The move of Michael Owen from Newcastle United to Manchester last Summer was unexpected and surprising, mainly due to Michael’s injury prone history.
Experts were left scratching their head at this decision by Sir Alex. With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, the generally accepted view was that a star would jump into the Manchester United jersey to replace him. Instead, United got Luis Valencia from Wigan and Michael Owen. A player who has been struggling with fitness and form over the last five years along with more injuries than one can count. To make matters worse of course, he is a former Liverpool player. The transfer did not go down as one of the most popular transfers amongst Manchester United fans.
When the deals fine print become known it became apparent that Alex Ferguson knew what he was doing. Michael Owen is signed on a pay if you play contract at Manchester United and he was intended to be used from the bench. He did not have to hold the whole team up with his striking abilities, he is being used from the bench when the team needs him.
Only managing to play in a few games as a late substitute it was not the start the Michael Owen would have wanted. Michael Owen’s last minute goal against Manchester City showed the role Alex Ferguson had planned for him in the team. This goal was expected to kick start more involvement from Owen in the team, their was even talk about a place in the England soccer team if he could find consistent goals.
Owen has not managed to continue his form however. A further two goals since has brought his tally to four this season in eighteen games and while Owen is at pains to point out that the statistics do not tell the whole story (the majority of his appearances have been as a substitute), There seems to be an increasing feeling that Owen’s long term stay at Manchester United is looking shaky.
Owen’s chances of regaining a place in the England team are getting slimmer by the day it seems. Fabio Capello’s need for players to be fit and playing consistently makes Owen’s chances very low.Over the past few years Owen has managed to be neither of these things. However it should be noted here that Capello doesn’t seem to extend this mantra to other England strikers, Emile Heskey seems certain to make the squad regardless of consistence and performance of Aston Villa.
So for the time being, Owen’s wonderful last minute goal against City has been the high point of the experiment so far.Owen needs to find goals and consistency over the remainder of the season or it seems unlikely that Alex Ferguson will continue his experiment onto the next season, much in the way youngster Darron Gibson is doing. It’s up to Owen to prove he still has the fitness and ability to stay in the team, at the moment however, it seems likely that Sir Alex’s gamble, in the long run, may not pay off.
Tags: mancheseter united, premier league, soccer