Michael Owen - who should go for him?

According to Michael on twitter he is still looking for a new club. He has stated that he is not prepared to go down and play in the championship. Would he still be able to do a job in the premiership? Who do you think would be a realistic club for him? Or should he lower his expectations a bit and play for an ambitious club in the championship? It does seem a rather sad situation for one who promised so much during his early years. However, as a Liverpool fan I can't help but think that it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person.

I'm sure some clubs have approached him, but probably been put off by silly wage demands. It's pretty clear that he has fallen out of love with football. I probably would do the same if my career was ruined by injuries.

Any club in the Premier League could probably take a shot on him and he'd be an alright option. I'm surprised QPR didn't go for him.

He could well have fallen out of love with football. In which case surely he should retire, and build himself a life away from football. However, his statement on twitter would strike me as being a way of generating interest in him, hinting at the fact that he still has a desire at the top level. Got to agree Crimey, that a fit Owen, would probably offer a good option to most if not all teams in the premier league.

LivinginItaly wrote:He could well have fallen out of love with football. In which case surely he should retire, and build himself a life away from football. However, his statement on twitter would strike me as being a way of generating interest in him, hinting at the fact that he still has a desire at the top level. Got to agree Crimey, that a fit Owen, would probably offer a good option to most if not all teams in the premier league.

If he really loved football, he'd drop down a level, if he's good enough for the top level he'd prove it in the Championship and get signed up by a club at the top level.

Good point Crimey, but if he had really fallen out of love with football why continue at all? The level shouldn't make a difference, and from what I understand he doesn't need the money. Personally I think he holds himself in too much esteem, although this doesn't seem to be a unique problem with English footballers.

Says he's too good for the championship, when infact the championship is too good for him going by form.

LivinginItaly wrote:Good point Crimey, but if he had really fallen out of love with football why continue at all? The level shouldn't make a difference, and from what I understand he doesn't need the money. Personally I think he holds himself in too much esteem, although this doesn't seem to be a unique problem with English footballers.

From your and my point of view he doesn't need the money, but the perspective of footballers is obviously very different. He's not too fussed about football to drop down a level on lower wages to play, he just wants to earn enough money for it to be worth it staying in football. To him that must be a lot of money.

He should come and join us at Stoke. Owen and Crouch together again! You never know...........

mobilemaster8 wrote:He should come and join us at Stoke. Owen and Crouch together again! You never know...........

If he joined Stoke that would prove that he wants a life away from football.

Swansea, be a handy little goal scorer for them and wouldn't cost them anything, although whether they could afford his wages is another story. Stoke is looking the most likely, him and Crouch would be a decent partnership.

There was a rumour of Owen to Brighton and Hove, would love him to join us down here

I'm sure he still has a fair bit of his talent and natural instinct. However, I just get the feeling he has lost any real hunger for the game. If others have that view and I suspect they might, I wouldn't expect many to be queueing up for him.

LA seems the new home for premier league rejects

Leicester love paying above the odds for a player these days.

Leeds would take him, disagree with this whole perception that he's out of love with the game because he doesn't want to drop down a level, he wants to play at the highest level he can, what's wrong with that?

AlexHuckerby wrote:Leeds would take him, disagree with this whole perception that he's out of love with the game because he doesn't want to drop down a level, he wants to play at the highest level he can, what's wrong with that?

Would Leeds really be able to afford him though even if he was prepared to drop down to that level? Owen is quite a sad case really bearing in mind he was a shoe in to end up England's all time top scorer a few years back. His career as a top class forward ended in 2005.

Well if Leeds do actually get taken over like it sounds, we'll have plenty of money to spend, but I don't think he wants to drop down and can see why, playing in the Premier League is just awesome, pure and simple, even for a mid-table team or one scrapping to stay out of relegation.

My old man's a Leeds fan and I'd love to see them back in the Premier League. They are among the biggest clubs in the country, in my eyes anyway.

If you can turn Elland Road into a fortress this coming season then I'd strongly fancy you to earn a return to the top flight. There are no outstanding candidates in the Championship this time around which makes it fascinating.

All this talk that Owen is only interested in money is nonsense, the guy took a major drop in wages to join Man Utd, he signed a deal that was £20k a week basic, now that's still more than your average milkman but his main motivation was going to a club that would challenge for honours

the-gaffer wrote:All this talk that Owen is only interested in money is nonsense, the guy took a major drop in wages to join Man Utd, he signed a deal that was £20k a week basic, now that's still more than your average milkman but his main motivation was going to a club that would challenge for honours

I don't think he's just in it for the money, it's just that he doesn't love playing football like some other guys do. He enjoys being a part of a successful football club, but not playing football for football's sake.

the-gaffer wrote:All this talk that Owen is only interested in money is nonsense, the guy took a major drop in wages to join Man Utd, he signed a deal that was £20k a week basic, now that's still more than your average milkman but his main motivation was going to a club that would challenge for honours

This is just speculation though gaf. Nobody knows what he earned at Utd. Some reports suggested he was nearer the 40/50k a week mark.

Apparently Benitez wanted to take him back to Liverpool but apparently the fee AND the wages were the sticking point. I'm sure Liverpool - who were European champions at the time - were more likely to win him gongs than Newcastle were and if he really wanted to go back he would have.

As I said it's all speculation.

Yeah that was at Newcastle though, he went there and was on something like £90k per week, you can't fault Owen for going there thoughn he wanted to go back to Liverpool but Liverpool were reluctant to bid more than they sold him for although I do remember there was reports that an £11m bid was on the cards then Newcastle came in and bid £17m for him, Real were never going to knock that back and no-one was going to match it, Owens main concern was to get back to playing week in week out in World Cup season

In 2009 I'm sure Owen knocked back a few lower EPL clubs who offered him £40-50k per week to sign for United for half of that, basic, no doubts performance related it could have been worth a lot but doubt he made anywhere near as much as he could if he chased the money with a lesser club fighting relegation

It wouldn't surprise me if he ended up back at Liverpool, and play a role similar to Robbie Fowler in his second coming a few years back

dreilly wrote:It wouldn't surprise me if he ended up back at Liverpool, and play a role similar to Robbie Fowler in his second coming a few years back

After playing for United??? Liverpool fans won't accept him back

He will never go back to Liverpool, has burned too many bridges.

As a Liverpool fan, I wouldn't mind him coming back. He may have joined United, but if he was serious about redemption and the medical team were convinced of his fitness and he wasn't on too high a wages, he wouldn't be a bad option.

Liverpool fans would quickly forgive him if he started to bang in the goals.

Problem is the fans don't sign the players.

If BR signed him, which I don't believe is unrealistic as you could get at least 10 goals a season out of him, then sure the fans are going to kick up a fuss at first, but as Crimey said, if he starts scoring, would Liverpool fans still say they didn't want him?

Whilst we should never have bought him in the first place....and ironically his record for Newcastle is actually not THAT bad.....i dont think you'll find many Newcastle Fans who would happily take him back.

take him back......u must be havin' a laugh. Why doesnt he just retire and focus on the horses, it's getting embarrasing all this twitter nonsense. That image of him stripped in his united kit at sunderland in injury time waiting to celebrate still gets me, haha!

Albion have been very, very, very loosely linked with him(ie a couple of twitter rumours and talksport saying we are interested.)

I think a fit, hungry Owen would be a good signing for any club like ours. It's a lot similar to us going for Hargreaves last year, apart from he messed us around and in the end went to City, looked like we dodged a bullet there.

West Ham i reckon - Big Sam likes the over 30's

I can't see many sides going for him with his wage demands and injury record, and considering the pace he's lost there are plenty of better players who are cheaper. Maybe one of the promoted sides (this season or last) but would they be able to afford him? and afford to pay him to sit on the bench/physio table when it's doubtful he could play 30 games a season?

Smirnoffpriest wrote:I can't see many sides going for him with his wage demands and injury record, and considering the pace he's lost there are plenty of better players who are cheaper. Maybe one of the promoted sides (this season or last) but would they be able to afford him? and afford to pay him to sit on the bench/physio table when it's doubtful he could play 30 games a season?

They could give him a basis wage of say 15 - 20 grand a week plus £500 for every minute he plays, Pretty sure Chelsea did something like that with Gianluca Vialli back in the day!

I'm sure a lot of the lower Premier League clubs would take him on if they could afford his wages but I believe it is Owen himself who will prevent this from happening.

He still thinks he can cut the mustard with the top clubs and his high opinion of himself will not allow for him to join a lower team.

VDT wrote:

Smirnoffpriest wrote:I can't see many sides going for him with his wage demands and injury record, and considering the pace he's lost there are plenty of better players who are cheaper. Maybe one of the promoted sides (this season or last) but would they be able to afford him? and afford to pay him to sit on the bench/physio table when it's doubtful he could play 30 games a season?

They could give him a basis wage of say 15 - 20 grand a week plus £500 for every minute he plays, Pretty sure Chelsea did something like that with Gianluca Vialli back in the day!

Yeah but Owen would only earn like £22k then

nasisillmatic wrote:I'm sure a lot of the lower Premier League clubs would take him on if they could afford his wages but I believe it is Owen himself who will prevent this from happening.

He still thinks he can cut the mustard with the top clubs and his high opinion of himself will not allow for him to join a lower team.

+1

As long as it's not Norwich, I don't mind

Olly wrote:As long as it's not Norwich, I don't mind

I think that says something - I haven't seen any clubs fans calling out that they'd like to sign him.

Smirnoffpriest wrote:

Olly wrote:As long as it's not Norwich, I don't mind

I think that says something - I haven't seen any clubs fans calling out that they'd like to sign him.

Probably because most fans know exactly what they would get - a once good striker who cannot play 10 games in a row and would demand a decent wage to be associated with any club outside the top 8.

The fact that some Liverpool fans would welcome him back suprises me.