I’m a Liverpool fan for life.
But I’m still a Michael Owen fan.
I get tired of hearing the “Where were you in Instanbul” chants every time he plays against the Reds. Liverpool’s been to other big finals since his departure, what about those?
I’m not saying that I agree with Owen leaving the club. He should have stayed.
I don’t think that he should ever have been allowed to go, and the club should have been performing better in the league at the time. But neither of those two things happened.
Owen should be regarded as an Anfield legend – he scored 118 goals for Liverpool, which is seventh on the list of the club’s alltime goalscorers.
I’ll always remember the 2001 FA Cup Final as “The Michael Owen Final” (in the same way that 2006 was Steven Gerrard’s final)
I heard a Liverpool fan going off the other day about how Owen left Merseyside for LFC’s biggest rivals: Manchester United! Shock horror!
Except he didn’t leave Liverpool for Manchester United!
He went to Real Madrid.
Just like Steve McManaman and Xavi Alonso.
You’ll never hear Alonso being jeered when he comes to Anfield.
From Madrid Owen went to Newcastle, and when they were suddenly relegated to Division One, he issued a ‘please come get me’ to Premiership managers – understandable for a player of his stature. It’s not as if he begged to go to United, Sir Alex pounced on the opportunity.
And I know the animosity mainly stems from Owen wanting to leave at one stage when Liverpool was achieving next to nothing and a lot of average players were being bought. It must SUCK to be such a class player and still be in a team with players like Igor Biscan, Milan Baros and Salif Diao. I can’t blame him for wanting to leave that.
Just like I wouldn’t have blamed Stevie Gerrard for going to Chelsea when the team had a crap manager and the players around him were nowhere near premiership-quality.
The difference is that Stevie didn’t go and he will go down forever as a Liverpool Legend and Hero, nothing will diminish his status. And his loyalty, passion and dedication deserve nothing less.
I’m not saying Owen should be thought of in that category, that reverence is reserved for life-time servants like Gerrard and Jamie Carragher. But I do feel that it’s short-sighted to suddenly hate Owen because he no longer plays for the club we love.
'a liverpool fan for life' and yet you don't understand the many reasons lfc fans hold the little judas in such low regards? wake up,smell the coffee....why don't you ask the newcastle fans why they dislike him? he is the ultimate football mercenary..now that his england days are dried up he is quite content to sit on his arse on the utd bench,pick up his fat paycheque and boast on twitter about a championship medal he played very little for. if he still possessed half the talent he thinks he does surely a mid division team would take him on loan and give him games-i dont think there have been many offers though but why leave the sanctuary of the utd bench to fight relegation in the premier league?? that is of course when he is fit!
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