MICHAEL Owen’s recent comments about Liverpool winning the Premier League title this season are nothing short of derogatory and disrespectful of the efforts and professionalism of the players, management and club as a whole.
Owen, who serves as a sports pundit and commentator, said he felt Liverpool’s march to the title this season was “underwhelming” because of their exits from the Champions League and Carabao Cup in the same week.
Unsurprisingly, he took some flak from the Reds’ skipper Virgil van Dijk and head coach Arne Slot, who called him out for his shortsightedness, which sort of exposed him as a bitter man because he failed to win the title with Liverpool.
If anything, Owen should be grateful to Liverpool, for it was through this club that he won the Ballon d’Or (formerly European Footballer of the Year) in 2001.
Owen’s solitary league title in England will always be tinged with a shade of suboptimal delivery. He only played 11 games for Manchester United in the title-winning side of 2010/2011.
Back in the days of legends like Kenny Dalglish or Ian Rush, you had to play at least 14 league games to qualify for a winner’s medal.
So, that gives one some perspective of where Owen’s winner’s medal actually stands.
In his heyday at Liverpool, where he really developed his craft, Owen won almost everything on offer.
And before he left for the one season at Real Madrid in 2004, he had a bag full of trophies – barring the league title.
From 2005 to 2009, Owen played for Newcastle (71 games, 26 goals), and then he featured for Man United (31 games, five goals) from 2009 to 2012.
He spent the 2012/2013 season at Stoke (eight games, one goal). — By SHAUN ORANGE
