The Independent reports that Michael Owen will earn a basic wage of £30,000 a week, with the rest of his salary dependent on appearances and goals. The Guardian also support the idea that bonuses are the basis of his contract, as do The Times.
Some will make transfer this about our debt and our ‘need’ to get players on the cheap but essentially it’s a great bit of business. I’ll leave my emotional response out for now (and there is a lot of emotion involved in signing a former Kop hero) and hail the manager for spotting this one.
If Owen really is crocked then we haven’t wasted a load of money on him. We’ve got him on a free and his wages are less than Jonny Evans’. If he manages to stay injury free and score goals, then we will we pay for what we’re getting. A lot of fans have described this situation was win-win, and from a financial perspective, that’s exactly what it is.
I will address the other issues involved sooner rather than later but whatever rival fans want to say about this, it’s hard to deny what a good business deal this is. He is one of the most prolific goalscorers England has produced and if he can replicate that form for us, we will pay him what he deserves. If he can’t live up to the hype then we won’t have a transfer fee or a massive wage bill to worry about.
Is it a desperate move from United? Well, I’d argue our deal with Henrik Larsson was far more desperate, given that he was 35-years-old when we brought him in, but he went on to score in all competitions for us. United obviously preferred Benzema but we couldn’t compete with Real Madrid. There’s no shame in not being able to financially compete with a team that will have spent £200m or more on transfers this summer! No other club are able to either.
Michael Owen isn’t the answer to everything and he isn’t a replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo. He is our third choice striker and a good replacement for Carlos Tevez. Tevez scored 15 goals in 51 appearances for United last season (yes, 51 games! It’s easy to understand why he felt so unloved isn’t it?!) whilst Owen scored 10 in 31 for a team so shit they got relegated. Only an ABU would argue this was a bad deal for United and I expect that point of view to be shoved down our throat until he starts scoring for us. That is just something we’ll have to deal with… so, here’s to him scoring on his début!
Man Utd News 24/7
so many emotions with this signing he’s a former boyhood hero of most scouse i know, now since he sign that love turned to bile and name calling ie judas were rung out, i didn’t want Owen personally due to the massive wages that he would(or so i thought) command. Shrewed bit of business from fergie, and with Owen knowing he will only ever be our 3rd choice we won’t have to listen to “Dear fans, i’m undervalued by the management” also this injury prone tag isn’t fully justifiable seeing as newcastle rushed he back from injury every time, as he was their first choice striker, he never fully recovered and trying to prevent a relapse of one injury cause another. He’s united now, i will get behind him. Give him the benefit until he either has a good year or pulls a nani and turns out to be a flop
yaeh! scott is finally giving up on his doomsday clock! the optimism is back, welcome back scott!;)
15 in 51 games, but without Blackburn in Carling Cup it’s even worse, 11 in 50… haha
When I was younger, when I started to watch football Owen was one of the best English footballer (with Beckham they were the best players in National Team). I didn’t know anything about rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool and I thought he’s really great striker and now, when I know more about football, I don’t want to call Owen a cunt or a bastard. It’s weird, he played in Liverpool some seasons, scored a lot of goals and now he’s going to play in their biggest rivals, but there were many players like him (Busby, Incey etc.). He didn’t say anything bad about United, he respects Ferguson, Ferguson respects him, media don’t say too much about him. And finally he’s an Englishman!
Owen will be determined to show his best football, because he wants to play in South Africa next year. That’s his last chance to prove he’s still good in football, to show some people they shouldn’t write him off. He’ll sit on the bench, will come on the pitch to change the result. It’s going to be great transfer by Ferguson. Sheringham was bought when he was 31 and that wasn’t bad transfer, was it? Larsson was great player for us and he played only three months to help us, the same will be with Owen, but he’s going to play at Old Trafford a little bit longer.
I’m really happy.
I always remembered him as a good footaller and amazing player for England, especially in Japan, World Cup 2002. Now, he’s going to play in my team
Off topic but after these comments fron Tevez which are printed on The Mirrors website I’m glad we have owen over the Argie midget!
“What I want to do next season is score against United. I promise I will not celebrate in front of the United fans but I will shout in Ferguson’s face.
“You can be sure of that – and it will be one of the most beautiful things I have done in football.”
Nicely pointed out about Tevez’s goal record, yet if we’d spent 25 million on him, on top of the 10 million already paid for him, and then went on to pay him a basic wage of 100,000 a week, numpteys would be declaring it a good deal! The same numpteys who are laughing at us( if they don’t support us), or crying at us( if they do support us) for buying Owen for nothing and paying him whats basically a pittance. Christ judging by the reaction in the media you’d think we’d signed Jimmy fucking Greaves! He’s only 29!
And yeah he was a Kop hero, but he was also a boyhood Everton fan, so that makes it a little easier to swallow, at least he too will have grew up hating the dipping cunts like we did.
Well if you only think of him as a scouser then this is a really wierd transfer but if you look at this from a sporting and economical view this can really be the transfer of the summer. Never underestimate the gaffers transfers… of course he gets it wrong sometimes (Forlan, Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson, Veron etc) but he finds some gems every now and then. Look at the Da Silva twins, Evra, Vidic, Macheda, Giggsy, Rooney (although he cost a fortune he was worth it) etc.
He’s free and he has a good goals-to-games record and, as stated, a happy third choice striker that won’t go argentinian on us!
I would also like to see one more signing… a left winger to compete with Nani ’cause, although I believe he can cut it given a chance, Tosic hasn’t impressed me during the u-21′s… he was alright but that’s not enough, maybe in a season. Other then that I think we’re all set for one more season.
Next season we need another keeper (VDS is over by then), a new right back (G.Nev is on his last season too) and another attacking midfielder… we need to replace the whole old guard… tough job.
Really looking forward to pre-season and the start of the new campaing!
United We Stand
Spot on, Scott. And he won’t complain about being on the bench.
its good as long we sign sumone who can improve our attack….his wages is acceptable and his free of transfer fee..but we have to admit that last season we really relied on ronaldo…now hes gone, maybe we can still compete in EPL, but for champions league?i dont think so, we still need more player..whether big names or not, but the one who can gives big impact for us,the one who can make difference to our game with their pace for exmple..EPL experience isnt necessarily important, for example ronaldo at his 1st season..i know hes not as good as hes now, but he showed glimps of potential..hes dribblin’ bombardized other teams defense eventhough hes shoot was shite backthen, but he changed our game on our first game against bolton, he dramatically imrove our attack…so the problem is, whos gonna that man??
Owen is already our part,n nothin we can do afterall..support him, just wish him scored many goals and win trophies for us..
if owen staysfit this could be one of the greatest top flight deals in premiership history
“This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I intend to seize it with both hands.
“I’am now looking forward to being a Manchester United player and I’m fortunate that I already know so many of the players here. I missed pre-season last year and am pleased that I’ll be starting at Carrington from day one.
“I want to thank Sir Alex for the faith he’s shown in me and I give him my assurance that I’ll repay him with my goals and performances.”
News a few minuets ago. well he is speaking the right language, starting to like him, Owen gets hat trick agains scoucers, Tevez early injury keeps him out most of season. Tevez you need to keep ya mouth shut dont think you will like your return to OT.
To be honest, Henrik Larson done very little in a United shirt and aded to sahas injuries. Whilst larson was here, saha hardly played and was left to sit on the bench, suddenly Larson goes and Saha is called upon again, but without recent match experience, no wonder he got injured.
You cant argue with the Owen signing. You cant call it a last gasp free desperate signing as some media have, as its day 3 of the transfer window, not 3 minutes before it closes. In Valencia and Owen we have added to our squad, especially given Ronaldo and Tevez has gone. Thats £16 million spent so far. We dopnt need to panic buy and pay over the odds on players, we can sit back and get targets that want to come to united and will benefit the squad. I dont think spending will stop this summer, although we might not bring in a forward. David Silva would be one of my choices and I stated that I’d have Owen ahead of Hunterlaar.
Herdino.
I don’t think we need anyone else. Rooney and Berbatov are world class footballers who will finally have the freedom that was denied to them last season as the team was entirely set up to serve Ronaldo. Anderson is an absolute star in the making, last year was hit and miss but get him regular football and just let him do his own stuff, i.e. running straight at players in the centre of the pitch ala Giggsy, instead of turning him into a defensive player and we’ll see how good this kid is, remember he’s only 20! Owen gives us an excellent option, as do the very promising wellbeck and Macheda, and we have a rock solid defence. Personally this is one of the most excited I’ve been about an upcoming season, and I don’t think I want some huge name player to come in and risk rocking the boat.
Message to Fergie: Unleash Rooney and Berbatov the way Ronaldo was, let them destroy teams, we know they can!
Owen may start as our third choice striker, but if he can summon his old strength and form, then as much as i hate to say, he is actually capable of being any team’s first choice striker.
Like somebody said before in previous topic, even Rooney the world class can learn from this guy. And this is what makes me excited the most.
Well, this is a massive development. Another team without trophy last season spent over 200m signing all the big names, while the champions of England and losing finalist of CL signed a free-transfer, fading striker.
I think i am having a turbulent of emotions and thought inside.
to Mikael: nothing to argue with your post apart from Diego being a flop – NO, I don´t think so. When he found his feet, he was OK IMO & I was relly said to see him go
to the topic:
MICHAEL OWEN IS NEW PLAYER OF MY BELOVED MANCHESTER UNITED FC – enough said, he´ll get my time to find the way to support him cause nothing is bigger the UNITED (… not Ron & definitely NOT AT ALL TEVEZ!)
good luck to Valencia, good luck to Owen, GOOD LUCJ UNITED
should have been: GOOD LUCK UNITED!
)
(& was a must to make it correct …
so GOOD LUCK UNITED!
I bet Ancelotti, Wenger and Benitez will be having sleepless nights thinking about the almighty Michael (10 goals in 31 games, better than Tevez) Owen.
jetelinho I agree, Forlan has gone on to prove himself to be one of the best strikers in the world – the ABU papers in the UK were just desperate to slag him.
I like the Owen signing a lot, there are only a few players in the world that we can build a future on and when one becomes available we will be in for him. In the mean time the squad was to thin upfront, we need 5 strikers and can’t rely so heavyly on the youngsters for back up. It makes a lot of sense and the young players should be able to learn from him in training too.
Let the soccerball entertainment franchises, the Real Globetroters and Citeh Wanabees have there fun in June and July. We are a true football team we’ll have our fun when the season starts.
Fuck Tevez, cant wait to do the double over City as he sits on the bench over at the Middle East Lands. Without may i add, a title hope and Champions League football. I was skeptical at first but I hope Owen scores some big goals for us, and if he doesn’t oh well he can surely teach Macheda and Welbeck a thing or two.
Can’t wait till i’m on pitiful wages too!
uhh, Rooney and Berbatov might interrupt that dream…
Tevez is a bitter bitter cunt. He’s made a fool out of himself since April. I’ll bet all those fans chanting for him to be signed up feel silly. No class. He’ll have to get past Wazza before he can get to Fergie. I’m sure Wazza will be happy to rip Carlos’ throat out if he tries anything stupid.
But it’s not about money Scott. It’s about quality. Are we better or worse off with Owen rather than a.n other striker in the team?
Think that Owen is a decent signing for Man United. I think that united need a 3rd striker like Owen, because Owen will be happy to do his part in the title run. I don’t want a repeat of last season where we had 3 strikers (Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov)with 1st team calibre. Moreover, we have Macheda and Welback. And this is a good opportunity for them to progress.
I will be happier if Owen finally becomes our fourth choice striker.
hi all
i’ve come to acept that this summer most of us won’t be happy as we not getting the players we’ve been linked with… but when you think about it then its wise to stay away from big name signing strikers like benzema and aguero- i’ve never known us to buy stars with big egos- we make them lol
But look at what we got —rooney, berbagod and two fantastic prospects so owen is a gr8 signing as he cost fuck all and is proven.. between him welbeck and macheda i can see them getting the 30+ goals tevez and ronnie got us last season and thats not asking for too much
the only place i can see us spending 20+mil is the midfield which was proven to be weak, aging and lacklusture a number of times last season
so our big name signing is gonna be someone we not expecting or maybe another bargain (riquelme) for a short term scholes replacement? idream of a cm like iniesta or fabregas then we would be complete
well whoever we get I’ll get behind them including our second adopted scouser
United Rant, how can you argue with Owen’s goal scoring statistics? Money is a factor in the sense that later on down the line, there’ll be another striker – a new kid on the block – who we’ll be in a position to pursue. Fergie’s biding his time, and rightfully so by obtaining a proven goalscorer (at no cost) for the time being whilst he scours the world for someone really special. He’s being sensible by not paying over the odds in a currently over-inflated market.
We can improve in other areas now.
if owen was at his prime that would have been the perfect replacement for ronaldo , but the owen of now is no good for us , maybe if hes lucky he’ll play 10 games for us !! for god’s sake we sold the best player the premiership has ever seen and with 80 millions we could have got a good replacement. but no we go for the cheapest players there are on the market !! why ?? after the humilation of the champions league final i tought things could change , but no we are going backwards … we cant get any better cos the one’s we bought aren’t better of what we already have and the ones we have are a year older ( scholes, giggs, neville, vds ) . hopefully good sense prevail and we get an aguero or an ibrahimovich ( i know im dreaming ) , cos im not seeing us the best team in england let alone in europe with this squad we have .
@United Rant
There is already a queue behind Owen. Macheda & Welbeck can well be ahead of Owen, so I’m not worried
great signing. he’s the sort of cover we want for our striking partner and the fact that we are United is one of the reason why he grabbed this deal, even if it meant half the wages of what the other clubs offer (50k from Everton?).
he’s gonna shine and perhaps get the 10-15 goals to help compensate the loss of Ronaldo. All hopes that he can keep his injury away from him
I’m glad we go rid of the ungrateful Argie. Tevez is just a dramatic primadonna when all cards are down. He talks about shouting in his face when he scores against us, that must mean he’s staying in England.
I’m very excited about the Owen deal. I think he’ll be a great replacement for Tevez. He’s a better finisher and will not whine as much as Tevez in the papers…
We need to remember that he is 29, we got him on a free on a 2 year contract which will make him 31 when it runs out. He is more than happy to accept the personal terms when another club, possibly Villa or Everton, would of paid him 50k a week basic regardless of whether he was a regular or not. If he gets 20 goals I will be more than happy, providing Rooney and Berba get the same output too. And if Valencia can get some decent deliveries in, we should get a good quota of goals next season. Roll on next season!
@ Pulse. When we sold Beckham…. no one had hardly ever heard of Ronaldo. When we sold Ruud …. Ronaldo gave us 42 goals in one season. The point is SAF knows the strength of his squad. He knows which kids are capable of coming through and which more established players are ready to step up. He wants balance and cover but most of all he wants players who are hungry to perform in our shirt. It’s not a matter of simply jumping into the market and throwing excessive mony at ordinary players just cause we have it in our pocket.
For me, Fergie’s playing this crazy transfer market like only an old pro like him can. He’ll wait until the virus money dries up and move for players who want to come to OT but at sensible valuations.
BTW, have you noticed how quiet Chelski have been?
“I’d like to think that everyone was quite surprised with my medical,” said Owen. “I passed my medical and I’ve obviously passed them before, and my fitness is high. A lot is made out of it but I certainly don’t feel like I’m injury prone.”
well, not qiute sure about it anway i really hope i’ll eat the humble pie come may..
quite*
A bit of a gamble – but, really, more of a flutter. The wages are, essentially, negligible UNLESS he does the business and then whatever he’ll get will be payment-for-results. If he’s a complete flop then “that’s life”.
My own opinion has been stated on this forum for a long time now – UTD have needed a fox-in-the-box, Inzaghi type of player for those situations when the opposition park-the-bus inside their penalty area and try to eke out a draw. And, expect the Burnleys, Birminghams, Sunderlands, Boltons, Wigans, Blackburns and so on to do just that, home and away. Last year UTD’s success was built on gaining almost total points from the matches with these DeadMenWalking; to win the EPL, that’s essential. So, adding up those two factors, Owen looks like a shrewd piece of business IF he can cut the mustard. Who knows ? we’ll just have to wait and see how it turns out.
I agree with those who think that another striker is on the way, too – not a “starlet” like Alexis Sanchez or Sergio Aguero but, more likely, a bulldozer kind of guy who can do the dirty work up-front in those games in which UTD have total possession but no goals. I would expect a lot of you would choke on bringing in someone like Emile Heskey but he would be the kind of man-mountain I’m thinking of – Kenwyne Jones would be a younger, stronger, faster, taller version.
What’s at issue here is that UTD are, in a sense, caught between two stools with a wonderful first-string pairing of Rooney/Berbatov and then a big gap behind them – Macheda/Welbeck are great prospects but I think it’s totally unrealistic to put too much pressure on their shoulders. Perhaps in two, three years these doubts would be irrelevant but, in the meantime, UTD have to live and play in TheNow.
Losing Ronaldo was always going to be a HUGE, HUGE loss; “replacing” CR with Benzema would have been great but that didn’t happen. So, this coming season is going to be a kind of “bridging” time between the Ronaldo/Tevez whirligig and TheNextUTD which will, hopefully, take full advantage of the promise of Macheda/Welbeck.
So, what SAF has done with signing Michael Owen is to look at that problem without delusions that those two promising kids are anything more than promising kids. Perhaps they will have improved so much that Owen won’t get a kick this coming year – but, if not, then what ? That’s why this was a shrewd, clever stop-gap measure.
And, don’t forget, that SAF still has the best part of 100,000,000 to spend on other issues – dominant midfielder ? dominant keeper ? On a fantasy-note, adding Daniele di Rossi and Gigi Buffon to the present squad would make it rather formidable. And, of course, the return of Owen Hargreaves would make the squad really, really formidable. One lives in hope.
Another reason why this is a good piece of business:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/07/04/1363297/karim-benzema-i-could-have-joined-manchester-united
No point signing someone who 12 months from now is going to be dreaming of Real Madrid. Better not to waste our time and money on another La Liga lover.
Treason of the highest order.
hoping that he scores a goal on October 24th
Michael Owen. The once great Liverpool striker gone to see out his days warming the Man Utd bench, selling his soul and turning his back and just about everybody who ever supported him in the vain hope that he might actually get to play for England again.
I genuinely can’t ever see the Man Utd fans ‘really’ taking him to their hearts, it just won’t happen, and once the obvious delight of ‘pissing us off’ about the whole episode wear off (which it admittedly has, and which it soon will) you’ll realise that you’re left with a self-centred, shallow little prick who’s best days are long behind him.
You say ‘pitiful’ yet he’ll be earning £30,000 a week lol. Football eh?
Liverpool One – You make me laugh you Scousers, don’t you boo him everytime he comes to Anfield? You are right though I don’t think United fans will “take him to heart” but if he stays fit and gets us 10-15 goals next season then everyone will be happy. If he gets the winner infront of the Kop end everyone will be ecstatic. Don’t think for one minute he will be warming the bench pal, he will be used as a squad player like most of United’s players albeit a bit less.
Liverpool one.
So he used to play for you, so what? Paul Ince played for us, didn’t stop you lot celebrating his arrival did it? And remember the reaction when he scored the late equalizer in the 2-2 at Anfield? What goes around comes around, now in’s our turn to have one of your former lot, and yes, we are happy with him, and if he scores goals we’ll be even happier.
And didn’t Beardsley play a match for us? Didn’t stop you ‘taking him to your heart’ did it?
well.. dunno… if it were Rafa who signed him, would you call it “a good business” too?
I love the way you call 30 K a week pitiful wages. 99.9 percent fo the world would be more than happy earning that. Just goes to show what a fucked up industry football is.
I think Owen is a potentially a great bit of business.
“Liverpool One – You make me laugh you Scousers, don’t you boo him everytime he comes to Anfield?”
It was quite partisan actually on the subject of Owen, a lot of people at Anfield were very pissed off with Owen with the way he strung out his final season, dithered about contracts and basically took the piss. Some of that is also a bit of frustration that Liverpool at the time didn’t have the balls to tell Owen to ‘Sign your contract or fuck off!”
But for every fan that boo’d him there was another that would applaud him for the goals he scored and the contributon he made, I was one of the latter.
So for me persoally I find his move to you quite sickening.
“And didn’t Beardsley play a match for us? Didn’t stop you ‘taking him to your heart’ did it?”
Hahaha, no it certainly did not. Probably my favourite hat-trick ever!
http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/sep2008/0/5/5670506F-9DDB-19C7-2BF0F25B94478E5D.jpg