Former Newcastle hitman joins a list of United legends
Those who expected Michael Owen’s new Manchester Utd squad number to be in the high double digits were given a shock yesterday, as the Fit & Healthy Charismatic striker was rewarded with the highly coveted No7 squad number.
Yes, despite admitting that he “didn’t exactly set the world alight in the last year or so” in his first official Utd press conference, Owen will now sit beside George Best, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo on the list of owners of the iconic shirt.
In many ways, the decision is a good one: it will give the 29-year-old striker a much-needed confidence boost, and a bloody good reason to keep himself off of the injury table. However, Alex Ferguson’s declaration of faith in the former England star is a double-edged sword, as it will almost certainly put a great deal of pressure on his shoulders. Some might even have the audacity to argue that a man who has scored once every 214 minutes in the past two seasons is not a strong candidate for such a hallowed garment.
So kids, is Owen worthy of the No7 shirt? Perhaps a winger like Nani or Valencia would be more suited to it? Maybe arguing the toss about squad numbers is futile as it has absolutely no bearing on performance? Let us know your thoughts below…
Keen to create a divide between Cristiano Ronaldo and his current employer, Spanish paper Marca are stirring things up extracting some insinuations from an interview with teammate Ryan Giggs.
The Welshman was asked to pick his Manchester Utd dream team, and he proceeded to wax lyrical about the likes of Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Wayne Rooney. As you can see from his selection below, however, there is a distinct absence of any lothario Portuguese wingers:
The Giggs Manchester Utd dream team
Schmeichel or Van der Sar (he doesn’t distinguish between them as both are super brill) Gary Neville
Jaap Stam
Rio Ferdinand
Dennis Irwin
David Beckham
Paul Scholes
Roy Keane
Ryan Giggs
Eric Cantona
Wayne Rooney
The Spoiler is concerned that the old guard has shown an apparent lack of appreciation for Ronaldo, but perhaps a little more concerned that Giggsy chose to pick himself in his own dream team…
The Owls give a chance to a polite young Frenchman
In January 1992, Trevor Francis’ Sheffield Wednesday attempted to fuel the trend of importing foreign talent by giving a trial to a promising Frenchman named Eric Cantona.
Despite not speaking a word of English, they found him to be very polite, and were quite satisfied that his bad tempered days were behind him. When he impolitely joined rivals Leeds instead and proceeded to spit and kick his way through the rest of his career, they probably decided their initial assessment was a little off the mark.
As Off The Post point out, we love the fact that Wednesday appear to be training in a school sports hall - how humble those pre-Premier League days were…
The most regrettable transfers in Premier League history
It’s the January window, which means plenty of players are going to trade hands. Some clubs will end up paying far too much money for their new blood (Manchester City have already got the ball rolling on that one), while others will land a player who proves to be a bargain and a regrettable loss for their former employer. A classic example of the latter is Denis Law: Manchester United decided to let their second highest goal scorer of all time leave on a free to rivals City. Law only spent one year at City in his second spell before retiring, but his last goal came in the last game of the 1973-74 season against United. The red side of Manchester needed a win to stay up, but a Law back heel in a 1-0 win confirmed their place in the Second Division for the next season.
With this case study in mind, here’s the Premier League ‘Shouldn’t have let him go XI’…
Brad Friedel (Liverpool to Blackburn, 2000, free)
Friedel only managed 30 starts for Liverpool in three years before he was allowed to move on a free to Blackburn, after failing to displace Sander Westerveld. Since leaving Merseyside, Friedel has been one of the most consistent keepers in the league, while Liverpool have been through Westerveld, Dudek, Chris Kirkland, Pegguy Arphexad and Scott Carson, before settling with current shot stopper Pepe Reina.
Steve Finnan (Fulham to Liverpool, 2003, £3.5m)
Finnan was a key figure in the Cottagers side that won the Second Division and First Division and was a member of the PFA Team of the Year in his first season in the Premiership with them. He managed over 200 appearances for Fulham before moving to Liverpool and winning the League Cup, FA Cup and Champions League in his 5 years on Merseyside.
Jonathan Woodgate (Leeds to Newcastle, 2003, £9m)
In January 2001, Leeds were top of the Premiership. Two years later, they found themselves fighting a relegation battle. Then came the sales of Lee Bowyer, Robbie Fowler and their best defender, Woodgate - unsurprisingly their poor form continued. The following season Woodgate’s value to the team was all too evident when Roque Junior was brought in to fill the gap. Junior looked like he had money on a Leeds relegation as the club conceded 25 goals in the 7 games he played in.
Matthew Upson (Arsenal to Birmingham, 2003, £1m)
Upson only managed 20 league starts in nearly six years at Arsenal before he was sold for half the price they had previously paid for him. He excelled at Birmingam before a £6 million switch to West Ham, where his performances have been rewarded by a call up to the England team. Recent reports have suggested that following the uncertainty of the future of ex-captain William Gallas, Professor Wenger is keen to spend over £10m on bringing him back to Arsenal. If he does rejoin the club, maybe he’d have more luck starting if he changed his name to Mathieu Upsoné.
David Unsworth (Sheffield United to Wigan, 2007, free)
Mr Unsworth wasn’t the biggest success at Wigan - he only managed 10 games for the club. He did, however, manage to score the winning goal with a penalty in Wigan’s last game of the season to keep them in the Premier League. And the side who went down at Wigan’s expense? Sheffield United.
Yes, the deal isn’t quite done yet, but Man United always get their man - Tevez, Hargreaves, Carrick, Rooney, Ferdinand, Kleberson… to name just six. In fact, Berbatov eventually packing up his smokes and venturing up north has never really been in doubt, and in a chilling moment of honesty, Sir Alex even admitted to watching the Bulgarian from afar for the last seven long years. This is a love affair that was always going to happen. It’s their destiny.
Yet, patient or not, Ferguson is making a big mistake. Berbatov is a brilliant player, that’s never been in doubt, but how could the red-nosed Scot possibly squeeze him into the first team without ruffling feathers and obliterating egos? Has greed finally got the better of him?
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