I felt very odd seeing Michael’s name on the #10 Newcastle jersey this morning. When he left Anfield for Madrid last summer I was sad and unhappy but, hey, we won the Champions League and he seemed to be having a moderately successful first year. Mostly off the bench but he still scored 16 goals for Los Galacticos; with Raul and Figo not getting any younger this season should have been a chance for Michael to shine.
But Luxemburgo and the executives felt otherwise and grabbed the brilliant young Brazilian Robhino. Can’t blame them for buying the next coming of Pele. That they bought a second young striker, Juan Baptista from Seville, made it clear that Owen hadn’t made the necessary impression. For a time reports that Louis Figo would go to Liverpool or Juventus had me thinking that he still had a chance.
The last weeks showed the minds at the Berneabeau decided otherwise. Where would Owen end up? All four of the top EPL sides were interested, according to the rumors, plus Newcastle, Everton and even his old boss Houllier over at Lyon (flush with cash from the huge sale of Essien to Chelsea). One by one teams dropped out or were deemed unacceptable by the England striker. Finally it seemed like he would return to the Reds or take a one year loan to Magpies; he insisted a permanent move to the latter wasn’t of interest.
Money talks and in the end the huge GBP17M or so dangled by chairmen Freddy Shepherd to Real Madrid and a presumably similar payday for the player, along with the realization that Liverpool just wasn’t going to come anywhere close to these numbers, were too much to resist. And so hours ago, over 20,000 Newcastle supporters turned out to see Michael put pen to paper and shake hands with new strike partner Alan Shearer and manager Graham Souness.
Has to be a good deal for his new club, they’ve gone four full games now without scoring a single goal and taken only one point of the 12 placing them 19th in the league table. Also reminds me of Landon’s move to Galaxy and the reception he’s gotten from Spartan Stadium crowds the two times he’s been here since.
I sure hope FoxSoccer schedules the match where Newcastle travel to Liverpool this season for live viewing!
BillSaysThis 