Liverpool FC Forum

by **RedorDead** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:46 pm

Michael Owen doesn't half come in for some stick on this forum but I personally feel for him. When he left us for Madrid it was not his disloyalty coming through but Michael Owen protecting his own interests. We have seen our board stalling on contracts before, we nearly lost Gerrard the same way, Michael Owen wasn't offered a new deal quick enough and Real Madrid came knocking....his job as a footballer left him no choice but to leave.
He did well there but again he was getting pushed out, only a sub despite his excellent record there and I think he fancied a move back to us, he said as much a few times but when Newcastle offered £17 million that was it, Michael had no choice. Rafa COULDN'T offer that money, not because we didn't have it but because we couldn't pay £17 mill for a player we sold for £8mill 12 months earlier. He signed for Newcastle and can hardly be blamed for getting injured, he has never moaned or complained and asked to leave and while he may feel he "owes" the fans his failure to repay them is hardly is own fault.

My guess is that he would love to come back home, if we were to offer £9mill and trigger that clause I think he would come in a heart beat and I personally would welcome him with open arms.
He needs to get fit, shed a bit of beef to get him back up to speed but the FACT is that he is an out and out goal scorer and WILL SCORE goals no matter what. In a squad of players alongside Crouch, Kuyt, Voronin and an Eto'o or Villa we would have a frightening attack and might finally start banging them in.

by **LFC2007** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:54 pm

RedorDead wrote:He did well there but again he was getting pushed out, only a sub despite his excellent record there and I think he fancied a move back to us, he said as much a few times but when Newcastle offered £17 million that was it, Michael had no choice. Rafa COULDN'T offer that money, not because we didn't have it but because we couldn't pay £17 mill for a player we sold for £8mill 12 months earlier.

This is where IMO you are completely wrong.....

The player has the final say on what he wants to do. He could have rejected a move to Newcastle and stayed at Real Madrid. He wasn't forced to move because of Newcastle's bid, he chose to because he thought he may not be selected for the England World cup squad.

by **RedorDead** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:11 am

LFC2007 wrote:
RedorDead wrote:He did well there but again he was getting pushed out, only a sub despite his excellent record there and I think he fancied a move back to us, he said as much a few times but when Newcastle offered £17 million that was it, Michael had no choice. Rafa COULDN'T offer that money, not because we didn't have it but because we couldn't pay £17 mill for a player we sold for £8mill 12 months earlier.

This is where IMO you are completely wrong.....

The player has the final say on what he wants to do. He could have rejected a move to Newcastle and stayed at Real Madrid. He wasn't forced to move because of Newcastle's bid, he chose to because he thought he may not be selected for the England World cup squad.

Real Madrid accepted Newcastle's offer so to me that says they were prepared to cash and let him go, I agree he thought a season in the premiership would do his world cup chances some good but he was sold... what else could he do? And even if it was his choice I can't say I blame, he got so few chances in Madrid and performed so well and worked hard he can't be blamed for cutting his losses.

by **LFC2007** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:24 am

RedorDead wrote:Real Madrid accepted Newcastle's offer so to me that says they were prepared to cash and let him go, I agree he thought a season in the premiership would do his world cup chances some good but he was sold... what else could he do? And even if it was his choice I can't say I blame, he got so few chances in Madrid and performed so well and worked hard he can't be blamed for cutting his losses.

They were prepared to let him go because Newcastle came in with a silly bid, he played 36 games which isn't bad considering it's Real Madrid. There was no animosity shown to Owen from Real Madrid, they didn't try and force him out. He thought he should move so as to not hinder his England chances, however, he could have rejected Newcastle's bid and waited until the January transfer window.

In hindsight it was obvious to see that he would have been picked for the England team had he stayed at Madrid, Walcott had no top flight experience whatsoever and he was picked - even Sven admitted recently that he believed there weren't enough good strikers at the time so chances are he would have gone even if he played 5 games for Madrid that season. (albeit we know Sven is a nut and could have picked Defoe).

So all in all I would question at the very least how he thought he might not be selected for the England squad.

by **ivor_the_injun** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:39 am

I've got mixed feelings about him to be honest.

One the one hand, the circumstances surrounding his departure left a taste so bitter that it still hasn't gone away. It wasn't McManaman-style sh*tting, but a player of Owen's quality at the time should've been commanding £30m, not the pocket change we came out of the deal with.

That said, he has clearly tried to atone. His Madrid adventure went sour within his first month there, and even though he must know the ill feeling many of us have about his contract-stalling, he was still openly saying that he wanted to come back.

And to be honest, if he came back for £9m, and scored a brace on his first game back, I'm sure very few of us would bear him any ill will.

Not every footballer is a Carragher-type character with loyalty etched on their forehead. I personally think that Owen loves LFC, but it's not in his blood in the way it is for the likes of Carra and Robbie. To a certain extent I think we need to let him off for that. Almost everyone would love to have Tevez and Eto'o here, but it's not like they'd be getting Liverbirds tattoed to their backs. If they come, you bet you ar*se it's all about the money first, and pulling on the shirt won't even be thought about until long after the ink's dried. There's resentment towards Owen, but I really think that - even with no open dialogue between us and Newcastle - he's actually smiling to himself in private thinking about what it'd be like taking to the field in front of the Kop again.

And the bottom line? Owen's world class, and if he could keep himself off the treatment table, his presence would improve our first 11 massively. A hell of a lot of player for £9m, in other words. Regardless of what's gone before, he could prove to be the best signing Rafa ever makes.

by **The Manhattan Project** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:39 am

Meh sign the fooker.

He scores his first hat-trick and he'll be forgiven.

by **LFC2007** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:50 am

ivor_the_injun wrote:I've got mixed feelings about him to be honest.

I'd agree with that, if it wasn't for the £9m price tag it wouldn't be an issue in my mind. I just think back to the time when he left us, I thought what an ars.e, a new manager comes in with no experience, we had no real striker and he fecks of at the last minute for £8m!! If it wasn't for Rafa's mecurial UCL exploits we'd have been well and truly fecked.

Then going to Newcastle and blowing the Newcastle/Shearer trumpet for the sake of his England career, well that just compounded what I already thought.

If his release clause was anything above £15m, no chance. But for £9m he may be an option.

by **Emerald Red** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:51 am

maypaxvobiscum wrote:i dont understand why people come here to argue with each other. i joined this forum to read interesting posts. not anal and pedantic ones

Is it anal and pedantic that I'm trying to figure out what your name is, or means, or how it's read?

by **stmichael** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:09 pm

I suppose all the people who don't want mo back at 9m due to his injuries & him trying his luck at madrid are the same fans who think harry kewell should be our first choice left midfielder. At the final in athens, bolo was getting booed at & harry kewells name was being chanted. This is the same man who spends a season out with gout! In the 4/5 years he's been at liverpool he hasn't deliverd one tenth of what owen did in his time at anfield. Why is that, even though his injury record is as bad, if not worse & he collects £70.000 for the privalage. It's because somewhere under his mercenary skin is a footballer with a great first touch, pace, decent cross & an eye for goal. Surely if our fans chant the name of harry kewell after him giving hardly anything to the club in the last 5 years, owens return would be welcomed!

by **Kopboyau** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:24 pm

Reg wrote:Reminds me of the saying
'If you want a friend, buy a goldfish, if you want loyalty, buy a dog.'
Michael Owen looks after Michael Owen, he's given Newcastle F-ALL value for money and even though they have a new owner coming in with the resources to create a new era, Owen's going to be off. Just like when Benitez arrived. And some of you guys want him back....

"Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce has admitted he is powerless to stop Michael Owen from leaving the club.

Allardyce confirmed Owen has a release clause in his contract allowing him to leave if another club reaches that release fee.

Owen's future at St James' Park has been the subject of some conjecture for some time now with Freddy Shepherd calling on the player to make a public statement of his commitment.

The England international has been coy on his long-term future at Newcastle with the player believed to be keen on a return to the North West.

Allardyce, who has held talks with Owen over his future, accepts the former Liverpool hit-man could move on in the summer.

"If Michael wants to leave, there's nothing I can do about it, especially if another club triggers his release clause," Allardyce told the News of the World.

"At the moment, we are benefiting from a release clause to get Joey Barton.

"But we could also suffer because of Michael's clause."

Liverpool are thought to be monitoring Owen's situation with the player widely believed to be keen on a return to Anfield.

Meanwhile, Newcastle are being credited with an interest in Barcelona's Ludovic Giuly.
Giuly is expected to leave Barcelona at the end of the season after being told he does not figure in their long-term plans.

A number of French clubs are believed to be chasing the winger, but Giuly's commercial representative, Sebastien Riera, says Newcastle are interested in the French international.

"Ludo is aware of Newcastle's interest," Riera told the Sunday Sun.

Should The Magpies fail in their attempts to sign Giuly they could turn their attentions to Bolton's El Hadji Diouf."

The Sun is banned reading

by **maypaxvobiscum** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:35 pm

Emerald Red wrote:
maypaxvobiscum wrote:i dont understand why people come here to argue with each other. i joined this forum to read interesting posts. not anal and pedantic ones

Is it anal and pedantic that I'm trying to figure out what your name is, or means, or how it's read?

its latin.

by **Ade** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:44 pm

I'm starting to get a little bit worried over how slow we're moving on the transfers. This could be either because Rafa's targets are playing in La Liga, and we can't move for any of them until the season finishes this weekend, or he's got his eye on players elsewhere and we're just not in for them.

For me, Eto'o is far too expensive, he's disruptive and he's also gonna be out of action come the African Nations cup. All things considered (mostly his price) we should forget about him.

Tevez would be brilliant, a quality player with a big heart, a good engine, strength, good link play and a real team spirit. But if Joorabchian gets an auction going, which is looking likely, we could be looking at £18-£25m for him. He's beginning to look out of our reach, even if Masch has been in his ear.

Bent - has anyone seen his stats in the prem the past few seasons? They're :censored:

impressive, proving that a, he's consistently banging in around 20 a season for a lowly side like Charlton, and b, he hasn't been out for long, injured. I wouldn't dismiss him, and if we could get him for £12m, I'd welcome him.

Forlan - do me a favour.

Which brings us to Owen. For me, all this debate on here about MO's bad attitude and dumping on us is old news. Yes, he made a mistake, yes we should've got £20m for him, but Parry :censored:

around for too long on his contract.

I've said it on here many times (sorry to rpt) but I know from a mate who's spoken to Owen that he wanted to come back, he was desperate to come back, at the end of 2005/06 season. He'll be even more desperate now, given that Rafa's got us to two CL finals in 3 years and that Owen is two years older. All that matters is that he wants to come back and make amends - he knows he's got a lot of Reds to win over, and he will back himself to do that. He is class, and for £9m he is a bargain. At that price he would virtually cost nothing, given that we could offload Bellamy for almost that.

We're in danger, and so is Rafa, or letting pride get in the way of signing the best bargain of the summer. And for £9m/Bellamy out for £9m, it would still allow us to go in for another big target up front.

by **Roger Red Hat** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:56 pm

Sign him! Sign him!

for fk's sake we need him.

where is the problem?

If I had 9million in my bank now I'd sign him for us.

by **LFC #1** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:58 pm

Firstly, if Newcastle are stupid enough to have put that release clause in the contract then tough. Perhaps a player with more loyalty wouldn't choose to enact it, but Owen is a selfish yet ambitious footballer, he knows to get his career (for club and England) back on track he needs to be at a top club.

Would I sign him for that money? tough one, their is a lot of controversy around it but he's still one of the best goalscorers in the country and we desperatley lack soemoen of his quality. Do I think we will sign him though? no I don't think Rafa wants him and if that is the case then fair enough IMO. I hope these stories of Parry and co signing Owen anyway, withuot Rafa's permission are completely wide of the mark, as it's blatant interference and undermining of the man.

That being said if we do sign him I will be cheering him on come the start of the season, despite the fashion in which he left us.

by **grayghost** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:03 pm

Just sign him for fook sake not every player who signs for Liverpool has to be pasonatly in love with the reds but as long as he does his job then i don't care were his real loyaltes lie
But it is clear that unlike every player in the world Owen does have a soft spot for Liverpool i don't see what the problem is 9mil is a steal for that price.

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