about was Cristiano Ronaldo’s and only because that was on the news.
“That’s why you have a break – to get away from it all. Otherwise it would be just like work all year. The only time I took a call was from my agent and we spoke about it here at Birmingham.”
Back at home he has been keeping busy as the twins make sure he doesn’t find himself with nothing to do.
Bowyer added: “I’m doing stuff that I have never done before. I didn’t realise it would be so hard.
“I am more tired than I’ve ever been. Do I commiserate with Wayne Rooney?
“Well, he has only got one, whereas in my house one wakes the other and it is like a conveyor belt.”
Next-up it is Wolves in the big Midlands derby tomorrow, but games just can’t come around quickly enough for Bowyer.
“I just like playing and enjoying my football. Days like these make waking up on a Sunday morning worthwhile,” he said.
Brum boss Alex McLeish said: “When Lee arrived his wife was expecting the twins and I said to him: ‘Look, you are a grown man now.’
“We do see the red mist occasionally in training but we remind him and he puts the brakes on.”
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