Football365.com wrote:
Why Signing Michael Owen Is A Really Good Idea
The Republik of Mancunia website has responded to the most remarkable bit of transfer news this summer with an article titled 'God No, Not Michael Owen'. F365 makes the case for why United signing Michael Owen would be a really good idea...
* United require another attacker. To start the season with just two youngsters as support two recognised top-class strikers would be a risk too far. In comparison, signing Michael Owen on a free transfer is no risk at all. A proven goalscorer who is presumably joining United in the knowledge that he will start the season behind Wayne Rooney and Dimi Berbatov in the pecking order, Owen is the perfect fit for what United require.
Not incidentally, it was mostly from the bench that Owen scored his 13 La Liga goals during his single season at Real Madrid, ending the campaign with the league's highest ratio of goals scored to number of minutes played.
* Signing the 5ft 8 Owen would balance United's attacking options. Berbatov, Danny Welbeck and Macheda are all big 'uns while Rooney is the only little 'un. True enough, Owen and Rooney failed to dovetail convincingly on England duty but that potential problem may be irrelevant: Ferguson probably has no intention of playing them together.
* If it is true that he has agreed a pay-as-you-play deal with a series of performance-related bonuses attached then Owen has passed the first, pivotal test. With Everton reputedly ready to offer him a far-superior weekly wage of £65,000, Owen's willingness to accept the incentivised deal on offer at Old Trafford indicates that he still has the required ambition and hunger to succeed.
Furthermore, Owen has not only proved himself to the club's manager but also made his transfer a risk-free venture for the board to approve. Nor can the club's owners dissent: By joining on a Bosman free on knock-down wages, Owen's arrival would not conflict with the reported age limit of 25 imposed on new purchases.
* If those performance-related clauses aren't incentive enough, then the proximity of next summer's World Cup should be sufficient to a player who has lost part of his name. England's Michael Owen will be desperate to reclaim his place and his recall will only be possible if he makes a success of his first year at Old Trafford.
* Ahh, yes, the injuries. Don't you think that Sir Alex might be aware of them as well, though? Before signing, Owen will first have to sign a medical that is being universally described as 'stringent'. That should help allay a few of the doubts. Moreover, it is not as if Owen's body is fundamentally broken; he is not in recovery from a career-threatening knee injury or leg break. Instead, his career has been blighted in recent years by a series of annoying, inconvenient happenstance injuries - he missed the start of last season, for instance, with the mumps. And if there is one medical department in the world that is likely to put him on the road to recovery then it is in residence at Old Trafford.
* There are few more potent goalscorers in world football, never mind England. Even at Newcastle he continued to be prolific: the stat his critics fail to include when remarking disdainfully that he only started 58 league games for Newcastle is that he also managed to score 26 goals in that time.
* And that was when playing for a struggling team, sometimes in midfield, and as a poacher.
The retort to the argument that Owen's pace has gone is that it was going even before he joined Real Madrid and it is precisely because Owen has morphed into a penalty-box predator that he is such a viable acquisition for a leading club. In a side near the bottom of the table, a predator is a luxury because he has so little to feed on. In a side challenging for the title, as United inevitably will be, he is in his element.
* A former European Footballer of the Year with the experience of playing for Real Madrid, Liverpool and England, Owen will not be overawed by the pressure of playing for United. And as a native of the north-west, he'll have no problems settling in either.
* United have previously enjoyed bountiful success by signing strikers at the finale of their career - and the precedent set by Henrik Larsson and Teddy Sheringham will undoubtedly have been an encouragement to Sir Alex.
* The arrival of an Englishman will also be useful if FIFA succeed in bringing forward their plan to introduce a 'six plus five' quota.
* Owen loves the horses. In other words, he'll be the perfect companion for Sir Alex on the team bus.
* Liverpool fans are going to hate it if he joins United. Especially as the Law of Returning Players means he is absolutely guaranteed to score against them next season.
Pete Gill
http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8750_5412915,00.html
Really good article and I agree with him that he's a great signing. I am going to laugh sooooooooooooooo hard if and when he scores against Liverpool.
