The story of Michael Owen and why he deserves a PL medal with Man Utd

Feels like Early Christmas for Michael Owen who finally wins a Premier League medal!

If you look at Michael Owen's portfolio and ponder at his achievements, you'll notice that he's scored many goals and a handful of important goals which has often resulted in match-winners. Michael's golden era in football came at Liverpool where he scored 118 goals in 216 appearances which is more than a goal in 2 games. But what you will also notice is that Michael hasn't won a single Premier League winners's medal.

Read on to know more about Michael Owen: 
After staying at Liverpool FC for 8 years (1996-2004), Michael sneaked an ambitious move to Spain at Real Madrid where he spent an unsuccessful season scoring just 13 goals in 36 La Liga appearances. Owen was mostly used as a killer sub while his time at Real and it's a no surprise he had the highest goals : minutes played ratio.


Michael made a switch to Newcastle FC in 2005 in an attempt to get back to England and emulate his Liverpool form. MO had a fantastic start to his Newcastle career but his form started to deteriorate next year primarily due to injuries . After managing to make a come back from an injury that kept him out for 18 months, Michael managed to injure himself on a regular basis.

MO couldn't save Newcastle FC from relegation in 2008-09 season and after scoring 26 goals from 71 apps, he moved to Manchester United as a free transfer on 1st July 2010. Owen's tenure at Old Trafford has seen more downs than ups. He lived up to his "injury prone" tagline. In the first season, Michael scored a crucial goal against Man City in September, 2009 after coming on as a substitute. It was by far his most important goal  in the 4 goals he's scored with United so far.


You can watch glimses of that crucial City goal in the video below: 

Michael Owen also scored a fantastic hat-trick in 2009-10 season against Wolfsbrug in the Champions League group stage round and provided United with an essential victory.  M07 also scored a killer goal in the Carling cup final against Aston Villa and did his hamstring moments later. Michael returned to football next season and had a sub-average pre-season after scoring a sweat goal against League of Ireland XI.


2010-11 has been a quite year for Michael so far. He's only scored once against Bolton Wonderers in a 2-2 draw away from home after coming off from the bench.  It was a sleek header to say the least.
If Manchester United go on and wins the premier league which they hopefully will, Michael Owen has a possibility of winning his FIRST! Premier League winners medal with a club that has been crowned  11 times since the league's formation in 1992.


However, the English Football Association (FA) has a strict rule about player winning winning medals:

"A player needs to appear in 10 matches in a title-winning season to qualify for a medal (inclusive of matches as a playing substitute)" 

(From: 2009–10 FA Premier League Handbook, Section B, paragraph 27. p.82) 

So far, Michael has only played in 8 premier league games this season and 2 more games will seal his winning medal provided United win the premier league of course! Here's a brief summary of Michael's 2010-11 season with Manchester United:

The 31-year-old striker has only started once for Sir Alex Ferguson, in October's goalless draw at Sunderland when he went off at half-time, and has scored once, a late equaliser at Bolton in September.

His deal expires at the end of the season and it is unlikely to be renewed after the success of newcomer Javier Hernandez. Owen has scored 148 goals in the Premier League and one more would give him the fifth-highest tally, after Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Thierry Henry and Robbie Fowler.

Wes Brown and Antonio Valencia could also miss out on a title medal, having played seven and six games respectively. However, Valencia may be eligible for a medal after recovering from a horror ankle injury in March. 

So the question to be asked is "Does he deserve the Premier League Medal". Here's my answer:

I think it's an absolute no-brainer. Owen definitely deserves the medal and hopefully will sign a new contract at United. 

Manchester United have 5 more games to play in Premier League this season topped up with a possibility of 3 maximum UEFA Champions League games. United play Everton this weekend followed by Arsenal and Chelsea and then two slightly easy games against Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool FC on 22nd May, 2011 when the new Champions of England shall be crowned. 

Michael Owen has already said from his Twitter account  

"As I've already said, don't know where, don't know when, but there is an important goal to come from me this season - mark my words!"

 United who currently sit at the top of the Premier League table are chased by both Arsenal and Chelsea who are 6 points away from the Devils. Wins against Arsenal and Chelsea will definitely seal their 19th league title and and then Sir Alex can bring on Michael Owen in the next two games against Blackburn and Blackpool which means that Michael Owen will satisfy FA's 10 game policy and finally win a Premier League Winner's medal. 

19th title is coming home ladies and gents
GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED

Carling Cup: Scunthorpe United 2-5 Manchester United HD highlights

Manchester United 5-2 Scunthorpe United

Carling Cup Preview: Scunthorpe United vs Manchester United (22/09/2010)

The Road to Carling Cup GLORY begins!

The road to February, Wembley Stadium, an occasion when United may lift the Carling Cup trophy for the third successive time is inching nearer as United see Scunthorpe United tomorrow.

The first leg of Carling Cup ends in an embarrassing defeat for United

Traitor!

Hero of the game: Carlos Tevez scored 2 vital goals to put City in front. He was later declared Man of the Match as well.

Man City 2-1 Man Utd

The game ended 2-1 in a very exciting fashion. This was Robert Mancini's (the new Man City manager) first ever Manchester Derby and after securing a famous victory it has turned out to be quite a proud one.

Ryan Giggs opened the scoring with a rather easy goal. It was actually Rooney's strike which was deflected off the goalie Shay Given and Ryan Giggs then did no mistake to give United a 1-0 lead.

Carlos Tevez then equalised from the penalty spot. Fabio held Bellamy from his shirt and continued to 'badly' mark him inside the penatly box; as a result of which he was booked and United conceded a penalty.

The Argentine scored again in the second half from the header. I must say the United defence looked shaky then and they deserved to concede that goal, not sure about the penalty totally. Tevez's celebration was quite remarkable after both the goals.. After his second goal, he ran till the half line and then put his hands over his ears... something like this:

The famous Cup celebration

But of course! in a blue t-shirt... He didn't over do it though as he didn't want to hurt the 'sentiments' of United fans.

Overall, I felt United were not very versatile in the beginning of the 2nd half. They weren't that alert due to which they conceded the second goal.

Now in order to reach the finals of the Carling Cup, United need to either of the following:

a) Win 1-0..

a) Win 2-1 to take the game to extra time..

b) By winning the game by a goal difference of 2 would do the job if they concede..

THEY NEED TO WIN THE 2ND LEG IN ANY CASE BY A MARGIN OF AT LEAST 1 GOAL AND NOT CONCEDE ANY. IF THEY CONCEDE A GOAL, THEN THEN NEED TO WIN BY A MARGIN OF 2 GOALS.

Glory Glory Man United... Hope we are fantastic on the weekend against Hull City.

10 men United proceed to the 4th round of Carling Cup

Manchester United 1-0 Wolves

Danny Welbeck celebrates his winner in front of an adoring Old Trafford crowd

Danny Welbeck marked his first start of the season with the winning goal as 10-man Manchester United edged past Wolves into the Carling Cup fourth round.

The 18 year old was set free by a superb Michael Owen pass and he slotted in to send the holders through.

Hard to find empty seats at OT. It happened during the 3rd round of Carling Cup

That came after Fabio da Silva (29') had seen red for a deliberate foul on Michael Kightly, who was clean through on goal. The red card upsetted the champions as they still had an hour to more in the game. According to me, it was an inevitable and a straight red card and still the Brazilian hardly moved back to the bench. He was asked by Gary Neville to do so - "Get off quick son!"

"Get off Quick Son"

"Off you go boy"

De Laet was brought on the pitch for Federico Macheda after jus 30 minutes which was rather shocking to me! The Belgium player undoubtedly looked impressive but what happened to Macheda?

But Wolves played their part in a fine game, David Jones and Kevin Doyle both forcing saves from Tomasz Kuszczak.The Premier League new-boys lived up to their pre-match word that they would go for the victory at Old Trafford, despite not having won a top-flight match there in almost 30 years.

However, with eight full internationals on the pitch, United had plenty of ammunition to hurt their visitors and Nani and Owen, in particular, took the game to the visitors early on.

Nani didnt look as threatening as he was couple of games before with poor quality passes in the opponent's box. Not that Wolves were overawed, and they were happy to throw numbers forward whenever possible, with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake going closer than anyone to breaking the deadlock when his shot from 20 yards dipped inches over the bar.

Owen and Berra in action

Jones forced a fine save from Kuszczak from the resulting free-kick, but ironically, it prompted United's best spell of the first half and Owen should have done better with a header six yards out from Gary Neville's cross. (34') Throughout the game, Owen was hardly given any chances and when he was provided one he missed it. He was off-side a couple of times if not more and looked average.

A Neville error then let in Jones (41') , only for the former Red Devil to clip well over with just Kuszczak to beat.

The pattern continued in the second half, with United pushing and probing but lacking quality in the final third, and Wolves occasionally threatening on the break.

That was until Welbeck's intervention, the young striker getting on the end of a superb clipped pass from Owen and slamming home to cap the move of the night. (66')

Danny Welbeck was replaced by Josh King.

Darren Gibson looked impressive throughout the whole match with his long range shots but failed to convert them into a goal.

Wolves responded by bringing on strike pair Doyle and Andy Keogh, and the former twice came close to a leveller.

But despite largely dominating possession and territory as the match drew to a close, they could not force a breakthrough and United held on to make it six wins on the trot in all competitions.