Why Does Nobody Like Michael Owen?
By Chris Wright
The Owen in it’s natural habitat
Earlier in the week a man who has scored 150 Premier League goals, 40 goals in 89 games for England and represented the likes of Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester United announced his retirement for the game and the footballing fraternity – bar the likes of Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer – responded with a resounding ‘meh’.
It was more than a little strange, especially considering we’re talking about a Ballon d’Or winner here, that the man appears to have absolutely no appeal to anybody.
Who knows, maybe he’ll get a warmer send-off once the season ticks over and he officially calls time on his career, but it just seems that nobody has any time for Michael Owen these days. Just what is it about him that provokes such a lack of reaction from fans?
Perhaps it’s his demeanour. Let’s face it, Owen is destined to turn up on the MotD settee sooner or later though it’s not like there’s any clamour for it given his previous forays into punditry.
Owen is the very definition of monotone, everything about him – from his binary vocal inflection to his general presence – is grey drizzle. Frankly, we’d rather listen to “The Very Best of 1990s Printer Noise” on repeat for the rest of time than get stuck in a lift with Micky.
Owen locked in “the look” early
Maybe it’s the fact that he hasn’t changed a single iota since he started playing. Same expressionless face, same sensible haircut (which dates back to 1993 at least). He’s boring. Not one blot on his copy book. Even the equally dull Steven Gerrard once sucker-punched a DJ who had the temerity to not play “Sussudio” immediately. Has Owen ever clattered a DJ for denying him his Phil Collins fix? We think not.
Aside from his seeded bran muffin personality, many people also appear to cite footballing reasons as the nucleus at the centre of their Owen apathy. He came out of the traps blazing as a 17-year-old prodigy, scored THAT goal against Argentina, had the world in his palm for a couple of years and then began to slowly erode into the punchline he is now. How quickly a genuinely thrilling English prospect turned into expensive, injury-ridden bench fodder.
He’s the ultimate English “what if?” man.
United fans are likely to afford him a bit of leeway for THAT goal against City (there’s a common theme emerging here), but Newcastle and Stoke fans feel – arguably quite rightly – that they have absolutely nothing to thank Michael Owen for other than draining their resources and keeping their physio teams in work. He was injured by “a cold gym” earlier this season for Christ’s sake!
Who knows, perhaps it was just that bloody brochure?
Where do you come down people? Will you remember Owen fondly for the sporadic moments of exhiliration or could you not care less that he’s finally calling time on his playing days after year upon year of nada?
Named And Shamed: 37 English Clubs Offering Unpaid Jobs – Sporting Intelligence
2013 Champions League Final Viewing Companion – Dirty Tackle
Very Best Of ESPN FC's Toe Poke Blog 2012/13
The 'Transfer Talks' Flowchart – Football Cliches
Remembering Ivan Turina – A Football Report
Moyes Has Done Sod All To Deserve United Job – Johnny Nic For F365
Anfield: The Victims, The Anger And The Shameful Truth – Guardian
The A-Z Of Football Boot Brands – The Boot Room
Man Utd Coach Delivers Opinion On Rooney's Form – Off The Post
19 Rules Of Playing Football When You're A Kid – BuzzFeed
With football fans being like football fans are, he pissed off alot of people when he signed for Man Utd. A Liverpool lad shouldn’t join the mancs. And there are alot of Liverpool fans in the world that will never forget that. He shot himself in the foot with that move.
All the injuries obviously didn’t help…
He seems to have a very high opinion of himself. He was on Goals on Sunday a while back and was just talking about how great he was, and how he was actually very successful at Real Madrid. Plus he had that hilarious promotional “brochure”.
Owen became boring the moment he left Liverpool. Had he chosen to stay, he would be retiring a god. Instead, he left for glory or money or what ever else he was chasing, and unfortunately failed. No matter how well he did or didn’t play after his liverpool days, his career started going down hill fast. This is the problem with modern day footballers. Gone are the days of Gerrards, Giggs, and Scholes. If great players want to receive the accolades they deserve when they retire, they need to show an undying loyalty to the fans that were there from the start.
Brilliant player – one of the greatest English strikers in history, yet he’s treated to articles like this.
here’s michael owen being a prize turd http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqOxNspUPyE wait for it at the end.
he’s not a great. maybe he could’ve been if he wasn’t injured so much. couple of good seasons and that’s about it.
i’d listen to a 90s printer noise cd! remember the noise them dot matrix ones made? and that paper with the tear-off strips on the side with holes on.
He is destined to fall into the darkest oblivion, just like his lookalike -also a late 90′s one-hit-wonder- the kid from the Sixth Sense.
I know alot of people don’t like him just for the fact he’s clearly ashamed of where he’s from.
His problem is that he thinks wayyyy too highly of himself, sure he was a success at Liverpool but apart from that he has been fairly mediocre everywhere else. To say he was too good for the Championship when he was a free agent was nonsense. I think if he had given it a go at the lower levels the common fan might have related a little more with him, instead we just see him as a player who thought he was too good for a number of clubs.
I was 11 when he scored that goal for England. Just for that he’ll always be a legend. For everyone who didn’t let out a high pitched squeal when he scored against Argentina he scored 40 goals for his country and you still don’t like him, what the hell did he have to do?
Owen was a great striker for a few years and then faded. Instead of cashing in on the love that Liverpool felt for him, even after the Madrid move he shaaat all over it by moving to united-to ride the bench no less-so he alienated them-also England were never that good with him so he scored some goals of note but as for the teams he played for eh-compare that to Henry who won silverware for club and country and never moved to Spurs or some nonsense-Owen’s image problems are entirely of his own making.
I think it is because he looks like Gary Barlow.
I am pretty sure I read the stat from optaJoe he’d never scored 20+ prem goals in a season. Lets face it who is there to like him out there? He played for Liverpool then signed for United he also pissed off alot of Newcastle fans he’s just a boring little man.
I thought it was just simply because he’s so incredibly dull, much like Shearer who I think most people dislike as well.
Both have nothing remotely interesting to say and I can imagine would be unbelievably boring to have a drink with.
This Michael Owen flying over Dubai on a helicopter pretty much sums up how dull the man is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD-LjX_K9Cg
All his accomplishments came in a condensed period from 1996 to 2004. His career basically ended before he turned 25, and he hasn’t done anything terribly impressive in nearly 10 years, so the fans have just lost interest.
Here are some stats:
He played 16 seasons in the Premier League.
In his first 8 seasons, he scored 118 goals in 216 appearances.
In his final 8 seasons, he scored 32 goals in 108 appearances.
He never scored more than 20 league goals in a season, and he never scored more than 30 in all competitions in a season.
After leaving Liverpool, his highest return in the league was 13 goals at Real Madrid.
Also, as has been mentioned above, he’s pissed off the Liverpool and Newcastle faithful and he’s shown himself to be a genuine twat in the media.
Maybe it’s because he’s a greedy, money-grabbing egotist who has zero passion for the game, whichever club he’s bleeding, or the fans.
Or maybe it’s because he’s the most boring, monotone c.u.n.t. since lineaker. He belongs on MOTD with the other Mr Personality award winners.
Reading the quotes and seeing the pictures of Brian Clough really makes Michael Owen seem to have less charisma and personality than ever.
The story about him driving to Madrid airport everyday to pick up the British newspapers annoyed me.
I always liked seeing in him in an England shirt, and he looked to have made a proper international comeback in 2007/2008 after the injury he sustained when Sven recklessly took him to the World Cup in Germany.
But as others have said, his ego probably did as much to ruin his career as the injuries did. If he’d gone to a mid-table side and fought to get his form back, he may well have ended up surpassing Bobby Charlton’s record. Instead, he was content just being at a top-four club, even though it meant rusting away on the bench. And who can respect that?
Iván Rocha, your comment comparing Owen with the one hit wonder kid from the Sixth Sense is a bit unfair on the one hit wonder kid from the sixth sense!!! He made loads of good movies!!!
The two reasons that Liverpool fans, myself included, hate Michael Owen is that he firstly forced the club to sell him for F*ck all to Real and Secondly he joined Man U!! Oh….and the bonus reason is that he is a boring C£nt!!!
well, where to start ? with him betraying Liverpool signing for United I think. yes it took 5 years between him leaving ‘pool and joining them, but I still can’t slallow it for f**** sake…
oh, and that video he made facing that young goalie, with the un-necessary comments when he scored…embarrassing as it can get.
I remember reading that during his Newcastle days, MO would have Mike Ashley’s helicopter take him to and from his house in the north west to the north east and back; and if it was bad weather, he was to stay at home and train on his own. If this is true, I’m amazed it didn’t cause any dressing room rifts with those who actually had to make an effort to get to training every day whilst king owen swanned around like a tw@t from dragons den… (natural goalscorer or not).
I don’t think his lack of charisma helps him, but it’s not really to blame, at least for Newcastle supporters. I mean, how much personality does Shearer have and we love him. We dislike Owen because we welcomed and embraced him like a long lost son and all we got back after those first few months was a series of indifferent displays and injury after injury after injury, while the whole time he made it publicly clear that his priority was his international career over his club, and then he was the first to ask out after relegation. A season he basically contributed nothing too, and he was the first to demand out instead of sticking around to help us out. Duff is thought of on similar terms but it’s quieter because he never came out trying to defend his spell at St James’ like Owen constantly does. I wish he’d had the career his talent deserved, but injuries and his own hubris destroyed that.
I think it’s the fact that he’s happier sat on the bench at a premier league club than playing football in a lower league because he believes he’s too good for them.
Played god awful for Stoke against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. He thinks he is better than everyone in the lower leagues. Everyone on the pitch were better than him.
Come on you Palace!
I think it is because he’s been effectively retired for 3 years