• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Anyone see the Micahel Owen story on LFC.TV?

Forums New posts
Status
Not open for further replies.
Silver Sean

Silver Sean

Very Well-Known
Member
Saw this the other day and wondered if anyone else has caught it and had their opinion of him changed at all?
He said when he went to Madrid he and Parry had a gentleman's agreement he could come back after a year or two. That he had been with us forever and Rushie had doen it and he thought he could go and experience playing for them, live abroad etc then return. When he left Madrid he desperately want to come back but Madrid said we would only go to £10 million and Newcastle offered £16 and he could either rot in Madrid's reserves or go there. He even called Carra to try and come back when he left Newcastle. His options were Hull, Everton or United. Also said that when he got booed by the Kop in his first game at Anfield for the Barcodes was the worst moment of his life and still haunts him. Said he's still a Liverpool fan.
It's amazing that someone who was so incredible for us, a home-grown player who was truly world class when he was with us, is so derided.
It's an interesting watch if you get the chance.
 
See I really don't understand the revisionist history that I am supposed to feel sorry for him.

I heard someone the other day talking about his move to Madrid. Said Owen loved playing for Liverpool but he felt he would never forgive himself if he didn't at least try and make it at one of the biggest clubs in the world. Fair play to him but don't expect sympathy from Liverpool fans for the things that happened afterwards.

He took a risk by leaving and it didn't work out. He was in a great situation at Liverpool and had he stayed he could have won the Champions League. Instead he left and when it didn't work out Liverpool had moved on. Why should I feel sorry for him? If he loved Liverpool so much he should have stayed regardless of the draw of Real Madrid.

And the bit about fans booing him in a Newcastle shirt? LFC fans were always going to be salty about a player who grew up at the club leaving at the peak of his powers. Going to Manchester was just the nail in the coffin.
 
I'm not saying I feel sorry for him. I am just interested in where the tipping point is for a player. One side is years of world class service and goals, the other is him leaving and not coming back and his career going down the toilet. Ending up at Old Toilet.
 
Silver Sean said:
Saw this the other day and wondered if anyone else has caught it and had their opinion of him changed at all?
He said when he went to Madrid he and Parry had a gentleman's agreement he could come back after a year or two. That he had been with us forever and Rushie had doen it and he thought he could go and experience playing for them, live abroad etc then return. When he left Madrid he desperately want to come back but Madrid said we would only go to £10 million and Newcastle offered £16 and he could either rot in Madrid's reserves or go there. He even called Carra to try and come back when he left Newcastle. His options were Hull, Everton or United. Also said that when he got booed by the Kop in his first game at Anfield for the Barcodes was the worst moment of his life and still haunts him. Said he's still a Liverpool fan.
It's amazing that someone who was so incredible for us, a home-grown player who was truly world class when he was with us, is so derided.
It's an interesting watch if you get the chance.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have booed him - but I understood why fans did.

However, based on your recap of the show (Does anyone have a link to it?), it makes me a bit disappointed to see he didn't finish his career here in some capacity (like God did).

I don't have any ill feelings toward him ... Yes he went to the cunts, but I'd have chosen those cunts if I had Hull or Everton as my other options too (we all would have - and not just for the $)
 
I don't feel sorry for him in that respect. I do have some sympathy for the fact that his career did not really work out so well, given the talent he had, and that it was mostly due to injuries.

He chose to go to Madrid. I don't blame him for doing so really. I would have liked for him to return to us rather than Newcastle, and he obviously wanted to, but if Benitez didn't want him that is fair enough. Given how Owen's career went after that, it was probably a wise decision!

I don't even really have any bitterness about him going to United. He was pretty much finished by then anyway,

He was a very good player for us, scored a lot of goals and that's all really. We as a club have done better than him as an individual since he left so I don't see the point in hating him.
 
Fuck him.

He purposely ran down his contract, using bullshit excuses.

If he'd have really wanted to come back, he'd have called Real Madrid's bluff - but he didn't want to risk losing his England place in the lead up to the World Cup.

He has always been a self-serving little prick - which was fine while we all wanted the same thing.
 
LeTallecWiz said:
I wouldn't have booed him - but I understood why fans did.

However, based on your recap of the show (Does anyone have a link to it?), it makes me a bit disappointed to see he didn't finish his career here in some capacity (like God did).

I don't have any ill feelings toward him ... Yes he went to the cunts, but I'd have chosen those cunts if I had Hull or Everton as my other options too (we all would have - and not just for the $)
Click to expand...

Speak for yourself m8.
 
It was hard not to be pissed off with the way things transpired. It's a long time ago now, but I vaguely recall that throughout the season prior to his departure, he had often given the fans assurances and the hope that he'd be signing a new contract (and that was before the pre-season). It never seemed like he'd go, but then suddenly he's gone for a song and a meh player swap.

On the pitch, he was - and still is - clearly a legend for us. But he won't be the only one who has that status whom people will have both fond memories of and unkind words to say about.
 
That last season - when he couldn't discuss a contract because his agent was in a one year sabbatical - biggest load of contrived bullshit I've ever heard.
 
Hull, Everton & United were the only 3 clubs that wanted him in world football?

Get fucked.
 
He finessed his contract by prevarication so that we only got a fraction of his true worth. And didn't Rafa ask him to sit tight to pressure Real Madrid to letting him go for less than Newcastle offered - after all it was never realistic for us to pay double what we got for him after just a year. Sounds like a fair bit of revisionism from him tbh.
 
StevieM said:
That last season - when he couldn't discuss a contract because his agent was in a one year sabbatical - biggest load of contrived bullshit I've ever heard.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what fucked me off BIG TIME. Kept on making excuses as to why he couldn't discuss his contract. For 18 months we tried to get him to sign a new deal and he getting on delaying it for one reason or another. Agent on holiday and all types of bullshit. Fuck him i don't have any sympathy for him at all the fucking shit and was glad to see his career rot the way it has.
 
He still trots out every now and again for the mancs' "legends" side on overseas tours, so he's not quite the helpless victim of circumstances he suggested in that interview. All the same, there were moments when I felt quite sorry for him. The problem is, he's said so many things over recent years it's hard to believe anything he says.
 
I don't care much either way. I think it's quite funny how bitter fans get towards ex-players, really.

I suppose he did what he thought was best and it backfired, too bad really. I find it hard to be too harsh on players who've left us for better things. In some ways it surprises me we still retain such an attraction for new signings. I think if I was a top young player I'd take one look at our record since 1990 and think we're a bit of a loser's club, really. How many brilliant players have passed through in that time and won next to nothing after years of service? I wouldn't blame them if they decided we weren't worth the risk.
 
Fuck that, 16yr old me will never recover from watching him give interviews saying how much he loves Madrid. He broke my football fan innocence.
 
studsup said:
What were your brothers' reaction when they heard the news at that time? Groan or gloat?
Click to expand...

not that happy, but they thought he'd do a decent job as fourth choice or whatever.
But when he won the league they started acting like cunts.
 
LeTallecWiz said:
I don't have any ill feelings toward him ... Yes he went to the cunts, but I'd have chosen those cunts if I had Hull or Everton as my other options too (we all would have - and not just for the $)
Click to expand...

Think you and Owen will be on your own on that one LeTal, wouldn't take me more than a second to pick Hull..

And I'd still feel like a prick for taking that long.
 
He was the player who taught me the realities of modem football by breaking my childhood heart.

I fucking hate him.
 
He could have played that game of poker and come back for less than Newcastle were offering

He also put us in A position where we didn't have the funds to replace him. We should have got 20m for him

And thankfully he didn't re-sign - he was always injured thereafter
 
Some things he's said (or in some cases omitted to say) as a ManU player and since have clearly been calculated digs at LFC. If he really is still a Liverpool fan he's had a funny way of showing it. I wouldn't waste energy hating him, and he did some great things for us while he was ours, but AFAIC he burned his bridges quite a while ago.
 
In truth the real Michael Owen disappeared when he snapped his hamstrings with us.... The one who was worth watching and was fucking electric fast and scored lots of goals... and lest we forget was pretty fucking unbelievably good....that Michael Owen...

In the end the fact that he wound down his contract etc doesnt matter much, we may well have not won in Istanbul if he had stuck around, you never know...

If its true and he thought he was gonna come back then yes to a certain extent it does ameliorate things a little but in truth the only Michael Owen ever worth watching began and ended his career with us, the scraggy damaged goods we sold is of no importance.

To an extent i feel the same way about Torres. I fucking LOVED Torres, we all did, but he ceased to be Torres be important when he was getting calf livers pumped into his hammys just below his scratchy knee... 3 injuries in a row with the Spain squad was it? ...All the playing he ever really did was with us.

Owen and Torres.... its called selling at the right time.

Its a shame that the affection that was heaped on both of them was too a degree rejected but... no point worrying about it now.
 
I never really liked Take That, but apart from his role there he was pretty useless.

Didn't he win Big Brother once though?
 
Do people hate McManaman to the same extent? It doesn't seem like it yet the way he left was arguably even worse than Owen, given that we got no fee at all for him. Unlike Owen he also continued to be really good after he left.

I don't hate McManaman either. I just wondered how he was generally regarded.
 
No "arguably" about it AFAIC. His behaviour was far worse than Owen's. He was the ringleader of the Spice Boys, the club got fed up and offered him for sale, he had the unmitigated cheek to take offence at that and he proceeded to diddle LFC out of a fee altogether when, however much he did for the club, they had given him his chance in the first place. He's back at the club now so, if they can forgive and forget, I guess I should too, but his behaviour back then was despicable.
 
As somebody once said, you're a long time retired.

For a player as talented as he was, European Footballer of the Year no less. You would hope to have achieved enough in your career to be held in high esteem and adulation by at least one of the teams you graced.
Liverpool : Tainted
Madrid: Meh
Newcastle: Hated
Man Utd: Meh
Stoke: Double Meh

I can't help but feel sorry how it worked out for St Michael of Owen.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom