It’s far too easy to get caught up in the romantic view of Sir Alex Ferguson’s move for Michael Owen. The biggest surprise of this summer’s transfer window is being widely portrayed as the coming-together of a great player and a great club at a perfect time for both sides. United need Owen and Owen needs United.
With Ronaldo and Tevez gone, Ferguson needed to revamp his attack. And with Real Madrid snapping up all his favoured options, thanks to the generosity of Spanish banks, Ferguson was required to cast his net far and wide. But far from thinking outside the box, Ferguson has kept his focus firmly inside the penalty area, surprising everyone by taking a one-time predator, whose disastrous run of injuries have left him a faint shadow of the player voted Europe’s finest in 2001. In this bold and jaw-dropping move, Ferguson is risking not only ridicule but the likely surrender of the league title.
Ferguson clearly sees the signing as a coup. In the Scotsman’s wildest dreams, Owen rediscovers his pace and scoring touch, forges a formidable partnership with Wayne Rooney and helps lead United to an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League crown. Owen, after toiling in a Newcastle side bereft of creativity, clings to the hope that United’s flair players will be dishing up the kind of chances his used to take in his sleep. Both views are far detached from reality.
Michael Owen hasn’t just lost his pace, he is slow. Watching him cough and splutter his way through Newcastle’s fateful last few games of the season, when he was picked that is, was like watching a former Grand National winning race horse trotting the final few furlongs to finish last at Aintree.
United already have one immobile forward in Dimitar Berbatov, but what the Bulgarian lacks in pace and desire, he makes up for in guile, a notion backed up by the fact that he led last season’s Premier League assists table.
Two years ago, United’s attack was formidable, but its success was largely based on the combined pace and energy of Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney. With Berbatov and Owen in the side, United will be taking much longer to get the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, allowing opponents crucial extra seconds to get back and regroup in defence.
It’s perfectly possible that Ferguson doesn’t intend to start Owen at all. Maybe he sees him as an impact player, a wise head to introduce from the bench who could just pop up unnoticed to grab a crucial goal here and there, much in the way that the Scot used Henrik Larsson during his brief, but successful, spell at Old Trafford. A clever ploy perhaps but it doesn’t go any way towards filling the gap left by Ronaldo or Tevez, a player who grew frustrated by his lack of chances at United but still made 51 appearances last season, contributing 15, often vital, and usually spectacular, goals.
And if Owen is to be a substitute, then in what possible way is this a good move for the player? After missing the best part of four seasons through injury, he finally has the chance to get fit, complete a full pre-season and establish himself again at the top level.
Owen’s only hope of forcing his way back into Fabio Capello’s thinking is by playing and scoring regularly. So surely a team like Aston Villa, where he’d be guaranteed a first-team place, and a chance to play Don Quijote to Emile Heskey’s Sancho Panza, would have been the ideal destination for the former Liverpool man. Villa are a young side, packed with creative talents like Ashley Young and James Milner, players young enough to have idolised Owen and eager to feed of his experience and game intelligence.
Owen may only be 29, but a crippling series of injuries mean this is likely to be the last significant move of his career. With regular football, a manager who knows how to use him, and a team of hungry servants, he could just have a swansong in him yet. But a move to the Theatre of Dreams is more likely to turn into a nightmare.
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