The Republik of Mancunia website has responded to the
most remarkable bit of transfer news this summer with an article
titled 'God No, Not Michael
Owen'. F365 makes the case for why United signing Michael
Owen would be a really good idea...
* United require another attacker. To start the season with just
two youngsters as support two recognised top-class strikers would
be a risk too far. In comparison, signing Michael Owen on a free
transfer is no risk at all. A proven goalscorer who is presumably
joining United in the knowledge that he will start the season
behind Wayne Rooney and Dimi Berbatov in the pecking order, Owen is
the perfect fit for what United require.
Not incidentally, it was mostly from the bench that Owen scored
his 13 La Liga goals during his single season at Real Madrid,
ending the campaign with the league's highest ratio of goals scored
to number of minutes played.
* Signing the 5ft 8 Owen would balance United's attacking
options. Berbatov, Danny Welbeck and Macheda are all big 'uns while
Rooney is the only little 'un. True enough, Owen and Rooney failed
to dovetail convincingly on England duty but that potential problem
may be irrelevant: Ferguson probably has no intention of playing
them together.
* If it is true that he has agreed a pay-as-you-play deal with a
series of performance-related bonuses attached then Owen has passed
the first, pivotal test. With Everton reputedly ready to offer him
a far-superior weekly wage of £65,000, Owen's willingness to accept
the incentivised deal on offer at Old Trafford indicates that he
still has the required ambition and hunger to succeed.
Furthermore, Owen has not only proved himself to the club's
manager but also made his transfer a risk-free venture for the
board to approve. Nor can the club's owners dissent: By joining on
a Bosman free on knock-down wages, Owen's arrival would not
conflict with the reported age limit of 25 imposed on new
purchases.
* If those performance-related clauses aren't incentive enough,
then the proximity of next summer's World Cup should be sufficient
to a player who has lost part of his name. England's Michael Owen
will be desperate to reclaim his place and his recall will only be
possible if he makes a success of his first year at Old
Trafford.
* Ahh, yes, the injuries. Don't you think that Sir Alex might be
aware of them as well, though? Before signing, Owen will first have
to sign a medical that is being universally described as
'stringent'. That should help allay a few of the doubts. Moreover,
it is not as if Owen's body is fundamentally broken; he is not in
recovery from a career-threatening knee injury or leg break.
Instead, his career has been blighted in recent years by a series
of annoying, inconvenient happenstance injuries - he missed the
start of last season, for instance, with the mumps. And if there is
one medical department in the world that is likely to put him on
the road to recovery then it is in residence at Old Trafford.
* There are few more potent goalscorers in world football, never
mind England. Even at Newcastle he continued to be prolific: the
stat his critics fail to include when remarking disdainfully that
he only started 58 league games for Newcastle is that he also
managed to score 26 goals in that time.
* And that was when playing for a struggling team, sometimes in
midfield, and as a poacher.
The retort to the argument that Owen's pace has gone is that it
was going even before he joined Real Madrid and it is precisely
because Owen has morphed into a penalty-box predator that he is
such a viable acquisition for a leading club. In a side near the
bottom of the table, a predator is a luxury because he has so
little to feed on. In a side challenging for the title, as United
inevitably will be, he is in his element.
* A former European Footballer of the Year with the experience
of playing for Real Madrid, Liverpool and England, Owen will not be
overawed by the pressure of playing for United. And as a native of
the north-west, he'll have no problems settling in either.
* United have previously enjoyed bountiful success by signing
strikers at the finale of their career - and the precedent set by
Henrik Larsson and Teddy Sheringham will undoubtedly have been an
encouragement to Sir Alex.
* The arrival of an Englishman will also be useful if FIFA
succeed in bringing forward their plan to introduce a 'six plus
five' quota.
* Owen loves the horses. In other words, he'll be the perfect
companion for Sir Alex on the team bus.
* Liverpool fans are going to hate it if he joins United.
Especially as the Law of Returning Players means he is absolutely
guaranteed to score against them next season.
football365.
Can summarise? LOl i lazy read too long. 
