The Curious Case Of Michael Owen
Following on from Neil Jones’s article about Newcastle’s current plight, I wondered about the plight of a man once dubbed ‘The Boy Wonder’ by Liverpool fans. Michael Owen.
We are now into the final stages of the Premier League campaign, with a title race back on, and all four English clubs are into the last eight of the Champions League. This is where its at for any self respecting professional footballer. Imagine being Steven Gerrard last Sunday, he scores a hattrick that helps keep the team he captains hot on the league leaders heels, drives home with plaudits ringing in his ears, reads the text off The FA reminding him he is in the England squad, rolls into bed next to Alex Curran and nods off, dreaming of winning the double for his club.
Now imagine being Michael Owen last Saturday. His team slip to another defeat after being well beaten at home by Arsenal. He knows he is not in the England squad, with the likes of Carlton Cole and Gabriel Agbonlahor being preferred last time. On top of that, he’s at Newcastle. If he manages to stay fit, for him, the final stages of this season offer only a relegation dogfight, rather than a chase for silverware. He must have been thinking, ‘where did it all go wrong?’
It really should be different for Owen. He was a truly great player at Liverpool. He was a teenage sensation, scoring on his debut and never looking back. On the odd occasion he went through a lean spell he would invariably stick it to the critics by going goal crazy soon after. In 2001 he helped Liverpool to an unprecedented cup treble, famously turning that FA Cup final against Arsenal on its head. He was the first Liverpool man to be crowned European player of the year, averaging better than a goal every other game during his time at the club. In fact, towards the end of Anfield service it was embarrassingly obvious how much Liverpool relied on him.
He had also become a firm ‘England man’, something fellow red Robbie Fowler had never quite managed. He scored important, memorable World Cup goals (that one against Argentina 98) for England and rammed a famous hattrick past Oliver Khan during that thumping 5-1 victory over Germany in Munich. It is fair to say Owen was a world beater. The question is…can he be again?
Most people will probably say ‘no, he’s finished now’. It would be hard to argue that he could cut it at the very top again. His list of injuries is phenomenal. He should be on those adverts ‘Have you been injured at work?’, ‘Have you slipped, tripped or fell over weirdly and snapped your knee?’ etc. This season he missed most of Newcastle’s warm up games with Mumps. Mumps? What next nappy rash?!
However, Owen is surely too good to be playing for a team scrapping for Premier League survival. He is still the right side of 30 and when he actually plays, he still scores at a good rate. With his contract is up in the summer he will have a choice to make. He may stay on at Newcastle, if he feels he ‘owes something to them’, but probably not if they go down. He may get another huge pay day at another struggling club. Or maybe, just maybe, one of the big four will take a risk on him, and he will get a chance to become that player again.
Personally, I would like to see the latter happen. The alternative is that he is left on the football scrap heap, with his astonishing early career being slowly forgotten.
Topics: England, English Premier League, Features, Liverpool, Michael Owen, Newcastle United
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Oh Owen, what a legend. More than an average of a goal a game :O Never knew that, oh my. He was a phenomenal player, and i personally think hes gone from phenomenal to great, a drop but great none the less. Its jsut these injuries getting in the way. Will he ever rise to the spotlight? and if newcastle get relegated, he will leave 100%, owen in the champion ship oh please.
March 24th, 2009 @ 11:03When Michael Owen, by his own choice, left Liverpool for Real Madrid he stated that he was joining the best club in the world. Wrong wrong wrong, its been downhill all the way since.
March 24th, 2009 @ 13:55If he’d stayed at The ‘Pool he’d have a CL medal under his belt and injuries or no injuries he would have ended up an all time Liverpool great (like Steven Gerrard).
Strange one Owen. A lot of Liverpool fans don’t really give him the reverence he deserves. It’s easy to forget how excellent he was at Liverpool (even at Real Madrid, considering his lack of chances). He should be regarded as one of Liverpool’s all time greats anyway, but most fans I know would opt for Fowler or Torres before Owen from the modern generation. Shame.
As for Newcastle. I think they will go down to be honest. Tough run of games. Owen will need to be at more than his best if he is to save them. Tall order for me.
March 24th, 2009 @ 16:34Owen seems highly injury prone but I wonder if it’s something specific to Newcastle. Look at the scores of other Magpies who are missing through injury. I think it’s about time the Newcastle management took at long hard look at the reasons why most of their best players spend more time on th einjured list than actually playing – no I don’t think it’s because the players get very well paid even if they are injured – the players are honest, they’re just exceedingly fragile
March 24th, 2009 @ 16:38Owen was blinded by the prospect of Champions’ League glory at Real Madrid. You have to remember that when he joined Madrid they probably were the best club in the world. They won the CL in 2002 and were semi finalists the year after. The year before Owen joined they won the Spanish league. He wasn’t to know that Florentino Perez’s project would begin to unravel soon after he joined. With all due respect to Liverpool, no-one thought they would challenge for, let alone win the CL at the time Owen left for Madrid.
March 24th, 2009 @ 16:39Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I’ll bet he wishes he stayed at Liverpool. I agree he was a great player at Anfield, one of Liverpool’s own. He thought he could do better but he was wrong and Liverpool weren’t prepared to pay £10m more than they sold him for to take him back a year later.
March 24th, 2009 @ 17:36Still, his career is not over, it will be interesting to see if he can regain top form and avoid regular injuries. Good luck to him.
There’s no doubting Owen’s talent, but his form was never “great” at Liverpool. At a time when Van Nistelrooy, Henry, Shearer and even Kevin Phillips were scorin thirty a season, Owen never hit more than 20 – and the style of play that had to be in place to support him meant that he didn’t offer a huge amount more to the team. He took a gamble at Real, it didn’t come off; Newcastle basically gave him no choice by succeeding with the same tactic that failed with their bid for Wayne Rooney a year previously – overbidding to a selling club, and taking every other potential bidder out (including the club he wanted to sign for – Liverpool).
If Newcastle haven’t had the return out of him that they paid for, well that’s tough. They shouldn’t have effectively forced his hand in the first instance. The top four won’t be interested in Owen next season, and unless he drops his wages significantly, I can’t imagine any other club affording him (except City, and they can get anyone else they like). We could have the bizarre sight next year of Owen playing championship football – or no football at all. It is sad, really.
March 24th, 2009 @ 20:15please get Owen back to Liverpool this summer I feel so sorry for him. Hes on 89 caps he should get his 100 caps for England its really sad if he dont get that chance again!
March 27th, 2009 @ 22:00Owen Back To Liverpool !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 30th, 2009 @ 13:49Owen is finished, well, he’s finished at the top level anyway, i.e. the ‘Big 4, Champions League and International football for England. He is too one-dimensional and doesn’t fit into the modern game now, especially when there are better players around, e.g. Liverpool have Torres and Gerrard and England have Rooney and Gerrard, and the likes of Heskey and others to help out. You have to build a team around Owen and quite frankly, with his injury record, its just not worth the gamble. He also hasn’t scored against the Big 4 in ages too. He’s finished, it’s over – and Liverpool should NEVER bring him back. They won’t anyway.
April 3rd, 2009 @ 04:21owen back to liverpool would be a good deal.
May 6th, 2009 @ 16:59first, tores needs a strike partner.
Second gerrard needs to play midfield he also said he has the same telepathy with owen as with tores.
Third if things do not work out they could sell him in january taking a large profit.