Owen

[Redman]

So the little mercenary is off to the theatre of delusions, wants a Premiership medal before he retires, I really hope Rafa or someone else rains on his parade, it also seems the Tramp is having to scrape the bargain basements for players as most of what he's been linked with have gone or are waiting to get scooped up by Madrid 

Redman

[Irish_Mark]

I can't help but feel betrayed by this... First he p**sed off, now he's going... there...

Makes my skin crawl, thinking of him in a U***d shirt...

[Juan]

I feel completely betrayed BUT I have to say a move to Man United probably represents a last chance for Owen for a shot at a top four team so in a way you cant really blame him.

To be honest I know this is terrible but I would have a good chuckle if he didnt pass his medical, Owen has shown us his true colours and Fergie would have to revert to plan E were it to happen

[the dude abides]

it is the perfect ending to a 'me me, it's all about me' mercenary's career.

I lost all respect for him the way he ran down his contract and left for madrid.

This latest event is only typical of the bloke. 

And on a wider perspective, it only illustrates the huge gold between modern players and fans.  e.g. could anyone imagine George Best (or Bobby Charlton)  ending up at Liverpool........or John Toshack coming back from Spain and finishing his playing days at Old Trafford......or Malcom MacDonald moving across to end his career at Middlesboro?

[barticus]

the foul little creature has just passed the medical....
completely and utterly messed up....
doesn't he know the hate he will face now?
just when i think i've seen everything...
what's next...van nistelroy for anfield?

*stunned*

[FlotionPotion]

who cares...he's finished.

we just signed King Kenny

[Juan]

what's next...van nistelroy for anfield?

*stunned*

To be honest barticus id sooner have van nistelrooy than owen back.

Owens dwindling career will finally fizzle out at united where he will be deservedly be confined to the premiership scrap heap. A little bit of loyalty goes a long way in football and Owens career has suffered majorly through a lack of it.

Unless he does relatively well he will be hated at United, he certainly going to be hated by nearly every Liverpool fan so in a career that really promised so much he will have underachieved greatly in comparison to the potential he once had.

Otherwise you'd have to say its been a good summer so far for LFC. We sign Glen Johnson. Ronaldo and Tevez leave United, Hiddink leaves Chelsea, Madrid have bought up all of Uniteds transfer targets(assuming Madrid werent after the boy wonder  ). Alonso and Mascherano are still here despite intense media attention and to top it all off we bring back King Kenny. What would make my summer complete is if we could snap up a Villa or Silva type player while at the same time running Hicks and Gilette out of town.

[FlotionPotion]

I took some serious abuse from utd fans when we were linked at bringing heskey back.  the quote was 'That's why LFC will never win the league, buying second rate players, passed their best'. Now Manure have signed a player that, well lets face it, was passed his best when he left LFC. I'd rather have heskey any day.

on top of that utd have lost a world class winger and top goal scorer in ronaldo, a top class striker in Tevez.

Lets win the damn league next year so Owen can add the lack of premiership medals to his lack of champions league medals     

[BandWMisery]

I do think some people are clouded by his money chasing and lack of loyality. As a B&W fan that feels he just raped us...

Regardless of what I think, through out his career if you look at his stats he is 1 goal in 2 games. So if you can get 40 games that is 20 goals I don't know any club that would knock a secondary striker on those kind of rates.

Can Fergie manage that well I'll wait and see and hope like many he washes up on the scrap heap but part of me feels this may be a very clever move by Fergie.

[Tes]

Revealed: The truth about the Owen deal.


Since the Mancs lost Solskjaer and then Saha, there's been a lot of pressure from the Glazer's to get rid of the medical department at Salford. This pressure became intense after Neville peeled off the last of his sticking plasters at the start of last season.
So Ferguson, being the arch socialist he is and not liking the idea that all the Essex boy's 'ard earned' from the Stretford End was going to be put towards the Glazer's credit card purchase debt run up when 'acquiring' the club, decided to do something about it.
He made one concession and that was that Owen would be on a 'pay as you play' contract. Rather clever, as he can argue there will be no increase in the wage bill. This inturn offsets the cost of keeping the medical facilities going.
He in turn got a concession from the Glazers - a brand new tow truck that will be parked outside the Carrington training ground for when Owen breaks down at the beginning of pre-season training.

The blow of only being offered a 'pay as you play' deal will be softened by two new major endorsements for Owen. One with HSA, who are going to be changing their name shortly to Simplyhealth, and saw Owen as the perfect front man for their advertising campaign (seeing as he won't be spending too much time as a frontman anywhere else), and the other with Green Flag, ironically a former sponsor of the England national team and the nearest Owen will ever get to wearing an England shirt will be the off white one from 1998 he will be wearing in the adverts.
Owen's advisors tried arranging a third sponsorship deal, with Persil, due to Owen's 'whiter than white' clean cut image (a quote taken directly from the recent 'sales brochure' his advisors put together to try and jog the memories' of Premiership managers so that their client would have somewhere to land when he jumped from the good ship Newcastle).  However Persil's legal team immediately informed Owen's advisors that a deal could not be offered due to the foreseeable problems they would have with the Advertising Standards agency and Trade Descriptions Act if the suggested slogan appeared in any way to be describing the Persil product.

[FlotionPotion]

Tes
extremely highbrow humour.  was chuckling for ages


BandWMisery
No one can argue against Owens goalscoring prowess but I think a major factor missing from Owen's portfolio is that he is one of the most injury prone players in premiership history.  Owen won't any where near 40 games for UTD.

if memeory serves me well his goals from sub ratio in the premiership is woefull.  excellent at madrid. and don't forget that bringing owen from the bench is as risky as three risky things at a risky convention for risky things

On 31 August 2005 Owen finally signed a four-year contract to play for Newcastle United

Several days after signing he suffered a thigh-injury in pre-season, which ruled him out for the start of the 2005–2006 season.

On 31 December 2005, Owen broke a metatarsal bone in his foot in a match against Tottenham Hotspur. He underwent surgery to place a pin in the bone, to help speed the healing process. He was expected to be out of action until late March,[18] but the healing process did not go as hoped and on 24 March he underwent a second, minor, operation. Owen then stated that he should be fit for the final few weeks of the season with Newcastle.[19] His return to action finally came against Birmingham City on 29 April when he came off the substitutes' bench in the 62nd minute. After the match Owen stated that he was "not 100% happy" with his foot.[20] He underwent a further x-ray and made himself unavailable for Newcastle's final game of the season.

A damaged anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, sustained in the first minute of the group match against Sweden at the 2006 World Cup, kept Owen out of regular football for nearly a year, until April 2007.

Owen began light training on 12 February 2007, when pictures on the club's official website highlighted Owen running and carrying out minor exercises.[26] He made his comeback from injury on 10 April 2007 in a 4–1 behind-closed-doors friendly against Gretna, scoring after ten minutes and then setting up fellow striker Shola Ameobi before coming off an hour later.[27] Owen then started his first game for Newcastle United in over a year, against Reading on the 30 April 2007 in a game that Newcastle United lost 1–0. He played the full 90 minutes, having a goal disallowed for offside.[28]

Owen was stretchered off an hour into Newcastle's game with Watford on 13 May 2007, suffering concussion after colliding with team-mate Matty Pattison

On 17 July 2007, he scored for Newcastle in a pre-season friendly against Hartlepool United.[35] Several days later, Owen picked up a thigh injury in training.[36] Newcastle manager Sam Allardyce admitted that Owen was likely to miss the start of the forthcoming Premier League season due to the injury which "doesn't look as encouraging as we first thought.

In late September 2007, after an encouraging start to the season playing for both Newcastle United and for England, it was reported that he would urgently require an operation for a double hernia and would likely be out of action for at least a month

In November 2007, Owen suffered a thigh strain whilst on international duty, ruling him out for six weeks.

Owen missed all of the pre-season matches and training of the 2008-2009 season due to a bout of mumps, which also kept him out of the international friendlies with the USA and Trinidad & Tobago in May 2008. He also suffered a calf strain during the summer months which kept him out of the opening game of the season against Manchester United at Old Trafford, a game which Newcastle drew 1–1. He made his return in the second game of the season against Bolton Wanderers on 23 August 2008, coming on in the 53rd minute for the injured Obafemi Martins.

and don't forget that Owen was prone to 2 injuries and 3 dips in form every season for the latter part of his time at LFC

[BandWMisery]

I'm going to hate doing this...

You don't need to tell a Geordie fan his injury record  But.. I'm not so sure that is all of it. What about Martins, Viduka, Duff, then earlier still Shearer and Bellamy, when you look over time I've concluded 2 things one our medical team must be useless and two something must be very wrong in regards to keeping players fit..

But even with this we went down because the mercenaries where playing for a paycheck we had 11 prima doners(Deliberate). To analyse where the fault really lies is not one for here. But there is many players that should look at their contribution, and the fault doesn't just lie at chairmans, revolving managers, injuries etc... It comes down to one thing the players didn't play their socks of for the club that gave them a pay check.

So is he worth a gamble of course(Pay as you play is the rumour), is he loyal no but are many professional footballers now?

Then I'm sure I heard many moons a go, some where, that Giggs said the reason he ends up with so many injuries is due to him not warming up properly.

Edit
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/1650102.stm

[iskoppa]

I do think some people are clouded by his money chasing and lack of loyality. As a B&W fan that feels he just raped us...

Regardless of what I think, through out his career if you look at his stats he is 1 goal in 2 games. So if you can get 40 games that is 20 goals I don't know any club that would knock a secondary striker on those kind of rates.

Can Fergie manage that well I'll wait and see and hope like many he washes up on the scrap heap but part of me feels this may be a very clever move by Fergie.

@ BandWMisery you might well have a point there, I read somewhere that when Owen and Rooney played for England together (29 games) they scored 30 goals between them, so Slur AF might well be on to something!
As for there new home strip, that's pure "Beam me up Scottie" stuff that is!!! lol 

[the dude abides]

Regardless of what I think, through out his career if you look at his stats he is 1 goal in 2 games. So if you can get 40 games that is 20 goals I don't know any club that would knock a secondary striker on those kind of rates.

the 1 goal every second game stat is very misleading.

How many of Owen's goals were penalties?  (note, I hope he takes Utd's penalties)  How many were in his best years, when he was played as the main striker and he used his stunning pace?

Owen has never been able to play as part of a striking duo.  He is no use at setting up chances for others.  Rooney will not enjoy any help from boy wonder, when it comes to scoring opportunities.

I think Rooney is going to be very annoyed/frustrated, that with Ronaldo now finally gone, he finds himself again not being the main striker.

Then again, I think Fergie has a role in mind for Owen....that of a super sub role.  Coming on late, against tired opponents, and making hay.  Owen's ego in that case, is gonna take a major knock.

[BandWMisery]

http://premiersoccerstats.com/PlayerHome.cfm?PlayerId=OWENM&TEAMNAME=Newcastle%20U

It looks like a career of 7 can't say I've ever known him as a penalty taker. Doesn't look like he's done much with a dead ball since 2000. I do also agree his best years where with a supporting striker ala Heskey.. But I also don't doubt that Fergie may possess the ability to bring him back. Not to mention the style of Rooneys play is actually quite similar to Heskey yet as a player he has more depth to his game.

With him MIA for us 26 for 71 appearances. OK slipping(Closer to 1 in 3) but he never played for us he played for England the whole time he was at ours. I also wonder how many times the injury was longer than it needed to be, not to mention as you highlighted he is a niche striker and we tried to use him as a lone striker which he is not.

I think he took a knock when he accepted pay as you play, but fergie will play in form players so the ball will be in his court