Liverpool FC Forum

[LFC2007]

I'd cut off my nose to spite my face in this instance,

I would too, if we are limited in our options and it boils down to Bent and the likes then Id take Owen hands down, but only for his ability. As a person I think he's a little sh!t.

[LFC2007]

If he had signed a new contract he probably wouldnt have got his dream move to Madrid, and why shouldn't he desert a sinking ship? What loyalty had Liverpool shown Fowler? Shoved him out the door without a seconds thought when it suited Houllier.

I think its pathetic to expect these people to turn down the chance of a lifetime because they owe something to the club, yet the club can turn round and force people out for no good reason.

Football is a business not a charity, if someone offered you a dream job earning pots of money, would you turn it down because you owed loyalty to your boss, even though you were unhappy there? Bollox

Owen did nothing wrong, he played by the rules and if Rafa didn't want to gamble that was his problem, not Owens.

The Fowler scenario is completely different.

That was business, he was told he would be sold and the deal was done. Owen left at the last minute, leaving Rafa with no options to strengthen the squad further. If Owen had said from the start of the close season " I announce my intention to leave for a new challenge" - fair enough. He didn't though, he waited until we played our first UCL qualifier. That's just not on. At least we told Fowler he was not required, and he moved on.

Some chance of a lifetime! Even a blind parrot on steroids could have seen the situation of Perez and his Galactico's at Madrid, it was an unsteady ship that Owen chose to join. Managers in and out, decisions taken from the top that by-passed the manager......

Dream job? I thought he loved Liverpool? No?


Rafa gamble? gamble on what exactly? Dealing with a player who's p!ssed off at not being able to move?
A stupid gamble in my book, you make it sound as if Owen is Christ the redeemer.

A Last minute decision plumping us up sh!t creek with a depleted squad and no striker in a season with a new manager, I tell you had we not won the UCL a lot more people would be p!ssed off at Owen.

[account deleted by request]

Houllier had a contract with Liverpool , maybe we should have told Rafa, sorry mate, but Houllier has a contract, come back in 2 or 3 years and we will see what we can do. Its only the decent thing to do seeing as he nearly died managing us. Yes he's happy here, so we may have to extend his contract even though we are in a bit of a mess. But we are doing the decent thing!   

[LFC2007]

Houllier had a contract with Liverpool , maybe we should have told Rafa, sorry mate, but Houllier has a contract, come back in 2 or 3 years and we will see what we can do. Its only the decent thing to do seeing as he nearly died managing us. Yes he's happy here, so we may have to extend his contract even though we are in a bit of a mess. But we are doing the decent thing!   

Yet again you take it out of context to suit your warped view. Decency in letting the club know what your decision is - it's fairly basic. You love the club so much and you leave your new manager and the club you LOVE in the lurch and having to plan with no real striker. But you like to bring up random sh!t. Houllier leaving was a decision taken swiftly by the board, they didn'e feck about, Owen did. At least we gave Houllier the decency to relieve him early so he ahd the chance to look at other jobs. What did Owen do? Leave it 'till the eleventh fecking hour. BIG DIFFERENCE.

[account deleted by request]

If Fowler being forced out was business so was what Owen did.

Owen always said he wanted to play abroad, this was his big chance.

I never said Owen was the brightest button in the box, just a great goalscorer.

No striker ? What the fk was Cisse, Baros, LeTallec, FSP, and Mellor? We had just paid our record amount for a striker! Or should Owen have said I can't go cos Cisse will break his leg in 3 months?

[LFC2007]

Exactly what the fck was Baros, Cisse, FSP and Neil Mellor - a load of sh!t.

I can't be ar,sed to carry on, I've made my point, Owen's a 1st class sh!t head. You don't leave it until the last minute to leave, especially when you're the 2nd best player at the club. BIG DIFFERENCE between that and the Fowler situation - that was a personal dispute and Owen left it late, we didn't leave it late in telling Folwer he wasn't needed.

[account deleted by request]

So Owen was expected to say all our forwards except me are a load of sh!t so I can't go

We don't know why Owen left or why he left it so late. He said he was going to sign a new contract until Madrid made their offer. I have no reason to doubt him perhaps you think you know something different?

But that would be speculating 

[LFC2007]

WTF are you on about 

You miscontrue post after post after post. We clearly had no-one at the club remotely close to Owens strike rate, Cisse was a BIG IF.

He left us in the sh!t late on, there should be a cut off point, you make your decision now or you're staying. Otherwise how do you plan? It's impossible, you have to adapt to playing without your best striker, who is BY FAR your best striker.

Madrid were strongly reported to be interested in him throughout the summer and in summers previous to that. He wanted to leave the club, if it's too lat ein the day I'd expect a degree of decency from Owen to say no - if you LOVE THE CLUB SO MUCH!!!

Just exemplifies how much love for his home town club he had. Not to mention the smile he had on his face when he was paraded at St James'.


Anyway I'll let you crack on your merry way. IF we sign Owen you can be the first to send him a welcome home card.

I won't.

[account deleted by request]

He was born in Chester not Liverpool.    He never managed to play for his hometown club

Planning wasn't part of Owen's contract as far as I am aware, that was Rafa's problem not Owen's. So apart from predicting the future he was supposed to plan Liverpools season was he

Twist and turn all you want Cisse was our record signing, Owen was supposed to know or care if Cisse was cr@p    I don't think that was part of his job description

[LFC2007]

  PMSL, let's get into tiny detail that no-one gives a sh!t about because that's so important mate   

I know Owen was born in Chester okay I'll rephrase it "schoolboy club" , "club he loves" - suit you now or would you like a dictionary definition?, if you want to get into the minutia of where people are from go for it, I don't care - it's irrelevant here.

Owen is as loyal as Nick Faldo on a stag night.

He knew he was leaving us in the sh!t, a blind man could have seen the scenario we were in (except you of course) yet he still left. If he LOVED the club SO MUCH, you'd think he'd have the very basic decency to let us know early on that he intends to find a new challenge or declare he's going to make a decision quickly. We told Fowler, you're off - after a dispute with Houllier and co. Owen left us in the sh!t, he may be a great player, but he left us in the sh!t foir pastures new, he didn't even stick it out at Madrid, then left to see his mate Shearer at Newcastle, Loyalty hey?

Some loyalty.

Get real.

 

[LFC2007]

Saint replies..... Owen is supposed to plan now?

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So we showed decency to Houllier.......









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[Bad Bob]

Exactly what the fck was Baros, Cisse, FSP and Neil Mellor - a load of sh!t.

Sorry to butt into a rather cracking discussion lads but I feel obliged to point out that not only was Cisse our record signing and France's top scorer (ie. no one had any notion he was a bit merde that summer) but Baros had just won the Golden Boot at Euro 04 (making us think we had a hell of a player on our hands).  Hindsight's 20/20 and all that but, at the time, we very much looked like we had the players to soften the blow of Owen's departure.

On the other side, Rafa did fly to Portugal to try and convince both Gerrard and Owen to stay in the midst of the tournament so we can't accuse him of being too aloof and indifferent.

From my perspective, Owen was disgruntled with the way things were headed under the Houllier regime and had let his contract run down while weighing up options.  Houllier's sacking and the arrival of Rafa muddied the waters for him and it took him a few weeks to come to a decision after Portugal, by which time the CL qualifiers were upon us.  In other words, I don't think he'd made up his mind already to leave but had been leaning in that direction pretty heavily prior to Rafa's arrival and ultimately, he decided to take the plunge.

Anyway, I still think this is all beside the point.  He's undoubtedly a better striker than we currently have and he's available for a cut-rate price.  The only question to ask, IMHO, is whether the gamble on his fitness is worth it.  I'll leave character assessments to others (while gently reminding people that we did sign Craig Bellamy, after all)!

[el_stinger]

Who cares, Owen shouldn't be allowed to come back, and as long as Rafa is here, it won't happen. Rafa hates disloyalty, and that's what Owen showed us, pure and simple.

People can dance around at the truth, but if we got him back, who's to say he wouldn't shaft us again? Better off spending the $$ on youth players. Here's one, let's get Troisi from Newcastle, he's got more to offer than Owen ATM

[LFC2007]

Sorry Bob, I've upest members of the "clique".

"outsiders" are not supposed to question the "clique" 

I get the feeling the "clique" play devils advocate just to say feck off to the "outsiders", after all why has Saint not been so persistent with other members, Mick for example - he also thinks Owen was a little cheeky fecker - but Mick is beyond questioning since he is grandmaster controller of the clique.

[maguskwt]

Well IMO Owen did a bad judgement call... he doubted rafa so he decided to leave...

But don't you make any mistakes in your life? I don't blame him for making this mistake...

just imagine... on one hand Real Madrid wants you... yeah Real not some average european club... the most successful club in europe ever... if you're a professional player won't you be tempted to play for them? if nothing else to see where you stand among the world's greatest players?

On the other hand... you're starting to doubt whether the new manager favours you or not... there was probably a communication breakdown between owen and rafa... rafa probably told him "you cannot play every week. for now on I will practice rotation... there are so many other strikers...very good strikers... like cisse, baros... so I think... you cannot play every week"...

well I don't know why he didn't sign a new contract...

maybe he was waiting to see how the new manager will be like... maybe he thought he could extend his contract later... maybe he did want to leave so he didn't sign the contract so that he will have more options if he decide to leave... what's wrong with that? he has a right to do whatever he wants with his professional career and hence his contract management... he's a professional footballer! he didn't do anything illegal... he's got no obligation to sign a new contract if he wants to leave...it's his own decission to make...do you think that if he signed a new contract, real would still come for him? much less other clubs... IMO what kewell did to leeds is alot worse than what owen did but are you guys complaining??