Owen’s Done

March 5th, 2010 | by: Matilda |

michael-owen We were all hopeful when Michael Owen made his daring move to Manchester United. It showed drive, ambition, and guts really, to go from the bench of a relegated club to the best (they won the league afterall) club in the division, and one of the best clubs in the world. His reasons were pretty clear: the Championship wasn’t going to get him into Fabio’s World Cup squad and at the ripe old age of 30, this is pretty much his last shot.

We’ve discussed it again and again and again this season, will he regain form? We know the player he can be (obviously sans speed but still), but his form last season certainly wasn’t good enough. He’s been on again off again this season, sometimes impressing sometimes looking listless and useless, but I thought he could still be a great impact sub. He could still pull a goal from nothing.

Unfortunately now he certainly won’t be going to the South Africa. He’s had a bad hamstring injury, and will be having surgery on Monday, which means he’s out for the rest of the season. And it probably means the end of his international career. Sorry Mikey, it was definitely worth a shot.

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Bill

That’s too bad for him. There’s always the A-League
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Harsh Bill, harsh!
http://italy.worldcupblog.org/ Julian

Do you think he would’ve gone even if healthy? Capello doesn’t really seem to like him at all.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

No, almost definitely not Julian. So the very very small silver lining here is that at least his being injured means there’ll be no more fruitless “Will Owen make the World Cup squad” stories published in late May / early June. Including here on the England blog.

Got to feel bad for the guy though. Nothing but bad luck with injuries for years and years now.
http://italy.worldcupblog.org/ Julian

Can’t blame Capello, either. I’m sure you guys know much more about this than me, but Owen never seemed to have Fergie’s full trust. He did well in the games he played, but he had how many games as a starter? Maybe Fergie thought him and Rooney were incompatible, but given that he’s trying to break into the international team, you’d think that a regular starting position would be almost necessary to convince Capello of his case.
Charlie

Poor Mike,
I could’ve seen him poking one past julio cesar in the 82nd minute of the semis to take us through to the final.
maybe we’ll see him in the euros in 2012…… assuming we qualify that is