Owen?
Comments (52)
I know this has probably been mentioned before and given his injuries may not be the most viable option ? however..... The "England Legend" is out of contract at the Toon this coming summer: this means a free exit from the humbugs to a team of his choice.
Now obviously this means no transfer fee, which given his "rep" could still be quite high, I mean he still has the ability to score goals for fun. The down side is his wage... some estimate he is on between £70k to £80k per week!! This is of course a massive sum... BUT, with no transfer fee, we could in theory afford to get Mr Owen this summer, if we were to offer ? and this is purely for argument's sake ? £100k per week (this helps my calculations!!). Then, if we offered him a 3-year contract, we would only fork out a total of £14M ? this is £1M less than we paid just to sign "the mopheaded one".
I know we are skint and don't have two buttons to rub together, but if we did would he be a good option at this price? Granted we would need a signing on fee and bonuses for goals but a fit Owen is sure to bag a minimum of 15 to 20 a season ? how many extra points is that a season?? Yak, Saha, Owen, Vaughany & Big Vic ? not a shabby strike force (IF FIT!!).
Si Harwood,
Bolton Posted 17/12/2008 at 09:23:36
Return to the Mail Bag
Comments
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
According to BBC gossip page, Owen is said to be waiting for Spurs, RS, Man City or ourselves to make an offer he can't refuse. However, based on previous Everton offers, I'm sure he could quite easily refuse it! He is a massive gamble though, not just his injuries, but the fact that he would command almost double what our current best players earn. The spirit that Moyes has been banging on about all week would go tits up!
Dan?s got a point. As well as the wages issue we already have two injury prone strikers ? do we really want another? £14m in wages is a lot to pay for someone whose locker is in the treatment room.
And his media interviews are apparently used to torment prisoners at Guantanamo.
Anyone think Aiden McGeady would be a excellent signing for us? A tricky and pacy winger that would excite the crowd. I know we have no money but he has just been suspended for two weeks by Celtic and fined so we could get him on the cheap or on loan for the rest of the season. All we need now is a striker.
Yeh but it’d be worth it just to see him score a winner against the Shite at Twatfield.
I think he?d want CL football. Why play for a team that more than likely won't break the top 4/ win the league?
A £100k per week salary on a 3-year contract is actually £15.6 million. We have enough injury prone strikers at Everton. If we are spending that sort of money, we need someone who can stay fit longer than 10 games, regardless of how good is he.
Is anybody in the SKY 4 actually gona want him?
I'd say Arsenal and Man U could both do with a striker like Owen, but don't think he is the type of signing that either club usually makes. Let's face it, it will come down to wages, and only Man City would come close to matching what he earns now, and that includes Newcastle?s offer!
If anybody will get him it will be City. There's no way he is worth £100k a week and they are the ones daft enough to pay him that amount.
I?d be happy with an affordable and injury-free/fit Owen, however, he?s neither affordable (for us) or consistently injury-free... he?s like an older version of Vaughan! I know we can?t guarantee that any player would stay healthy (i.e. Yakubu) but with Saha and Vaughan and Anichebe all being a bit dodgy we need to spend our few pennies wisely. Plus, as young and as untested as he is, Lukas Jutkiewicz needs to be pushed on (if only for a few minutes a game) so that he can be ready as and when we really need him. There is no guarantee that we?ll get anybody in January so we may need Lukas to be ready.
I?ve thought about this but soon gave it up. Owen is a great converter of chances ? and we don?t make many. I can?t think of many situations in the last half-dozen games where we could have said ?a better striker would have put that away? ? can you? Most of our goals have been blood and thunder.
And I?m not sure we can afford a player who only contributes goals and not all-round pressure. Apart from the money!
OWEN, EVERTON, WAGES?????????
He’ll never come here, not with our pay structure.
How about Kevin Phillips, a reliable goalscorer, Kris Boyd if we could afford him.
Although I understand that Owen will not play for a fiver I do think at some point it might not be just about money with him. He is the richest player in the Premier League at the moment and I think he wants a crack at winning things as high up the table as he can. Let's look closely:
Man Utd. Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez, Ronaldo, Campbell (on loan but will return).
Liverpool. Torres, Keane, Babel, Kuyt, N?Gog (rated highly by Rafa)
Arsenal. Adebyor, Van Persie, Bendtner, Vela, Walcott, Eduardo.
Chelsea. Anelka, Drogba, Kalou.
Apart from Chelsea, no team in the Sky 4 would want or need him. His Dad played for us back in the 70s and he supported the club as a boy. What I am trying to say is, with a minimal transfer fee in Jan (I think £2.5M max is what it would take to get him) & £65k a week, we could get a truly top class finisher and striker.
With our current lack of strikers, Yak is out for the season and now Dr Steadman has dislocated his own shoulder, Vaughan's op will not take place until Feb ? thus ruling him out for the season also. Owen is almost guaranteed a starting bearth in the team.
I know Cahill scored at the weekend but I fear this is not an answer for the remainder of the season. With no Carling Cup opportunities now this year what chance will Jutkiewicz get? A wasted season on the bench. Could not even get 15-20 mins when Cahill looked knackered. Admit if Cahill had been subbed who would have scored to get us the 3 points but no striker on the pitch for 90 mins and 1 on the bench who has never played for us...
Given our financial situation, we can forget about the likes of Owen and McGeady. I suspect if we make a loan signing in January it is unlikely to be anyone we?ve ever heard of before. Probably someone who hasn?t scored for a year or two. He may be injured and might even be a full back or a goalkeeper. Unfortunately, the response to many of DM's signings is not "Wow!" but "Who?" ? I?d happily settle for Brian McBride.
Just to add. Top players who let their contracts run out normally ask for a wacking signing on fee, which goes straight into their own pockets, as opposed to it going to the selling club. From what I?ve heard Owen is extremely money orientated so the highest bidder will almost certainly get him. I don?t think this will be us, which, in my opinion, is no great loss. Robbie Keane on loan anyone!!!
I would much rather we manage our resources more carefully and try and find a decent striker in the lower league who can take the step up (i.e. Darren Bent at Charlton). Frankly if we spunked our money on Owen’s wages we would then be struggling for resources to add to the wings and central midfield.
On hearing of this continued speculation regarding Everton’s possible interest in Michael Owen, Baz Rathbone was last seen entering Moysey’s office with a can of petrol and some Swan Vestas.
Yes, he is a good player but how would he fit into our system? Can he play up top on his own which has been shown to be the only way we can play effectively. I think not. You should sign players that fit the system rather than star players. For that reason alone you should be looking someone else out of contract at the end of the year... like Bruno Heskey or at least someone of that ilk. If you can a player of that mould who chips in 15 goals a season, and a pacy right winger (Ossie works hard but is prone to drifting in which deprices us of width), we would be a formidable team. The pace alone would make us a better team to watch.
Kirk, "I think he wants a crack at winning things as high up the table as he can". We have never even looked close to a team that could win a trophy. So one question, why would he come to us if he wants to win things? Also, it has been reported that he is being offered a 4-year £90k-a-week deal with the Geordies. He is at the moment on £120k at Newcastle... we could never match that.
A free transfer is never a free transfer. The 4 million pound signing fee goes into Owen’s bank account rather than Newcastle’s.
It is pure lazy journalism that we are linked with these players as we are never competitive in auctions. When was the last time we signed somebody that another team was after?
I?d rather we stuck to our principles and never signed another red shite. Owen is injury prone. It?s never a case of if he stays fit, it?s always when he gets injured. It?s the same with Saha, if he stayed fit there?s no way Zralex would have let go of him. We can?t afford Owen, not because of his wages but purely because we can?t afford another injury prone striker. Also it would go against Moyes?s policy of signing young talent.
I?d love to see us sign Owen. Regardless of his injury record, the stats and his finishing ability are second to none. Obviously we?ll never sign him, just can?t afford him. It?s just paper talk.
I was wondering why we don?t sign players before the transfer window opens, and wait till the last day to do so. I know you can?t officially sign players, but you could get the deal in place before the window opens. This is evidenced by Real Madrid signing Huntelaar and now Diarra. Landon Donovan has signed for Bayern Munich and Thiago Silva for Milan.
So why do we always wait till the end?
Owen would not fit at Everton. He is not a player who can hold up the ball while support gets up to him if playing 4-5-1 and that is how we play generally. Even if we played 4-4-2 occasionally is he better than Cahill at playing in the hole? AJ was a similar type of striker to Owen (but fair enough, not as good) and he ended up running up the channels for a living!. At that job I don’t think Owen is as good as AJ and he would end up doing the same even if only to get himself into the game. Owen’s biggest asset was always his pace and most of that has now dissipated and while any striker will always score a few goals, in my opinion Owen’s free-scoring days are over. Given all that, and his constant injuries, he would be a dead loss for us.
We need strikers..... plural, we?ve no money. So options are Loans!!!!! Or Sell!!!!! Tthe most bankable player, who isn?t a first team regular and we have some cover for, is Baines... feel likes he?s not been given a chance but needs must. £5m, with that a £2m bid for Heskey might do the job, leaving £3m for another, maybe Nugent young keen an Everton fan, give him a go. Moyes wanted him before for that price but no more. Some might disagree but the only other one i can think of is Davies at Bolton.
Sorry about this but Kirk Mcardle did you go to Christ Church infant school in Aughton in the late 60s, at school with Mark Hately [who at school wasn?t that good]?
There?s no objection in principle to signing ex-RS ? Morrissey and Sheedy come to mind ? and football has to live with mercenaries. The Welsh lad (born in Chester, never went back) is both of these and we could take him on if he came and asked for a job ? on our terms. That?s never going to happen.
What might happen is that our lads, who can play 4-6-0 successfully, show us all how throwing away stupid money can be avoided in these more realistic times. Tim Cahill stepped up, DM gave him a go, and it worked. A long way to go, but it could be an interesting tactical development.
Older members of the congregation may remember Ramsey?s ?wingless wonders? as dinosaur pressmen called his team ? and they won a World Cup.
Owen is a luxury player.
A player you add to your ranks, when you already have two fit and competent strikers, but know that the 15-20 games a season he is available, he?d be one of your preferred starters because he will score 2 out of 3 games he plays. You take your 10-15 goals a season and smile.
We are not in the position of being able to afford a luxury player ? we have no strikers. We need someone who will play every game and offer cover in the latter part of the season.
Owen is not the player; we do not have tgat luxury at this moment in time. If we buy Owen ? it's for NEXT season.
I heard today that he is going to Liverpool. Not sure 100%, somebody I work with is good friends with a former player's son who knows him. Soon know... Too expensive a gamble anyway.
Owen is never going to come to Everton, for
1. His wages are far too excessive for us and Newcastle have apparently offered him £80k per week to stay.
2. Hopefully Moyes will realise that he won’t fit into our system. He can’t play in a 4-5-1, he needs a striker to support and create chances for him.
As mentioned above, we don’t create that many chances, just a lot of huff and puff! Owen is too much of a gamble. To put all our eggs (and money) into one basket and rely on a proven injury prone striker, is not worth the gamble.
Also as mentioned above, and what I have mentioned before, I truly believe we need to make a move for McGeady and Kightly. We possibly may have missed the boat on Kightly as it looks as if Wolves are going up and he will surely want to try his hand in the PL with Wolves first. However, McGeady looks like he could be on his way out of Celtic after being suspended by Strachan!
McGeady and Kightly will change our style dramatically with two out-and-out wingers who can create and score. We will create many chances (also with Arteta, Pienaar, Osman, Cahill and Fellaini to choose from in the centre) and our strikers (Yakubu and Saha specifically) are proven goalscorers given the service.
McGeady and Kightly are also both young British players who can get the crowd on their feet and both can score from free-kicks. I think that we could get both for a combined £10m.
Would much rather we took Heskey than Owen. Tireless worker in the AJ mould but same build as the Yak. Ok, he won't score goals but if we?re reverting back to 4-5-1 then he makes a lot more sense and importantly would be alot cheaper!
It?s all been said:
Too expensive, injury prone, doesn't suit our system and Newcastle do not want to let him go before the summer even if he goes for free then.
Even though I dont like rumour mongering, I heard Marlon Harewood was a virtually done deal.
If that?s the case, I would be slightly disappointed that we couldn't do better but I would prefer us to "BEEF" MF up with a strong player who can win and hold the ball.
Personally I would not want him... he is a poacher pure and simple and he has no strength for when competing for the ball... he seldom wins 50/50 situations. Heskey did almost everything for him when they were together for England and Martins does most of the work at Newcastle...
I would much prefer Martins, Carew (if fit) or a fast young forward who has the appetite for work that EFC teams need. I'm afraid moving to EFC would be a case of another fading star getting a wage that may well upset other players... we generally pay lots of money for strikers who fail and Owen would just be another panic move I reckon.
As someone else has already said, Owen needs someone to provide him with opportunities and at the moment we do not have that player. He would just be another waste of money I reckon. He looked over the hill during his last seasons at Liverpool.
£14 million in wages based on the original post. Let us do the math: Three years = 36 months. 36 months = 156 weeks. 156 weeks X £100,000 = £15,600,00. Where does the £14m come from?
Certainty: Owen will be playing for a North West club next year, anyone having seen his racing stables (think of South Fork, Dallas, and you?ll get the idea/scale) will know that his future after football lies as a horse owner/trainer and he is just too far away in Newcastle to do this, so where will he end up ?
I am sure Kenwright would just love to have him at Everton, he always has. The kudos for Everton would be immense, but so would the wage bill, alas I can't see it happening.
As for RS, well Rafa has already dropped an expensive clanger with Keane, he may not want to take a chance with an injury prone Owen, although I am sure Owen would love to go back like Fowler did.
Expect moneybags City to get him, his wages will not be a problem for them, also it will give their sagging season a boost.
As for Everton, well I still think Moyes will try and bring in Obinna, as he will be a loan with a future view to a permanent deal. As for a striker, will I expect a bruiser up front to take the weight off Tim, not the type of player you describe Owen.
It?s a good point that he would "only" end up costing us the same as Fellaini even if we did pay him £100k a week; however, the problem starts when the current top earners demand parity. A lot of players have that written into their contract. So if we give Own £100k, all of a sudden the agents for Yakubu, Arteta, Cahill, Lescott etc come knocking on the door wanting parity. And if they get £100k, then the next level of player (Pienaar, Jags, Yobo etc) start asking for at least £50k and so on. Unless Owen is willing to fit into our current wage structure, then he wouldn?t be coming.
Somebody mentioned Brian McBride. A player that we should never have let leave. Mind you he?s finished now, isn?t he?
Then again, you never know. He?s a good Christian (he?d link well with Peanuts), he probably eats well and reads that Eckhart Tolle self-help shit. Maybe he?ll be Lazarus and keep scoring till he?s 40.
Marlon Harewood? What the fuck? The last time anybody saw that lummox score it was against us about four years ago. I know, why don?t we buy both he and Heskey? And not score for the rest of the season.
Christ, I?LL become a Christian if we can successfully avoid buying anyone in January as lumpen and uncoordinated as those two. Fuck, won?t some on-the-cheap J. Foreigner type do for five months? Someone we?ve never heard of, preferably.
Owen will go back to the Shite when they ship Robbie Keane back to Spurs. We?ll be shopping around for loan players; to be honest I wouldn?t be too disapointed with Leroy Lita on loan..
To Brian Waring. I know it might not hold too much kudos with fans but with a more determined 2nd leg performance the Carling Cup was a real possibility last season and we again took our foot off the pedal in Uefa Cup as well. We could have easily had 2 major cups last year.
I know the cup exit this year was too early but the FA Cup has not started yet. If the board room turmoil was preventing Owen, as has been reported from the press, signing his extension, this will not change any time soon. With 6 months of his contract left Newcastle should worry about £17M in transfer fees and £120k a week in wages for 4 years being lost.
Apart from Aston Villa, we must be considered the only other team Owen would move to. Man City have more strikers than all other teams now let alone the inevitable transfer of Santa Cruz. Bojinov the forgotten man has also started full training as well.
To Iain Love. Afraid not mate. Lived in St Albans all me life!!
ps: Will people stop posting about Obinna. He is an attacker who plays on either wing. NOT a striker which we need.
City will have a surplus of strikers. I wouldn?t mind seeing Benjani or Vassell (or both) coming in on loan. I think they could do a half-decent job for us.
Sean ...Lummox.... I love it...
Heskey not done much since "the green mile".
Gary, it's 'maths', not 'math'. One other thing: when ordering a pint in the local, I'd appreciate it if you could say ?Can I have a pint of Stella?, instead of ?Can I get a Magners?. Also when someone asks how you are, could you please answer "I'm fine, thanks," instead of "I'm good."
Nick, I think you’ll find that in English, the noun mathematics takes singular verb forms, It is often shortened to math.
Way to make yourself look like a fool.
Brian, I believe the term ?Math? is an Americanisation of the term ?Maths?.
And it is certainly not shortened by me.
I also hate it when somebody says "Can I get a Magners". I just wait for the day when somebody replies "No you bloody can?t!" Also something picked up from the good old US of A.
...and even Emile?s stellar turn in The Green Mile was sullied by the anodyne presence of Everyman Hanks.
I wouldn?t mind seeing Benjani Mwaruwaruwaruwaru in our lineup if only to watch him anoint the Street End after he scores. An entertaining celebration, to be sure, and far less off-putting than swinging an imaginary baby.
Hes a former RS so I don't for a minute expect him to want to come to us. End of debate!!!
Brian, I'm English and went to school in England, where I had maths lessons and did my maths homework. I think they do math in America. Period.
Owen ? no way. He is hardly what you would call a team player is he? The salary that he would want would be far above anything our top earners are on and I don?t think that would do a lot for team morale. Wasn?t he also behind some of the England gambling syndicates? With players losing £30,000+ in card games. No I would rather Henrick Larsson on a short term loan and Nugent on loan till the end of the season with an option to buy.
Why has nobody mentioned Vagner Love? After all, we have been linked with him again!
How about Carlos Vela on loan from Arsenal? Not going to get much first team action now that they're out of the Carling Cup and Eduardo is on the brink of coming back. He will get a lot of first team experience at Everton and I think will be a quality player for us. He's quick, versatile and has a good eye for goal.
I've mentioned this a couple of times in response to mail bag articles on this site, but after reading today's articles, I thought I would make it into an article of my own to receive some comments. I've read today about we need a couple of pacy wingers and also the talk of the usual January transfer window merry-go-round.
Sure, we need a striker at the moment, but hopefully that crisis will be over in 6 months. For the long term, I'd love to see two pacy wingers sign. This will change our style of play dramatically. We should then play an attractive attacking football with wingers creating and scoring. We do have two proven Premier League goalscorers at the club, and two very promising young strikers, we just don't create enough chances, more through huff and puff than anything.
Firstly, a young English right winger, Michael Kightly from Wolves. I was hoping that we'd sign him in the summer just gone, and unfortunately we may have missed the boat on him due to the season Wolves are having. They are likely to get promoted and Kightly will probably want to try the Premier League with Wolves first (before they get relegated and we could get him the season after). However, he has been very impressive this year and deserved his chance for the England U21s which again he impressed. He can cross, score and take free-kicks. If we can't get him a cheaper alternative could be Stephen Hunt from Reading.
Secondly, and more likely now is Aiden McGeady from Celtic. A young Scottish left-winger who has impressed for them and in the Champions League. Again another tricky out-and-out winger who can create, cross and score and take free-kicks! He is now much more likely to sign after being suspended by Strachan (and backed by the Board) for two weeks and looks like he could be on his way out of Celtic. This is even more surprising due to the fact he is one of Celtic's better players who will inevitably leave the Scottish league anyway.
Now here comes the serious (and unfortunate) part: the finances! I think that we could get both for about £10m. Ok, this is more likely to happen in the summer than January with an estimated £10m available in the summer. However, there have been rumours that Baines could be on his way out for about £4m-£5m. If we could raise the rest against summer transfer activity or other player sales (!) then surely it's a good idea.
As said before, it'll greatly improve our style of play, whether a 4-4-2 or probably even better in a 4-5-1 and create chances for proven goalscorers. The immediate striker crisis can be dealt with a couple of loan signings (Nugent, McBride? and Baxter deserves a chance). These signings will also free up great competition for the two or three central midfield berths with Arteta, Cahill, Fellaini, Pienaar and Osman fighting for the positions.
Anyway, as said before, that's what I would like to happen, any ideas please?
© ToffeeWeb
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
1 Posted 17/12/2008 at 14:46:37
Report abuse