{"id":1613,"date":"2019-09-13T10:15:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T10:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1613"},"modified":"2019-09-13T10:15:41","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T10:15:41","slug":"the-curious-case-of-michael-owen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/the-curious-case-of-michael-owen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Case Of Michael Owen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Given that he\u2019s been in the news a lot lately as he attempts to flog his new book, I\u2019ve found myself thinking about Michael Owen a disproportionally large amount. The fact that it\u2019s the international break certainly helps on that front, given that there hasn\u2019t been any football worth the title to concentrate on instead. So I\u2019ve been contemplating his Liverpool career, his reputation amongst the club\u2019s supporter\u2019s and wondering why he\u2019s seen as being unworthy of our love by so many people. There\u2019s the Manchester United thing, obviously. But in many ways that came after we all fell out of love with him. His move to Real Madrid came at an inopportune time as far as most Liverpool fans were concerned, with his decision to leave having the feel of a rat jumping a sinking ship given the club had lost its way under Gerard Houllier and we had no idea what to expect from Rafa Benitez as manager at the time. The Champions League win in 2005 felt like just desserts for Owen.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;Can&#8217;t you see it from a supporter&#8217;s point of view?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why they might see you as a mercenary?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#x1f4f1; Subscribe and listen to our 40-minute interview with Michael Owen on the way he left Liverpool and *that* move to Old Trafford &#x1f449; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TEMh9r97WH\">https:\/\/t.co\/TEMh9r97WH<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uj6xElPfoH\">pic.twitter.com\/uj6xElPfoH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Anfield Wrap (@TheAnfieldWrap) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAnfieldWrap\/status\/1172208251900968960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>If you haven\u2019t heard it yet then I\u2019d urge you to head off to listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theanfieldwrap.com\/2019\/09\/big-interview-michael-owen\/\">The Anfield Wrap\u2019s chat with Michael Owen<\/a>, which was released this week. It is a candid and fascinating conversation and Josh Sexton doesn\u2019t pull his punches when discussing the part\u2019s of Owen\u2019s career that most Liverpool supporters have issues with. As they say in the conversation, few things in life are black and white and it was revealing to me about certain aspects of the player\u2019s decision making around that time. I think the thing that I took from it most starkly is the fact that fans of a club can\u2019t help but think in simplistic terms, yet when it comes to players they need to consider the wider implications on their career. When he was leaving Newcastle his choices were essentially Hull or Manchester United. A player of Owen\u2019s level and with his sense of arrogance is only ever going to make one choice, so why do so many Liverpool fans hate him so?<\/p>\n<h2>He Made The Choices He Felt Were Right For His Career<\/h2>\n<p>There are countless examples of players who are worshipped as heroes but who came close to making similar decisions to Michael Owen. During the interview with Josh he talks about how Ian Rush was rumoured to be in talks with the likes of Manchester United when he was leaving Juventus, only for Kenny Dalglish to turn up at the airport and drive him back to Merseyside. Anyone of a certain age will remember Liverpool supporters setting fire to their Steven Gerrard shirts in the summer of 2005 when it looked as though the captain was on his way to Chelsea. The only difference between those players and Owen is that they didn\u2019t actually make the moves, instead merely flirting with the possibilities. Neither of them are remembered harshly, despite actively considering signing for \u2018the enemy\u2019 when Michael Owen was desperate to re-sign for us but couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Remember when Steven Gerrard demanded a transfer to Chelsea and Lfc fans burned his shirt? No? Seriously? I do. I&#8217;ll keep on reminding you.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dixie (@blue_dixie1980) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/blue_dixie1980\/status\/458065349548978176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s Luis Suarez, who went on strike to force through a move to Arsenal in the summer of 2013 and seemingly bit Giorgio Chiellini in order to get his move to Barcelona the following summer. Whilst the Kop didn\u2019t sing his name during the Champions League encounter last season, he was certainly looked on more favourably than Michael Owen has been, despite the fact that he never won us anything whilst the England striker was a huge part of the reason we won a treble in 2001. Whether we like to admit or not, he owed us no loyalty. He was practically begging to come back to Liverpool but the club didn\u2019t want him, having already added Fernando Torres to out attacking options. We might look at a \u2018traitor\u2019 who signed for Manchester United, he\u2019ll look at a trophy cabinet that includes a Premier League medal. So why don\u2019t we like him?<\/p>\n<h2>He Never Felt Like \u2018One Of Us\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>It would be untrue to say that Michael Owen was never loved by the Anfield faithful. In his chat with Josh he talks about how he distinctly remembers his name being sung during home matches and it\u2019s certainly my recollection that I loved him as a player when I was younger. I remember being angry that he scored that goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup because it would mean that he would no longer be \u2018ours\u2019 and would instead belong to the country. Yet I don\u2019t remember every \u2018being\u2019 Michael Owen when I was playing football with my friends, instead opting to be Robbie Fowler or Steve McManaman. It was partly the lack of a Scouse accent, there\u2019s no denying that. But it was a constant sense that he thought he was better than us that came across in his interviews etc. Whether that\u2019s fair or not is entirely irrelevant, given I\u2019m talking about how I <strong>felt<\/strong> about him at the time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">It&#8217;s easy to forget how good <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/themichaelowen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@themichaelowen<\/a> actually was in the early part of his career. Balloon D&#8217;or winner at a time where R9, ZiZi and Raul where at their peak. Electric pace, and great finisher. I&#8217;ll never forget that goal against the Argies in 98&#8242;<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adam Bartlett (@TheAdamBartlett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAdamBartlett\/status\/1172432463882149893?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 13, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>His relationship with England is perhaps the thing that best encapsulates that. It\u2019s clear from everything he says and has done over the years that Steven Gerrard loved playing for England, yet he never gave the impression that it was preferable to lining up in a Red shirt. The same can\u2019t be said of Owen, who always seemed to relish his chance to escape the confines of Anfield and thrust himself into the limelight that came with the global stage. I want to be clear that I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything wrong with that. Different footballers are in it for different things. It\u2019s clear that Cristiano Ronaldo values his own personal success far more than the success of the teams that he plays for, or if the two coincide then it\u2019s even better. The same is true of Harry Kane. It\u2019s just that that\u2019s what stopped me personally ever feeling as though Owen was in the same boat as the rest of us, which gave him a feeling of being separate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given that he\u2019s been in the news a lot lately as he attempts to flog his new book, I\u2019ve found myself thinking about Michael Owen a disproportionally large amount. The fact that it\u2019s the international break certainly helps on that front, given that there hasn\u2019t been any football worth the title to concentrate on instead. So I\u2019ve been contemplating his Liverpool career, his reputation amongst the club\u2019s supporter\u2019s and wondering why he\u2019s seen as being unworthy of our love by so many people. There\u2019s the Manchester United thing, obviously. But in many ways that came after we all fell out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1614,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1613\/revisions\/1614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}