Michael Owen rumours highlight Man Utd’s transfer policy flaws
posted on 02/07/09
On the surface, many a pundit will probably rate signing Michael Owen on a free as a good piece of business, but dig a little deeper and it actually reveals several short-comings in Manchester United’s transfer dealings.
Let’s tackle the subject of Michael Owen’s ability first.
Once regarded as one of the brightest emerging stars in world football, Michael Owen’s career has faded under a mounting number of injuries.
Bereft of his blistering speed, Owen has failed to adapt his game to accommodate his body’s limitations and thus the goals have dried up.
Watching him over the past two seasons, it is clear that he is timing his runs incorrectly and that he starts to accelerate too late – his mind probably still thinking he has the legs from 2002.
In addition, it has been easy for defenders to pick up his movement off the ball, as well as his positioning.
If, for some bizarre reason, Man Utd do sign Michael Owen, I will support him as I support all reds and I will gladly stand corrected, but for now I will take the opportunity to address some gripes I have with United’s transfer dealings.
Having known that Real Madrid were after Cristiano Ronaldo, why didn’t Sir Alex and David Gill identify high-calibre replacements?
If they did do so, why weren’t they secured BEFORE releasing Ronaldo?
The ball was in our court, we had the bargaining chips and we threw them away.
I can understand wanting to secure the funds first, but Madrid were after Ronaldo for so long that the deal was never in any danger.
Why not arrange a gentlemen’s agreement with Madrid about other targets not to be pursued?
Instead, we sold Ronaldo, told the whole world we’ve got 80mil and then watched as Benzema joined the gravy train with Franck Ribery waiting at the next station.
Moving along, I would have to question why we don’t appear to have a suitable ‘Plan B’?
Unless Michael Owen is plan B, but then I would be disappointed in the United scouts and Fergie.
Even if Michael Owen would be a much improved player under the guidance of Fergie, Phelan and Meulensteen, do we really need a 29 year old, injury-plagued striker in decline, who is likely to be on a big salary package?
The whole Michael Owen transfer rumour shows that when it comes to Man Utd, such a transfer dealing is actually plausible, that we haven’t learned form the season where we signed Larsson on loan, that United are capable of making speculative “convenient” signings rather than well-calculated and ‘prepared’ transfers.
Don’t get me wrong, I know we’ve had many a transfer coup too, but in situations like this, I just remember previous transfer blips and my confidence in our policies crash through the floor.
Lyon knew they could be losing Benzema, so they prepared Lisandro Lopez.
We knew we could be losing Carlos Tevez, so whom did we target? Benzema – but too late…and he was a known Madrid fan, so whom do we target in case we don’t get Benzema?
Is it a young, mobile, clinical striker with many years of service in front of him?
Whether the Michael Owen rumour is real or not is not important at this point. Important is that it’s actually believable. That our previous transfer dealings have been less than convincing and less than decisive and that it is definitely something the Old Trafford hierarchy could improve on.
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