The move of Michael Owen from Newcastle United to Manchester last Summer was unexpected and surprising, mainly due to Michael’s injury prone history.
Experts were left scratching their head at this decision by Sir Alex. With Cristiano Ronaldo gone, most people expected that a star would jump into the new Manchester United jersey to take over for him. Instead, United got Luis Valencia from Wigan and Michael Owen. A player who for the past five years has been beset by injury problem after injury problem and who was not only struggling for fitness, but form too. The fact that he is a former Liverpool player only adds insult to injury. There were a few bemused faces around Old Trafford the day the deal was announced.
When the finer details of the agreement were released it became clear that once again, the shrewd Scot had been canny. Owen was on a pay as you play deal at Old Trafford and Ferguson intended to use him sporadically from the bench and in the team. He did not have to hold the whole team up with his striking abilities, he is being used from the bench when the team needs him.
Not the best start Owen would have wanted at Manchester United, only featuring in a few games as a late substitute. Michael Owen’s last minute goal against Manchester City showed the role Alex Ferguson had planned for him in the team. This goal was expected to kick start more involvement from Owen in the team, their was even talk about a place in the England soccer team if he could find consistent goals.
Owen has not managed to continue his form however. A further two goals since has brought his tally to four this season in eighteen games and while Owen is at pains to point out that the statistics do not tell the whole story (the majority of his appearances have been as a substitute), Doubt is starting to spread on Alex Fergusons decision to transfer Michael Owen and how long he has left in the team.
Owen’s chances of regaining a place in the England team are getting slimmer by the day it seems. Fabio Capello’s need for players to be fit and playing consistently makes Owen’s chances very low.Over the past few years Owen has managed to be neither of these things. However it should be noted here that Capello doesn’t seem to extend this mantra to other England strikers, Emile Heskey it seems is a shoe-in in every squad, regardless of whether he plays for Aston Villa or not.
So for the time being, Owen’s wonderful last minute goal against City has been the high point of the experiment so far. It is hard to see that Sir Alex will want it to continue much beyond the current season unless the England striker can find form and goals in greater abundance and force his way into the managers reckoning, much in the way youngster Darron Gibson is doing. Whether Owen has the ability and level of fitness to do that remains questionable and as such, it seems likely that Sir Alex’s gamble, in the long run, may not pay off.
