One of the most surprising transfer deals last summer came when it was announced that Newcastle United’s oft-injured striker Michael Owen would be trading life in the Championship with the Toon Army, to join Champions Manchester United.
Alex Ferguson’s decisions left many experts and fans scratching their heads. After Ronaldo’s transfer, The general consensus was that a big name would automatically pop in to the 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 details of the deal became known along with Ferguson’s intentions for Owen, it became clear that Alex Ferguson had, as always had a plan. Michael Owen is signed on a pay if you play contract at Manchester United and he was intended to be used from the bench. 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.
Only managing to play in a few games as a late substitute it was not the start the Michael Owen would have wanted. However his adoption into the United ranks seemed complete when he came on in the Manchester derby game to net a last minute winner for United to deny City a point at Old Trafford. It seemed the goal would kick start a greater involvement for Owen and there was talk of him possibly regaining his England place, should he continue to score goals and play more consistently.
However since then, it hasn’t really worked out for Owen. Another two goals has given Owen four this season from 18 games, which is not great statically despite the fact that in many games he was a substitute, there seems to be a growing feeling that the Owen experiment may not have a long term future.
Certainly, in terms of forwarding Owen’s hopes of regaining his place in the England squad, the move hasn’t worked out well for the striker. Fabio Capello’s need for players to be fit and playing consistently makes Owen’s chances very low.Owen has not managed to be do either of these over the last few years. However it should be known that Capello doesn’t seem to apply this rule to all of England’s strikers, Emile Heskey looks like a certainty in the team regardless of his performance at Aston Villa.
So for the time being, Owen’s wonderful last minute goal against City has been the high point of the experiment so far.Owen needs to find goals and consistency over the remainder of the season or it seems unlikely that Alex Ferguson will continue his experiment onto the next season, much in the way youngster Darron Gibson is doing. The question remains whether Owen has the ability and fitness to earn a spot in next years team, however it seems likely that Sir Alex’s gamble, in the long run, may not pay off.
