year extension to his deal last
summer, and the striker – who
turns 32 in December – said that
he would only stay beyond that
should themanager still want him.
“I have got a few years left,”
he said, “and I would love them
to be at Manchester United. For
that to happen, I would need to
be involved because themanager
would not want me if I was
not part of
t h e
squad.”
First-
t e a m
o p -
p o r -
tunities
for
Owen have certainly been limited.
Tuesday’s seasonal debut was his
first start since the FA Cup game
against Southampton on Jan 29.
His last Premier League start was
onOct 2 last year. Owen admitted
he felt frustrated by that.
“The first season (2009-10) was
fantastic and I had some great
moments. There was the Wolfs-
burg hattrick and the goal against
ManCity. I had some great highs,”
he said.
“Then last year I qualified for
a medal and played in a dozen
games in the Premier League. It
was probably not quite enough to
be content but we won the
League.”
Would he consider leaving
United next summer? “If I moved
to a smaller club I might get more
games,” he admitted. “Wewill see
how the season goes, and assess
it then.” - The Independent
MICHAEL OWEN
admitted
yesterday that hewas “not proud”
of his position at Manchester
United, being paid by the club
while rarely playing for the first
team.
The former England striker
scored twice against Leeds United
in Tuesday night’s 3-0 CarlingCup
win, his first appearance of the
season, but insisted afterwards he
was desperate for more opportu-
nities to earn his pay.
“I am not content if I am not
playing, I don’t want anybody to
think that,” Owen said after his
first United start since January.
“I get criticised by a lot of
people who say I don’t play
but I pick my money up. I am
not proud of that fact. I want
to play all the time.”
Owen yesterday went on
Twitter to emphasise that he
was not at the club for
money.
“(I have) greed for
success maybe, but if I
wanted money the last
place I would have
signed for is United,”
he wrote.
Owen insisted
that just being at
United was a pleasure in
itself.
“Obviously, I am not
happy if I am barely played
but it is not me to go bang-
ing the door down of the
gaffer,” he said. “I go to training
every day, put in 100%and always
have a smile on my face.
“It is a privilege to play for such
a top teamwith top players and I
have loved every moment of it.
And I am enjoying every mo-
ment.”
Ferguson gave Owen a one-
by James Lawton
Nodoubt
it was unintended
but the right arm that wrapped
around the shoulders of Michael
Owen after he scored the second of his
two goals on a rare appearance for
Manchester Unitedmight have been a
reproach.
It came, after all, fromRyanGiggs.
Likemost of us, Giggs has made his
mistakes but they do not include the
one that must have haunted his
occasional teammate at least a little as
he returned to his country retreat.
At 37, theWelshman is drinking
froman apparently endless supply of
the summer wine – he took another
swig on Tuesday night when he
completed the scoring against Leeds
United in the Carling Cup tie – while
Owen, six years his junior, claims to be
content with themerest dribble.
Yes, as we are constantly told,
Owen has his passion for the turf and a
still enviable income for being the
inevitably fading poster boy for
United’s depth of attacking options.
Yet maybe he will forgive those of
us who regret something the great
scrum-half Gareth Edwards once
defined as a sporting tragedy.
It is when an outstanding talent is
put down and abandoned before its
time.
Edwards talked about the agonies
that faced himwhen it came to
deciding when towalk away from the
game that had given him somuch - “I
hated to think I would spend the rest
of my life believing I could have had
onemore season, onemore tour” – and
these were worries almost certainly
provoked by his sublimely gifted
countryman Barry John’s painfully
regretted departure
at the age of 27.
Owen never
touched the
heights of John - though anyone who
was in St-Etienne the night he ran
through the Argentina defence for one
of the greatWorld Cup goals in 1998
knows the extent of his potential - and
today he vigorously rails against the
opinion that if he hasn’t walked away,
he has put the last years of his career
intomothballs.
It is also true that the Owenwho
sparkled so beautifully against
Argentina - and persuaded the Italian
coach CesareMaldini, father of Paolo,
that England had unearthed a new
wonder of the football world - had
travelledmanymiles downhill by the
time the latest Englandmanager Fabio
Capello so brusquely rejected his
services.
A tide of injuries had taken away
his supreme weapon of deadly speed
and there were also the problems
presented by the rotations of Gerard
Houllier andmisadventures inMadrid
andNewcastle.
Owen suffered those erosions of
the body and not inconsiderable
turbulence of themind. When Kevin
Keegan took over England he hinted at
a preference for Andy Cole, andwhen
he enforced that leaning in his team
selection for a prestige friendly in
Paris, Owenwas required to reassert
himself with a substitute’s goal of
brilliant acumen and a deliciously
measured return to the centre circle.
If we didn’t know it then, we knew
it soon enough; the fierce glowof
Owenwhen he burst upon that first
World Cupwas already dimming. He
went to Japan in 2002 essentially unfit
andwas thus unable, beyond a goal
stolen against Brazil, to reproduce the
predatory force he celebrated by
performing
cartwheels inMunich in that dramatic
but somewhat misleading 5-1
qualifying victory, and it was the same
bleak story inGermany four years
later.
Perhaps it was then that something
snapped inOwen’s mind as well as his
body; maybe it was then that he settled
for less. There is no cause for blame
here, only at least a little sadness. For
some of us, anyway, Owenwas the
most reliable of that failed golden
generation.
More than once, he said that front
page celebrity left himutterly
unmoved. He played his football and
was happy to take his rewards, and
what no one could dispute was his
superior instinct for scoring goals.
His time with England spanned
nine years andwhen it was over, in
2007, he trailed only Sir Bobby
Charlton, Gary Lineker and Jimmy
Greaves in the scorers list, with 40 in
89 games. He was just nine goals short
of Charlton’s mark, in 17 fewer games,
a formidable achievement by any
standards.
Sowhywas there poignancy at
Elland RoadwhenOwen scored his
goals, the first a scuff, maybe, but one
of the highest quality, another the
sweetest of drives? It was because of
that sense of waste, the one the great
Edwards dreadedwhen he wondered
if he had another season left.
Owen insists he is content to play
his minor role in themargins left by
Rooney andHernandez, Berbatov and
a clutch of young contenders. He has
had the best, he suggests, and he can
live comfortablywith the rest, aman of
the sport of Kings who just happens to
play a little football.
No shame here, no certainly not,
but surely a
pang. The
trouble is he
still does it so
sports – Ahead of the game
39
theSun on friday | september 23, 2011
I’mnot proudof
gettingpaid for
not playing:Owen
N
Unrealised
potential
“It is a privilege
to play for such
a top teamwith
top players and
I have loved
every moment
of it. And I am
enjoying every
moment.”