Ask M.Owen

[Hyena]

He was ok tbh, seemed down to earth & just loved playing for the sake of it. Definitely didn't regard football as a business then. Sad, cos he seems to now.

Grim. But isn't that what happens to all of us in life...

When you're young and in med school it's all about mutilating dead bodies for fun.

Once you're a neurosurgeon, you wouldn't slice a brain unless you got paid forty grand.

 

[Modo]

I had a kick about with Owen in his mum's garden when he was in our youth team. My mum met his mum at a charity do & they did the whole ladies who lunch bollocks think I was dragged along cos it was the school holidays but can't remember, I may have asked to go.

He swore like a trooper & was saying he had been told he couldn't do that in public & had to maintain a public image in order to be successful.

He was ok tbh, seemed down to earth & just loved playing for the sake of it. Definitely didn't regard football as a business then. Sad, cos he seems to now.

Ergo tevez, rooney, torres etc. The money destroys & replaces their passion for the game, it becomes a business & they become lesser players, to varying degrees.

Perhaps Le tissier, shearer & others maybe did know what they were doing turning down moves.

This is why I have a great respect for C. Ronaldo. He might be the biggest cunt in the world, but the guy works his socks off in training and probably is one the fittest top players in the world.

 

[Judge Jules]

The point was about money, not about working hard. However mercenary a top player may be, he has to work hard in training or he won't be at the top for very long.

 

[Jack D Rips]

Yes I'll say one thing for Ronaldo. Success hasnt changed him one bit. He was always a cunt.

 

[gkmacca]

He was fantastic to a couple of my young nephews when he was at LFC - again prompted by his mum, but by that stage plenty wouldn't have gone to so much trouble. Not everyone who makes it big ends up behaving so differently - Kenny being one obvious example - but it's still sad when it happens.

 

[Vlads Quiff]

I am not sure exactly where I am with Michael these days to be honest.
I was never convinced that the Real Madrid move was not as much Rafa's doing as Owen's, and I am not convinced he ran his contract down to deliberately shaft us. I do know if he had shown a little bottle and Rafa had shown a little interest he would have come back here from Madrid and I do know that like Gerrard, Owen almost single handedly dragged us through at least one season, I also know he joined United, so much of what had gone on before hand I could justify, I am not sure pulling a United shirt on could ever be seen as right, he as much as anyone else must have realised that.
In some ways you can't blame him, it was his swansong his last chance to shine once again, it didn't work, but equally he must accept the shit that goes along with a decision like that.
I would not boo him at the game, I think he has done enough good for us to cut him that much slack, then again without any serious justification there are not many players I would boo

regards

 

[gkmacca]

Up until he went to the mancs I was still quite sympathetic. After all, he was criminally over-played in his early years here, and it wrecked him physically, all while some fans were sneering at him for actually enjoying being the hottest striker for England as well as LFC. But he seemed to go out of his way to show disrespect bordering on contempt for LFC whilst expressing his devotion to the mancs (sure, sounding positive about the latest club is normal, but he really seemed intent on going OTT). It was almost as if, having been forced to grow up prematurely, he was reverting to teenage immaturity at the end of his career. I don't hate him now, I just find him, at worst, an irritant and at best a sad figure. He really does need some better people around him, though. I guess his parents now owe him so much financially there's no real influence from them any more.

 

[Judge Jules]

Excellent summary.