Featured: Michael Owen - An unloved legend (ESPN article)

[tlw content]

by Dave Usher for ESPN

 

Liverpool travel to Stoke City this weekend as the club that launched Michael Owen's career takes on the side where it all ended for him. Owen achieved some truly great things in his career, scoring goals for fun and winning plenty of trophies while playing for three of the biggest clubs in the world. Yet he is not truly embraced by the fans of any club he ever played for, particularly Liverpool.

 

Owen also had spells at Real Madrid, Newcastle United and Manchester United of course, but Liverpool are the club with which he is most closely associated. After exploding onto the scene as a jet-heeled teen, Owen went on to achieve a great deal in his time at Anfield, both in terms of team success and personal accolades, not least when he won the Ballon d'Or in 2001 after helping Liverpool achieve a historical cup treble. That season alone should have ensured that Owen never had to buy himself a drink on Merseyside ever again, yet if you were to ask most Liverpool fans to name their ten least favourite former players, Owen's name would make an awful lot of those lists.

 

Few Kopites have any affection left for their former striker these days, and views on Owen tend to vary between mild indifference to utter contempt. Personally, I'm at the "indifference" end of the scale as I have far too many fond memories to be able to bring myself to truly dislike Owen, although I fully understand how others can. The perception of Owen is of a self-centred, career-driven individual who never seemed to care too much about any club he played for, not even Liverpool with whom he enjoyed the best days of his career.

 

Rightly or wrongly, many fans suspected that Owen was more concerned with his international career and his "brand" than he was with Liverpool Football Club. Despite having come up through the club's junior ranks, he wasn't seen as being as much of a "Red" as the likes of Jamie Carragher, Robbie Fowler and Steven Gerrard, and as a result, was never really held in the same esteem despite always giving his best on the field. The way his career path went in comparison to his three pals suggests that the fans were right to doubt his commitment to the cause. Acting in the best interests of "Team Owen" may have paid off in terms of his resume, medal haul and bank balance, but as the Black Eyed Peas famously asked, "where is the love?".

 

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[Trumo]

Good article and I agree with the general point. I think that once he became an England regular, his mindset was geared to doing whatever he could to preserve his England place. His explosion onto the world scene at the 1998 World Cup ensured that he became the country's property and "England's Boy Wonder" rather than "Liverpool's Michael Owen".

 

About the Voronin deal, that was done in summer 2007, so it wasn't a case that the manager chose to go after Voronin ahead of Michael Owen and his brochure, which came out around the summer of 2009 nce Newcastle were relegated.

[Bjornebye]

I remember my dad being gutted when he scored that goal against argentina

 

I found out why in 2003 

 

I don't hate him like I hate Diouf, but I don't love him like I love Erik Meijer

[Stickman]

Shame the way it all panned out in the end, but whenever I see those goals against Arsenal they still bring back incredible memories probably more so than any other goals in the way it happened.

[Red_or_Dead]

Thought Benitez bought Ngog instead of bringing Owen back.  Not an ART but that was madness on Benitez's part.

[fowler9]

Thought Benitez bought Ngog instead of bringing Owen back.  Not an ART but that was madness on Benitez's part.

 

 

the summer Owen was available on a free we didn't buy any strikers, the season before (which may have been when Owen had an £8million release clause) we bought Keane and Ngog

 

 

anyway fuck the cunt

[The Guest]

Nice article. Every decision he made was understandable but it was always the decision that lacked balls. Unfortunately for him the lack of balls decisions he made usually became the wrong ones.

 

He left for Real Madrid when we had just replaced Houllier. The easy, understandable decision is to go to Real Madrid. We had just replaced one foreign negative manager with potentially another. Owen had been flogged throughout his early years because of the type of football we played. Madrid was the easy option. Go there play with better players and win trophies. The hard ballsy decision would be give the club that gave him so much one last chance. Give the new manager a go. He took the easy option. It backfired on him when Liverpool went on to win the champions league.

 

Coming home he had two options, Liverpool and Newcastle. This showed his hand massively. Everyone knows how much he loved his England career. He was desperate to play in the world cup and I think this is the one thing missed from the article. He had two options. The easy option, go to Newcastle. Probably more money, guaranteed games and they were paying more so Real had accepted the bid. The hard option, play hardball with Madrid and go to Liverpool. Tell them them the only place you are going is Liverpool. The risk with this is Madrid don't cave and he's left isolated there with no games before the world cup. Liverpool went on to win the FA Cup whereas Newcastle were in the end relegated and Owen had a torrid time there and it more or less ended his England career. I think he got injured at the world cup he was so desperate to get to.

 

Finally leaving Newcastle. Two options, go to Man Utd or go anywhere else. Easy decision, go to Utd sit on the bench and pick up trophies. Hard decision, go somewhere else start for a team every week and keep some sort of rapport with his original club fans, the only people with any affection for him. He took the easy option. Shit on all the fans, including my dad, who defended him over the years, the fucking cunt. Sat on the bench and bar a goal in the manc derby can't remember him doing anything of note. Probably picked up some trophies he had no right claiming a hand in. I imagine he thought he had the last laugh with this. A few years on and nobody likes him. Those pointless medals he got probably look very hollow now. The mancs don't like him and never took to him and now even the most sympathetic reds can't even be bothered to hate him.

 

A very sad state of affairs for him in my opinion and he deserves no less.

[fowler9]

. Tell them them the only place you are going is Liverpool. The risk with this is Madrid don't cave and he's left isolated there with no games before the world cup.

 

 

 

The thing is, every fucker knew there was not a chance that Sven would've dropped Owen or anyone of the other big names

[kemskem]

He was a great player, that's how I remember him. Plus, he remained in touch with Stevie, Carra, Didi, etc and is good mates with them, so he can't be all bad.

[kemskem]

The thing is, every fucker knew there was not a chance that Sven would've dropped Owen or anyone of the other big names

I don't think Madrid to Newcastle was that big an issue - the hatred was strong before then. I remember all the, "let him rot" comments.

[Boss]

I can't hate Owen, he was class for us and although the United thing was a pure dickhead move, he was hardly talismanic for them, if anything he was a drain on their wage bill.

 

Kems right, the dislike started when he ran his contract down and left at the last minute for peanuts. Even if he would never of gone to Newcastle or United, people would still be saying how much they hated him for the Real Madrid thing, it's just that the United move totally overshadows it because of the betrayal.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

I remember my dad being gutted when he scored that goal against argentina

 

I found out why in 2003 

 

I don't hate him like I hate Diouf, but I don't love him like I love Erik Meijer

 

Spil the beans then.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

I am now in the indifferent camp with Owen, and that is most probably down to not really giving a fuck about him anywmore. He gave us some good times but it's like having a bird who thinks she can get better than you, then she realises your the coolest cat in town and tries to come crawling back as if everything would be as it was before she broke your heart.

Fuck you bitch I got meself a better bird. Who will then do exactly the same as you, but she had blonde hair.

[Tony Moanero]

Nice article. Every decision he made was understandable but it was always the decision that lacked balls. Unfortunately for him the lack of balls decisions he made usually became the wrong ones.

He left for Real Madrid when we had just replaced Houllier. The easy, understandable decision is to go to Real Madrid. We had just replaced one foreign negative manager with potentially another. Owen had been flogged throughout his early years because of the type of football we played. Madrid was the easy option. Go there play with better players and win trophies. The hard ballsy decision would be give the club that gave him so much one last chance. Give the new manager a go. He took the easy option. It backfired on him when Liverpool went on to win the champions league.

Coming home he had two options, Liverpool and Newcastle. This showed his hand massively. Everyone knows how much he loved his England career. He was desperate to play in the world cup and I think this is the one thing missed from the article. He had two options. The easy option, go to Newcastle. Probably more money, guaranteed games and they were paying more so Real had accepted the bid. The hard option, play hardball with Madrid and go to Liverpool. Tell them them the only place you are going is Liverpool. The risk with this is Madrid don't cave and he's left isolated there with no games before the world cup. Liverpool went on to win the FA Cup whereas Newcastle were in the end relegated and Owen had a torrid time there and it more or less ended his England career. I think he got injured at the world cup he was so desperate to get to.

Finally leaving Newcastle. Two options, go to Man Utd or go anywhere else. Easy decision, go to Utd sit on the bench and pick up trophies. Hard decision, go somewhere else start for a team every week and keep some sort of rapport with his original club fans, the only people with any affection for him. He took the easy option. Shit on all the fans, including my dad, who defended him over the years, the fucking cunt. Sat on the bench and bar a goal in the manc derby can't remember him doing anything of note. Probably picked up some trophies he had no right claiming a hand in. I imagine he thought he had the last laugh with this. A few years on and nobody likes him. Those pointless medals he got probably look very hollow now. The mancs don't like him and never took to him and now even the most sympathetic reds can't even be bothered to hate him.

A very sad state of affairs for him in my opinion and he deserves no less.

He scored a goal in the 2010 League Cup Final.

[Tony Moanero]

I don't think Madrid to Newcastle was that big an issue - the hatred was strong before then. I remember all the, "let him rot" comments.

I didn't bother with the 2005 Super Cup Final (I went in 2001 and thought Monaco was a bit shit) and watched it on the telly, but seem to recall our fans singing his name

[Bjornebye]

Spil the beans then.

 

when I realised for myself that he was all about 'brand owen' 

[markcd]

He always came across as a bit thick really... I guess most footballers put themselves first, way ahead of club, fans, loyalty, whatever, but most of them at least try to hide it a bit.

 

Anyway, I'm sure he doesn't give a fuck - sitting on top of some Scrooge McDuck style pile of cash.

[kemskem]

I can't hate Owen, he was class for us and although the United thing was a pure dickhead move, he was hardly talismanic for them, if anything he was a drain on their wage bill.

 

Kems right, the dislike started when he ran his contract down and left at the last minute for peanuts. Even if he would never of gone to Newcastle or United, people would still be saying how much they hated him for the Real Madrid thing, it's just that the United move totally overshadows it because of the betrayal.

I reckon Owen felt he didn't have anything to lose with our fan base when he went to United. After years of reading comments on social media I just felt, Who's he hurting?,and he probably did too. I was as pissed off with him as I was with Torres or McManaman but I'm over it now. As I said earlier, I don't think he's a bad lad, I just remember what he did for us.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

 

 

 After all, he'd left Anfield for the derisory sum of eight million pounds, plus Antonio Nunez (so basically somewhere near six million pounds)

 

That line raised a smile.

 

I tend to view Owen like I would a piece of furniture, he's just there, and to think of him in any affectionate or hateful way seems like a waste of energy.

 

The players who leave and are still considered reds usually have some kind of facet of their personality the fans can latch onto, but there never was with Owen. He was just a very good footballer, and once he stopped being our very good footballer there was no reason to remember the man over his deeds. 

 

Didi still seems to like him, so he gets a pass in my book.

 

[The Guest]

I remember it differently.  People loved him at the start.  When he was a kid and broke into the team it was great.  People were naming their fucking kids after him.  But very soon after people realised just how much they loved Fowler.  And he wasn't Fowler.  Owen's name was very rarely sung (maybe partly because of that terrible song he had) or at least sung with the same verve as Fowler and others.  The fans just didn't take to him as well.  Some people (my dad) did to be fair but I think they were in the minority.

 

I don't think people hated him when he went to Madrid.  He didn't go to a rival in England and people could understand it.  People were just a bit annoyed by it and the fact it wasn't for a lot of money.

 

Even when he went to Newcastle people weren't fuming with him.  It was always more laughing at his misfortune. "Where were you in Istanbul?" etc.  It was when he went to United that pushed people over the edge.  I don't get the indifference to him to be honest.  Really what was he doing signing for them?  If he had not of gone there he would always have been remembered as a red.  In 10 years time people would have forgotten about the decision to go to Madrid and then the subsequent decision not to force Madrid's hand.

 

You can't forget him playing for them.  Playing for them while they sing their songs about people dying week in week out.  Playing for them and coming out with the shit he did when he signed for them.  It's a fucking terrible decision that won't ever be forgotten.  He hopefully won't ever be in the masters teams and the shit you see Rush and Fowler and the other players getting up to together all over the world.  He should never represent the club in any way again.  That's his own fault and it's down to his decisions that he will have to live with.

[Bjornebye]

And he is a fucking awful commentator

[stringvest]

his fucking horse whispering's not up to much either

[Scooby Dudek]

_{It was the shit he came out with when at Utd that finished him for me. A selfish cunt always looking out for number one with no acknowledgement of anyone or anything else.}

[Skidfingers McGonical]

when I realised for myself that he was all about 'brand owen' 

 

It took you till 2003?

 

I always thought it was prety obvious from about '99 it was all about brand Owen. I liked him a bit then till 2004.

[Jarvinja Ilnow]

He was a great player, that's how I remember him. Plus, he remained in touch with Stevie, Carra, Didi, etc and is good mates with them, so he can't be all bad.

Doesn't mean much - in every group there's always one arsehole. Just ask my mates.