The Owen Brochure
Michael Owen, scorer of 200 goals (160 club, 40 country), tormentor of Argentina in the 1998 world cup, signed by Newcastle United only 4 years ago, finds that his stock has fallen somewhat. A man for whom Newcastle paid £17 million four years ago, who Real Madrid signed the year before that — when he only had one year left on his contract — for £8 million, is now struggling to find a club.
Four years ago he was one of the hottest properties in football: guaranteed to be the first name on the teamsheet for his country. Fast forward to the end of last season and you witness a fit Michael Owen being left on the bench by his big mate Alan Shearer as Newcastle lurch towards relegation. For whatever reason, Alan didn’t think he was good enough for a team in the bottom three of the premiership.
Ouch. I bet that smarted. So Michael is now obviously struggling to find a club, and what better than to send a brochure around prospective clubs:
That means he can leave on a free transfer — with a reported £1million-a- year signing-on fee — but so far no clubs have contacted his advisers to negotiate an escape from the club who were relegated on the final day of the season last month. That has prompted his management company, Wasserman Media Group, whose clients include Alan Shearer and Steven Gerrard, to send a 30-page document to selected clubs telling them why they should give Owen a chance. Daily Mail
Of course, like any advertising brochure, it’s what the brochure doesn’t tell you that is what you have to watch out for.
Things like:
- Michael Owen cost Newcastle (including just transfer fee and salary) £1.61 million for every goal he scored.
- At Liverpool, Owen averaged 0.55 goals per game; at Real Madrid 0.46 goals per game; in his first season at Newcastle (whilst severly hampered by injury), he achieved a remarkable 0.64 goals per game. And then he picked up that injury against Sweden on England duty.
- In his following three seasons at Newcastle, his goals per game ratio dropped considerably to 0.34 (despite generally being first-choice penalty taker). Why? Well, part of the reason is the Newcastle squad wasn’t so good, wasn’t providing so many chances, but part of the reason was…
- Michael Owen no longer seems to be the Michael Owen before that injury. Not only has his explosive pace gone, but his instinctive touch, his natural lethal finishing seems to have gone also. While he still stored 8 goals for Newcastle last season, he missed chance after chance that I would have expected the old Michael to have scored…
- Michael appears to be quite an injury prone player: in a 12 year professional career (I’m exluding his first season, when he only appeared twice) in an astonishing nine of those seasons, he’s played 30 or less league games. And it’s not getting better: in his four seasons at Newcastle, he averaged less than 18 league appearances per season. Effectively costing the club £590,000 per league appearance
I’m sure he’s a nice bloke, mind you. And at the time Newcastle signed him, I think he was one of the world’s best strikers. Unfortunately, he’s never been the same since that injury. I wish him all the best, but equally if your club is considering splashing out the cash for him, you need to be aware of some of the things that probably won’t be featured in the brochure…
mark says:
June 17th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
i think the fact that he’s having to send out sales literature says it all
garment sales worldwide says:
July 28th, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Websites we think you should visit…
[...]although websites we backlink to below are considerably not related to ours, we feel they are actually worth a go through, so have a look[...]……
1234test.com says:
August 31st, 2011 at 2:14 am
Love Can Change Your Business…
[...]When you know when doing your work you can do a lot more than when you have no skills…..
oil painting from posters says:
October 4th, 2011 at 10:16 am
New Ideas On How To Lose Weight…
[...]This is a new website on this topic. You can see more about it on the site[...]…
gafas carrera says:
October 23rd, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Protect Your Eyes With Style – Carrera Is The Answer…
…When you are aware what is your job you will be more successful than when you have no ideas…..
pursevalley says:
October 25th, 2011 at 9:12 pm
How To Discover Great Online Places To Shop…
[...]This is a new website on this topic. You can see more about it on the site[...]…
moncler jackets canada says:
October 31st, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Jackets From Monclet For Men And Women…
…If you are conscious when working at your projects you will do more than if you don’t have much skills…..
Business says:
November 9th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Making Money with Business Online…
…When you are aware what is your job you can be a lot more successful than when you have no knowledge….[...]…
tom ford sunglasses says:
December 5th, 2011 at 12:27 am
Carrera Sunglasses For Style…
[...]It’s a known truth that right skill is very useful when doing something new and especially if it is something very important..[...]…
west virginia shop says:
December 7th, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Where To Get Cheap T-Shirts…
[...]I’m not confident you are totally proper, but I can agree with the vast majority of it. Never ever forget there are other options[...]…
local classifieds says:
December 10th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Where To Find Romantic Ideas…
[...]Writing about a topic like that is pretty challenging. I will check out your web-site in the future.[...]…
solglasögon online says:
December 15th, 2011 at 12:39 am
Where To Find Billiga Solglasögon Online…
[...]Awesome information that I’ve been searching for for some time! I got some interesting strategies from this[...]…
funny videos online says:
December 20th, 2011 at 10:55 pm
What Exactly Is Real Fun Online…
[...]It’s great that individuals even now know quite a bit about thing like that. This definitely includes a large amount of people today agreeing with.[...]…
new perfumes says:
February 4th, 2012 at 12:20 am
Perfumes For Women…
[...]It’s a known truth that right knowledge can be very important when we are doing something new and especially if it is something very important…..
celulares dual chip says:
February 10th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
Making New Ideas For Celular Use…
[...]It’s great that individuals nonetheless know a good deal about point like that. This definitely includes a lot of men and women agreeing with.[...]…