I should've started this blog before relegation came calling for my beloved Magpies, because this will read a little like sour grapes, but best wishes to the foolish club that deems Michael Owen worth a mound of gold this off-season.Despite the UK media feeling the need to wonder aloud why in the world Fabio Capello hasn't called upon Owen for national team duty, you get the feeling neutrals who follow the EPL get the idea a lot quicker than the journalists who cover it.
While Owen deems it ridiculous to consider him finished, there should be no debate that the one-time wonderkid is on the downside of his career at 29. After scoring more than a goal-every-other-game with Liverpool from 1996-2004, he's notched just 39 times in 109 matches with Madrid and Newcastle (Yes, that's less than . It isn't his plaster-of-paris skeleton's fault, either: Owen's first injury-plagued season still included 19 goals at Anfield.
Owen has fantastic finishing skills, and certainly will net a few should Aston Villa or Everton decide to include him in a starting 11, but it seems very unnecessary. The fact that he spurned Mike Ashley's August 2008 offer of 120,000 pounds-per-week and will likely ink elsewhere for less than half that wage should be humbling enough, but no one who witnessed his faithless performances to end the relegation campaign can think he's learned any sort of lesson.
Thanks for letting me get that bout with the obvious out of my system. I'll always have a healthy dose of respect for Owen, but his departure tastes a lot worse than Shay Given's move to Man City. When the season began, they were my two favorite Mags player since Alan Shearer, maybe even 1a and 1b. Now, both are gone, and Given is the clear No. 1.
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