Will Michael Owen get his Mojo Back?

By: Rob | April 30th, 2009

Remember back ten years ago, when Michael Owen was the Saviour of English football? Even more than El Becks, as he was not yet known, Owen was the future. A freescoring young player with skill, pace, it seemed inevitable he would pass Bobby Charlton’s goals record, and be in the running for Peter Shilton’s caps record.

But somewhere along the line, its all gone a bit wrong, slowly but surely, for Owen. He no longer seems like the nicest man in football (a combination of destroying the confidence of teenagers, his 100k a week wages, and his absurd policy of flying via helicopter to Newcastle training sessions every day ensure this), he’s had a slew of injuries, has gone from England’s best striker to not-even-in-Capello’s plans, and faces the prospect of relegation to the Championship as Newcastle stare blankly into the abyss.

Everton, his boyhood club, are supposedly looking to offer him a lifeline, as his contract runs out in the summer. It might be exactly what he needs.

If they could keep him fit, he’d be a good signing for The Toffees I think. Let us not forget they’ve been playing a revolutionary 4-6-0 formation for some of this season due to a lack of healthy strikers on their books.

And Owen’s goalscoring record is still pretty good. Despite never being able to put a good run of form together due to being forever injured, he has scored 27 goals in 68 appearances for Newcastle. Not mind blowing, but respectable.

Something does seem to have gone a bit wrong for him since his move out to Spain back in 2004. He famously had a bit of a torrid time in Madrid – he played 41 matches and only 15 of them were starts, but he often hit good bursts of form for Madrid anyway.

Perhaps if he returns to play for his boyhood heroes, however upsetting it might or might not be for Liverpool supporters, it would jar him back into his best form. He could easily fit into the Everton team, he was always at his best in Merseyside, and it’d be much closer to his home.

He’s going to have to take a massive paycut too – not matter where he goes, assuming its not Manchester City, who are also presumed interested – but to be honest, that shouldn’t hurt him, and might force him to refocus. And lets be honest, he’d get a bit more respect taking a paycut to play for Everton than taking the money to play for City.

If he does sort himself out, he is only nine goals away from equalling Sir Bobby Charlton’s England goals record. So maybe he will turn it around yet.

It’d be good to see this, European Footballer of the Year, Owen again, no?