5 Reasons why Michael Owen was a poor signing

Here are my 5 reasons why I believe Michael Owen was a poor signing. If you disagree, feel free to abuse me in the comments.

1. He isn’t playing enough

We were led to believe Owen would be used sparingly. His injury record over the last few years has made Louis Saha look like the Iron Man, so Sir Alex was expected to rest Owen’s aging legs as often as he could. The problem is he’s barely used at all. Since scoring a hat trick against Wolfsburg he’s found his way into the starting line up twice. That’s twice in 16 games. For a player Sir Alex expected would score 15 goals this season, he simply hasn’t been used enough.

2. He makes no impact off the bench

For a player touted as having “a goal in him”, he rarely makes an impact when brought on as a substitute. The ‘impact sub’ role has been his this season, with Sir Alex throwing him on towards the end of games because of his fox in the box abilities and a tendency to be in the right place at the right time. We haven’t seen this though. Apart from THAT goal against Manchester City in injury time at Old Trafford he’s been largely ineffective as a sub.

3. He doesn’t do enough for the team

Some of the top strikers in the world like Fernando Torres need not contribute anything to the build up play of attacking moves. Their ability to get themselves on the end of the move is what keeps them in a job and it more than makes up for their deficiencies in other areas. Michael Owen used to be one of those players, but not anymore. He contributes nothing to the build up play, and rarely finishes off our attacking moves. His finishing ability has been on show sporadically, but not often enough. An argument could be made that he’s not getting enough playing time, and it’s a point of view I happen to share, but you have to put yourself in the shoes of the manager who watches Owen in training everyday and if he isn’t seeing enough quality to put him in the starting line up then we have to trust his judgement.

4. The gamble failed

Ferguson took a risk in signing Michael Owen. His injury record has been bad over the last few years as I mentioned above, so anyone willing to sign him was putting their neck on the line. As it happened we signed him on a pay as you play basis, so the risk is relatively low in monetary terms, but it’s not risk free in terms of how it affects the team. You could argue that even if he scored no goals this season it wouldn’t matter as there was no transfer fee and no signing on fee, but you’d be wrong. What if signing Owen prevented us bringing in a better striker? If Owen wasn’t here, the chances are that Danny Welbeck wouldn’t have been sent on loan to Preston and he’d be our impact sub instead, gaining valuable game time and training with the senior team on a regular basis. Instead, he’s stuck in the Championship with Preston North End.

5. Fergie made a mistake

It’s rare, but it happens. From Kleberson and Liam miller, to Veron and the Djemba twins. Sir Alex has been known to make mistakes in the transfer market. Although it looks like Owen was signed with the best of intentions, it now appears that it was a mistake to sign him. Owen wanted to prove himself and break into the World Cup squad for the Summer in South Africa. Fergie wanted a decent back up striker for Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov. For whatever reason, neither will be satisfied with the current situation. Barring an injury crisis of epic proportions, Owen has zero chance of boarding a plane with the rest of Fabio Capello’s men this Summer, and Sir Alex doesn’t have an able backup to Rooney.

Disclaimer: I’d be fecking delighted if this article was thrown back in my face in May after Owen scores the winning goal in the European Cup final. Unfortunately that’s very unlikely.

Some other posts you may be interested in:

1. Rooney on his goal tally, Michael Owen and the Carling Cup final
2. Owen has no chance competing with Rooney
3. Capello warning for Owen – If you don’t play I can’t pick you