Michael Owen is an established England striker and after an illustrious club career playing for Liverpool and Real Madrid, now plays for Newcastle United. Known for his deadly finishing skills and recently, his fondness for getting injured.
There is some news from the weekend to get caught up on, but first, there’s an actual signing to report.
Written by Eddie Griffin. 5 comments
What will it take to fix the mess at Newcastle United? 100m? 50m? 200m?
Unless Ashley pulls an Abramovich and Keegan turns into a pleasant version of Jose Mourinho, things aren’t going to change overnight at St James’ Park. Keegan will first have to convince players to come play for Newcastle United, which, to be fair to all sides, doesn’t automatically offer a chance to win titles. This holds Newcastle back in the sense that they can’t bring the likes of David Villa to the club - someone who will score 30 goals each season and give them some sort of hope.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 4 comments
Following on from the launch of the SX Flare boot, Umbro have now released an ‘England‘ edition of the SX Flare and SX Valor. If you watch the television closely tonight, you’ll see John Terry wearing the Valor and Michael Owen wearing the Flare, as England take on France in the Stade de France in Paris.
Will ‘the perfect boot for today’s fast paced game’ keep France out at one end and score the goals for England at the other? We’ll have to wait and see.
I have not approached John Terry for a quote about the boots as he would no doubt claim to be busy!
Football boot manufacturers Umbro have launched a brand new boot. The SX Flare is described by the manufacturers as “The perfect boot for today’s fast paced game”.
Top stars who are wearing the boot include Newcastle and England striker Michael Owen, Everton and Australia star Tim Cahill and Rangers and Scotland captain Barry Ferguson.
Umbro tell us that the boot has been designed using innovative Michelin technology. I thought about writing that the players will have to tread carefully and avoid getting too tyred, but decided against it!
Written by Graham Fisher. Leave a response
When Joey Barton converted a stoppage time penalty at Fulham on December 15th, Newcastle fans could have been forgiven for thinking their side may well have turned the corner.
After all, they had bounced back from a humiliating home defeat to Liverpool- one that left enduring images of angry fans yelling “You don’t know what you’re doing” at under-fire manager Sam Allardyce for pretty much the entire duration of the second half- to earn a battling point against leaders Arsenal, before following that up with a crucial 2-1 win over Birmingham at St James’ Park, and then only their second away win of the season at Craven Cottage.
Allardyce had seemingly got a message through to his players that they needed to be harder to beat- the importance of which he had stressed since arriving at the club in the summer. They sat in a comfortable mid-table position, only a decent run away from entering the race for the top six, whilst content in the knowledge that even in the event of a dramatic slide, there were “three worse teams than Newcastle” at the other end of the table. In truth there were half a dozen or more, easily.
Written by Neil Jones. 2 comments
So the see-saw that is the Premier League lead has swung back the way of Arsenal again after they became the first side this season to leave the City of Manchester Stadium with three league points, whilst their North London neighbours Tottenham apologized for humiliating them in the Carling Cup last month by halting the Manchester Utd Globetrotters with a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane - although the ungrateful souls among Gunners fans may still manage a grumble about Juande Ramos’ side conceding an equaliser with literally the last kick of the match, via a combination of Carlos Tevez & Michael Dawson.
Behind them, Chelsea lost ground in third place as Jermain Defoe’s debut goal for Portsmouth denied Avram Grant’s side a club-record tenth successive victory after Nicolas Anelka had picked up his first league goal for the Blues.
Written by Neil Jones. 2 comments
In Michael Owen’s 2004 autobiography ‘Off the record‘ he was less than complimentary about Kevin Keegan’s management style. In the book he describes his time with Keegan as his England manager as a ‘dark phase’ in his career. “I really started to resent him - not as a man, but as a manager,” Owen wrote. He said the experience left him feeling scarred and without self belief.
So how we do we think Michael Owen felt when he heard that King Kev had been given the Newcastle United job? He can hardly approach Keegan and say, “Sorry Gaffer, I didn’t mean any of that, I think you’re a great manager.”
Written by Graham Fisher. 4 comments
Here are some notable quotes made during the past year. Each was stated by the named individual; however, my responses were created, and are not meant to represent the views of the individuals. Nor libel them in any way. This is both a factual and (hopefully) a light-hearted article.
Written by Steve Amoia. 19 comments
One upon a time Michael Owen was one of the most sought after strikers in Europe but now the player is not in demand anymore, even by the mid table clubs. The England international turns 28 today and while one would have supposed him to be at the peak of his footballing abilities, Owen is struggling to get himself fit into any decent club.
Written by Subhankar Mondal. Leave a response
Note: In the wake of the current WGA strike wreaking havoc on American television, I have included excerpts from a script I am proposing to any major studio executive who happens to be read.ing this with airtime slots to fill. I plan to adapt and rearrange selected scenes and dialogue from The Godfather Trilogy into a one-hour made-for-TV epic about Michael Owen’s career.
Michael Corleowen: Do you still fear me Kay?
Kay Adams Mourads: I don’t fear you Michael, I just dread you.
There was a time I might have been lambasted for this piece. Considering my chosen language of expression, I might have even been accused of blasphemy, and rightfully so. For there was also a time when Michael James Owen was one of the most efficient strikers alive, a prominent member of the select club of forwards most commonly referred to as “clinical”, that most coveted of fictional football terms. Unfortunately for Michael, that time has regrettably passed, the latter adjective now lugging with it a dark and far more ironic meaning when used to describe him.
Written by Adam Mourad. 15 comments
Yes, I’ve said it before: it’s ‘Top 100 Ranking’ time. Fresh from publishing their Top 100 footballers list last month, English magazine FourFourTwo just released their a list of the Richest players and club owners of the English Premiership, sort of a “2007’s Billionaire’s club” if you will. As the editors eloquently put it, the key message of this year is that “British football is getting richer, and the rich are getting richer“.
Written by Marco Pantanella. 25 comments
It’s that time of the year again. The time when a random (ok, let’s call it ‘well-respected’ if you prefer) football publication makes an “All Time Best” ranking that never fails to create controversy and offend a few people.
FourFourTwo did one of those last month, this time it’s the turn of the ‘Association of Football Statisticians’ to make its Top 100, after studying every fact and figure from the beautiful game over the past 100 years.
Points are given for goals scored by forwards and clean sheets for defenders. Players also get awarded marks for trophies won, captaincy and the level they played at throughout their career.
Written by Marco Pantanella. 102 comments
Edward Harrison writes on the popular (and dare I say BBC-acclaimed) Newcastle United blog.
A couple of good interviews with Sam today.
First one has Sam talking for the first time on the contract dispute the club are in with Steven Taylor. Sam thinks it was a good offer but seems determined to get this sorted out as quickly as possible.
Big Sam also talks about Michael Owen and how good he has looked recently and is just so happy one of the big four clubs didn’t get him for only ₤9M in the summer.
Written by Ed Harrison. Leave a response
Throughout the summer the media kept reminding us about the buy-out clauses in Michael Owen’s and Obafemi Martins’ contracts with Newcastle United. Speculation increased despite both players pledging their allegiance to Newcastle, with each of the top four buying strikers this summer and widely tipped to make a move for one of the two Newcastle forwards.
However, Sam Allardyce is on record as saying that he had no approaches for Owen or Martins. Why is that? Why didn’t any club go after two of the best strikers in the Premier League?
Written by Ahmed Bilal. 6 comments
Newcastle have had a mixed bag of fortunes this summer. The takeover by Mike Ashley and a new manager in Sam Allardyce has buoyed expectations for the Newcastle faithful.
However, failure to grab primary targets (Tal Ben Haim and Steve Sidwell both chose Chelsea over Newcastle) and the news that both Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins have ‘buy-out’ clauses in their contracts are sickening blows to Newcastle’s plans for recapturing lost glory.
Written by Ahmed Bilal. One comment
Here are the major news stories associated with the Newcastle club for today - in no particular order of priority.
The news today is that Sam Allardyce is having multiple troubles with the release clauses in Owen’s and Martins’ contracts. There is also an exclusive in the Sun that Manchester United are after Michael in a part exchange deal with Alan Smith. We are now very wary of the Sun exclusives.
Written by Ed Harrison. Leave a response
One thing i sometimes hear from friends and other football fans is that Michael Owen is ‘past it’ and has lost his pace from when he was younger. Although to some degree this might be logical given his long term injuries and his lack of match practice, the stats do not agree, especially at international level.
Written by spreilly86. 9 comments
Michael Owen returned to the Newcastle side last night at Reading - for only his eleventh start in his two years at Newcastle - but even Michael couldn’t stir Newcastle from their lethargic end of season form and Reading won the game 1-0 - probably on merit - with a goal from Dave Kitson after 51 minutes.
Written by Ed Harrison. 2 comments
