May 10th 2004, three months before signing for Real Madrid.
“We will sort something out amicably next summer,” said Owen. “I won’t just up and leave on a Bosman. I have the rest of this season and all next still left on my existing contract but talks have already started on a new one. Inevitably, they are complex though and don’t get done in just a week. But I certainly see myself at Liverpool next year. Why not? I’m not in football for the money. And that is largely what it means when players sit out their contracts and go for free.”
Owen confirms he will not re-sign for Newcastle, after joining for a massive £17m fee and scoring just 26 league goals in 4 season (an average of 6 a season), and therefore leaving the club on a Bosman.
Michael Owen? In it just for the money? Surely not! Most players named European Footballer of the Year sign for a club like Newcastle three years later, for the peak time of their career, on a massive pay day. No?
Talk about a signing that will divide the fans!
And surley, if he really is ‘in it only for the money’, having him on the paultry wage that’s been reported, with him having to earn his proper crust in performance related add-ons, can only be a good thing?
Personally i would be very happy if he did sign…My liverpool supporting friends will kill themselves when their hero joins united!!!
Jason – he’s not a Liverpool reject though is he. He was your best player and you were gutted when he left, remember?
These comments are taken way out of context! At the time he said that newcastle were not in an abysmal position!
Who in their right mind would want to sign for a club as messed up as that! A sucessful club will never have an incompetant owner or board!
GOTTA HATE TINY TEARS I agree wid u.all those people who say dat Sir Alex should be sacked should be hanged.half of these journalists and people were not even born when the genius Fergie entered management.U Cant doubt the Living Legend.Hopes Fergie proves all those assholes wrong.SIR ALEX IS GOD
Owen just arrived at Carrington.
Hope he is still there this afternoon when Im there!
He is a goal scoring machine who would be a good edition to any club. Imagine he wins the league next year, it would become my favourite win of all time!!!!!
As everyone is saying he took a pay cut and its pay as your play and he knows where he sits in the pecking order so he wont be sooking like tevez. Weve signed a lot worse so give him a go!!!!
In Fergie we trust
Gotta disagree with Scott on this one.
I understand that Owen is not liked because of his past with Liverpool. But lately he hasn’t really showed much respect for them either. So why take so rough stance on this one?
This could be the bargain of the season – Owen coming on free, maybe getting 40k/wk (+ bonuses for games and goals) – you don’t get even Pavlychenko with that kind of money. And what best, Owen knows the situation probably too well, he’ll be happy to chip in for the games against lesser opponents and start often from the bench – this will give us a chance to play Rooney from the middle. I myself am excited for a chance to see Rooney and Berbatov developing a partnership. (And don’t forget that both of those players want to end their careers at Old Trafford – unlike Benzema or Ribery – or whatever Argie superstar)
Benzema comes in – Rooney goes left.
Owen comes in – Rooney goes middle.
Why do you cry after Benzema?
Just wondered Scott could you start a petition of all fans in Europe to request that their clubs DO NOT BUY any players for RM.
With the amount of money and wages they now have on their books they will be trying hard to off load to raise some money and to get wages off the payroll. So say let them keep all their players and pay their wages. lets see how Ramos Casillas RVN, Diarra et all like it iknowing Benzemia, CR7 and Kaka are on what £150 k per week.
@Tony Starks – Yea it’ll divide the pathetic and real Man Utd fans.
I’m not sure why people have such a problem, I’d much rather sign Owen for free for a season or two than spend an over inflated amount on someone who’s not even proven at the top level. Besides having a plagued injury past he’s always had a great scoring record, he’s played in the premiership and providing he stays fit there is no reason for him not to do well. At least by doing this it means we still have a huge amount of money to spend in the areas I think really need assesing, central midfield and another winger.
We have to trust Fergie. It is just a shame that we would offer him a chance to resurrect his career, after his money chasing stint at Newcastle has left him going nowhere, but if it helps us, then lets have him.
What sort of reaction do you guys think he will get from the crowd? It won’t be like Newcastle where 20,000 tools turned up to sit in the stands and watch him wave at them (by the way, don’t they have jobs to go to up there?)
Also have to add:
Who’s to argue with Sir Alex Ferguson?
Tufty, source?
If Fergie chooses to give Michael Owen a chance I think he knows that Owen has more footballing glory left in him than we think … and I think he will be proved right. You have our support Fergie!
Simply pathetic…please please no, not Michael Owen.
i cant understand why we dont have a plan B (assuming Benzema was our top target)???? all the fans know that we have a good history in missing on targets ?????
Maciek, The times are reporting it on their website mate.
TK99, pathetic indeed……we also have a pretty good history of being successful under Sir Alex. Why is it, no matter what he does for this club, there’s always some people who never learn?
On the other hand, i think we have suffered enough with injury prone players… Fucking awful month.
It won’t be like Newcastle where 20,000 tools turned up to sit in the stands and watch him wave at them (by the way, don’t they have jobs to go to up there?)
yes people have jobs in newcastle
20′000 isnt actually a lot the N E has a population of about 2.5 mil people about 800′000 to 1.2 mil are toon fans (just a rough guess) so that means that assuming none of those people have jobs that is 1 in 40 who are jobless which i dont think is too bad also taking in to account a lot who turned up wers school kids that were skiving
Injury prone players are a pain in the ass. That is something which increases the value of Ronaldo (and the Argie midget I guess) even further, they almost never get injured.
But if Owen is content to sit on the bench or be out injured without pay then Utd can’t really go wrong with signing him on this kind of deal.
Assuming he passes the medical, that is.
Nick, Ronney and Berbatov have both ugly history with injuries .All what i’m saying is ,why we dont have other ulternatives ??? Benzema was the man but we knew that Real Madrid wont pay what Valencia were asking for David Villa and they (Madrid ) publicly revealed that they are after Benzema . On top of that we decided not to give Tevez an extra week to decide whether to take our offer or not ???why ??? because we have alternatives …right !!!! and now we’re going to sign Owen,who WAS by the way a great player before being rocked by knees injuries. Shit is written all over this bloody deal.
I trust SAF 100 percent but owen come on, the guys injury prone and a dipper bad combo.
Rooney and owen..might work
Berba and owen…Can it work
I still believe in fergie tho
http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/ww90/Superman-92-/fergie1.jpg
Its 1998 my time machine works!
Owen is a goalscoring machine when fit. He’ll hopefully fit well in with us since we play attacking football unlike Newcastle which play…well I doubt it’s called football…I think their style of football is called fuck up.
Anyways, I’m getting kind of excited about next season. We can prove so many people wrong and how many times has Sir Alex done that?! You should trust the manager after all those years and all those trophies, he knows what he’s doing. Do you remember what place in the league the papers and football experts expected us to land in when Ruud left? I remember it, 4-5th place with the text “Where are the goals going to come from?”. Can you imagine the look on the scousers face if Owen scores against them? Fucking priceless…
Perhaps Fergie’s plan is to wait a little bit with big transfers, perhaps to January or next season. The market is really inflated after Real Madrid’s ridiculous spending spree. But I’m excited about the prospect of Gojko Kacar, the young Serbian defensive midfielder from Hertha Berlin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeuRP-fYm-o
Well, i wasn’t overjoyed by the news, but on reflection it makes sense. Owen is free! He scores twice as much goals than a certain bitter argentine, thats with a shit team and not as many appearances. Get over the fact that he’s a ex dipper, he’s an experienced striker, whose got a point to prove, ie Cappelo. Could he be the new/old Ole? Coming on as a super sub and scoring?But the real benefits could be on the training ground, Owen is a preditorial striker, someone our young lads could learn from. For me fitness is the main issue, but if reports are true,that he’s been training since the end of season, it shows the lad is keen. Also can you imagine seeing Owen holding the Prem trophy (overtaking the scouses record) wearing the Red of Manchester at the end of next season? Stick that in your Carlsberg/Mastercard add!
Take your emotional blinkers off Scott and you’ll see that this is a great bit of business, (Similar to Larrson, Sheringham) And BTW, he scored 26 goals at a failing Newcastle from 58 starts. (Thank God supporters don’t run our club!) Vintage Fergie move.
as long as it is some kind of pay-per-play contract i couldnt care what happens now ! @dave mack , there is no way you can compare larrssons form when he joined united to owens form now
what has the supporters running our club got to do with owen scoring 26 goals from 58 starts ?
sorry , just reading threw the comments there , some ppl think 50k a week sounds reasonable. for a player who could easily get injured in the first month and sit out the rest of the season , once again … pay-per-play
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE$$$$$$$$$$$
its now crystal clear rooney will play up front…..that must be the best news we were waiting to hear………we have been linked with all super star strikers..in realitty we didnt bid any one of them…..now mowen to utd the most unexpected news……