Manchester United striker Michael Owen remains a well-respected footballer. Quite apart from the fact that he’s done little of note for the last two or three years – I’m not sure he still merits the kind of adoration and respect that he was earning almost a decade ago, when he wore the red of Liverpool, not of United.
Michael Owen joined Newcastle from Real Madrid in the summer of 2005 and spent four years at the club. His tenure with the Magpies was interrupted on numerous occasions by injury. As a result, Owen only managed to rack up 79 appearances and 30 goals (which to be fair, isn’t a bad conversion rate at all). But was he worth the cost? Newcastle shelled out £16m for the striker in combination with a weekly salary of £90k (£18.2m over 4 years) – so let’s do the maths.
During his time at Newcastle United, Michael Owen was paid £439k for every appearance and a whopping £1.1m for every goal. No matter what kind of sliding scale you’re using, you can hardly say that’s value for money.
I know it wasn’t Owen’s choice to be injured constantly during his time at St James, but I do question the decision that was made by the Newcastle brass to sign Madrid’s fourth choice striker and a man who had previously displayed mercenary tendencies for £16m.
But that’s the past – is Michael Owen, now 31-years-old, a positive influence for his club? In July 2009 Owen signed a two-year deal with Manchester United. It saw him leave Newcastle United on a free and take a wage-deduction. Nowadays he’s believed to pick up around £50k a week – so has Michael Owen turned his career around over the last couple of years and become decent value for money?
Well, not exactly. Though he’s not as costly to Manchester United as he was to Newcastle, he’s nowhere near as effective. He’s made 44 appearances for United (costing them £118k each time) and scored only 13 goals (£400k a goal – ouch). Nobody expects Owen to be the player he was during his time at Liverpool now that he’s 31-years-old, but given that he’s a natural goal-scorer, it’s a little surprising that he hasn’t contributed more to Manchester United.
Injuries, paired with the steady march of time appear to have derailed Owen’s career. Given that United already have to deal with the perpetually injured Owen Hargreaves draining cash from the club – I believe that it’s beyond time that Sir Alex Ferguson consider the future of his two ‘Owens’. If some kind of pay-as-you-play deal can’t be arranged for the both of them, I’d suggest they look for football elsewhere.
Manchester United simply can’t afford to be wasting funds on players who are giving little back to their club. Something has to be done.
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Michael Owen is on only a very basic wage at Man Utd so is hardly a huge cash drain. It is clear you know absolutely nothing about Owen anyway and are just looking to stir up trouble. Well here are some facts not childish opinions as spouted by yourself but cold hard facts.
1) Owen was hounded out of Liverpool by idiotic fans who sent him over one hundred death threats per week. threats aimed not only at Owen but his family as well. Owen’s crime? Simply replacing their God Robbie Fowler.
2) It was Newcastle United who chose to pay Owen his wages.
3) Mike Ashley tried to sell Owen behind his and the then Manager Kevin Keegan’s back. Ashley then made a half hearted contract offer which Owen quite rightly and entirely understandably would not sign. Following Newcastle’s relegation from The Premiership that contract offer was withdrawn so Owen had no choice but to leave.
The fact is Owen has done nothing wrong. Getting injured is not a crime. It is those reasons that many people still like Owen that and the fact that he is a very decent and honest man something you in the media do not understand being so dishonest and dishonourable yourselves. Do us all a favour and stay away from writing on subjects you know nothing about.
Not so much attacking Michael Owen himself, but whether he’s any use to Manchester United at the moment. Whatever way you try and sell it, he was a financial disaster at Newcastle – not his fault I know, but that doesn’t change the facts. Do you really want to keep Owen at £50k a week when his contract runs out?
So yet another stupid comment from you Mr Cloke. For the record Owen is not on £50k a week it is more like £20k a week. You call him a financial disaster at Newcastle. The truth is there is always a risk with any big money transfer as nobody knows when players are going to get injured. Sadly it happens but to abuse a player for that is quite frankly pathetic. One other thing footballers may be well paid entertainers but they are still human beings. However as we all know that is something you journalists find impossible to comprehend.
Where are you getting the £20k figure from?
Look Harry it is common knowledge what Owen’s wages are. £20k is the basic wage the only way Owen would earn more is if he plays. You have been reading too many trashy newspaper stories 99.9% of which are entirely fabricated. The facts are Owen could have made more money at Everton or Aston Villa both of whom wanted Owen however he chose to go to United. Owen is not a mercenary that is rubbish spouted by pathetic Liverpool and Newcastle fans and of course the morons in the media. All of which have their own agendas