20 Mar 2013

Transfer error? Hamann claims Man United flop was 'desperate' for Anfield move.

Hot on the heels of Jamie Carragher's retirement announcement, former Liverpool striker Michael has followed suit and revealed that he will hang up his boots at the end of this season. In October 2012, Owen revealed that Reds boss Brendan Rodgers put the stoppers on a summer return to Anfield, and given his injury problems since the summer, Rodgers clearly made the right decision. Things could've turned out differently for Owen if he'd returned to LFC after his stint at Real Madrid, and Owen's close friend, Dietmar Hamann has revealed that is exactly what he wanted to do.

In an interview on Soccer AM last year, Owen - who ended up joining Stoke City - was asked if he'd considered rejoining Liverpool in September. He said:

"Yeah, I asked the question, but the manager [Brendan Rodgers] said no"

Responding to Owen's announcement, Hamann said:

"The only place Michael Owen wanted to go after Real Madrid was Liverpool. It never happened because Newcastle United offered twice the fee to Real. He was desperate to come back"

Losing Owen to Madrid for a measly £8m was, admittedly, a bitter pill to swallow, and Owen's standing amongst Reds fans has plummeted ever since, and his treatment has enraged the normally placid Hamann, who has regularly jumped to his friend's defence. Recently, Hamann blasted fans on Twitter for giving Owen abuse. He barked:

"He [Owen] joined the biggest club in the world, so stop feeling personally aggrieved when players leave LFC. Its part of the game. Move on. Owen scored 100 odd goals for the club and put it back on the map in a difficult period, and won an FA cup single handedly"

I don't really see the point in all the antipathy towards Owen. By 2004, he'd been at Liverpool for 14 years (youth and senior career); he'd done his time, and at the point, who could begrudge him the chance to test himself in a different league?

Okay, joining Manchester United was a significant nail in his coffin (!), but he gave the Reds some great years, and as Hamann says, he helped put the club back on the map after the 1990s dead-zone.

In hindsight, was Rafa Benitez right to close the door on Owen's return? I'm sure Liverpool could've matched Newcastle's bid if they really wanted Owen back. Did LFC need him at that time? Should it go down as a missed opportunity or a bullet-dodged?





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39 comments:

  1. There is no return for him when he join MU and bragging about the EPL tittle where he couldn't never have won with LFC.

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  2. I was gutted when he left for RM. Especially for so cheap. I never knew he wanted to come back. But your right, he certainly gave us his best years and was very committed while he was there so to me I shall not say anything bad about him.


    Fans need to stop getting so emotional over these things.

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  3. Bullet dodged. Whatever you feel about how he left, he was never the same after that. Injury upon injury at NUFC and Manu. Had we shelled out the money Newcastle paid for him and got what they got for their money, that would have been a horrible waste.

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  4. No Way Should We Have Paid Madrid 18mil For Owen The European Footballer Of The Year They Only Paid 8mil The Season Before He Rarely Played For Them They Cannot ArgueThat They Improved The Player Anyway He Deserved What He Got

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  5. I HATE EVERYTHING ABOUT MICHAEL OWEN BECAUSE HE JOINING Mufc. I HATE EVERY THING ABOUT MUFC BECAUSE NOT ABOUT FOOTBALL COMPETITION BUT BECAUSE ALEX FERGUSON.He paying FA and reffree to destroy LFC football carrier.

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  6. Seriously? You really believe that Ferguson pays the FA and referees to destroy LFC? Mind boggling.

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  7. ferguson dosnt have to pay the fa he does it by fear and official man u representatives in the fa, owen is not reviled by the majority, he was one of liverpool 10 best ever players, he did however engineer a move which cost liverpool a proper transfer fee, this is what turned many against him.

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  8. if owen had done the right thing by lfc he would have been welcomed back but he wanted us to pay,10 million more than we got for him no way should we have resigned him for than kind of fee him and mcmanaman were both greedy gits and have no respect of me whatsoever fowler played the game and was in the same situation but signed a new contract,and thats why he will always be a legend the other two were self serving

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  9. Bullet dodged! I personally would have found it insane to let Owen go for 8m plus Nunez and buy him back for 16m without Nunez a year later. No-one forced Owen to join Newcastle. He could have told Real Madrid that he only wants to join us, even if we only pay half the transfer fee. I think Rafa argued somewhere along those lines back in the day, too.


    Furthermore, I think that Rafa personally felt let down by Owen, just like quite a few supporters. With that in mind I wonder whether Rafa ever really considered taking Owen back.

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  10. if he had put his foot down and told real that it was liverpool or nowhere, then just maybe he could have come back, but with a world cup on the horizon and not wanting to damage his england chances, he wouldn't do it and ended up at newcastle, so how much did he really want to return? with england taking rooney, crouch and a very young theo walcott i'm pretty sure he would have still made the squad.
    were was he in istanbul

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  11. Billy Liddell Tommy smith Ian Callaghan Ron Yeats Ian St John Roger Hunt Chris Lawler Emlyn Hughes Steve Heighway Kevin Keegan John Barnes Kenny Dalglish Terry McDermott Graeme Souness They Where In My Humble Opinion Better Than Michael If Im Honest I Could Add A Few More Defenders To The List Plus Robbie Fowler

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  12. I was disappointed to lose him for just £9ml but that's part and parcel of football. I quietly understand that Real is Real, and at least Real is not an English Club. But I will never forget the day He joined Manchester United. I saw him in a picture wearing a Man Utd shirt. I can't absolve him for that. Unforgivable. Meanwhile, thanks for all the good memories Michael.

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  13. with hindsight the correct decision was made and should tell some supporters that they leave off with the personal abuse of Owen.
    A cracking player who has left some great memories

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  14. Yes Jason Carr If Owen Had Any Love For Lfc Though He Had The Ambition To Play Abroad He Still Could Have Signed A Contract And Still Left Helping The Club Out In The Process That Shows To Us How Single Minded He Is And That Aint A Compliment

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  15. Owen and Caragher are retiring this season, while beckham giggs and Scholes are playing next season and are older. Does this say something about how the two teams treat their players? and how some keep on playing?

    i dont think so.. i think it just shows that the united players are happy not to play every game, and that they have never replaced giggs or scholes. Beckham is a bit of a circus imo, atm he is in China raising the profile of the game. Owen's injuries could be due to overplaying at a young age, but who can know for sure? players relying on their pace often have hamstring problems (torres)

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  16. for once JK I agree with you.

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  17. Plus don't forget that Gerrard handed in a transfer request!


    And stayed after a bumper new multi million pound contract was offered.

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  18. your point being what he stayed he his a legend owen went he his a nobody.if gerrard had left he would have gone for what he was worth owen let his contract run down so he could go to who he wanted i have no problem with players leaving as long as they go for the right money owen and his agent manipulated the situation,and when it went sour they expected us to bail him out

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  19. ten best ever players he would get no where near my top ten players

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  20. Michael Owen (and ancestral family ties to the Merseyside area) is the reason I became a Liverpool fan. After watching him in the 98 World Cup I was hooked. I decided I'd support whatever team he played for. Once I became a Pool fan my loyalties stuck with the team over any player, but what a joy to watch...speed, drive, determination, balance, an effervescent joy for the game, luck...he had it all. Gareth Bale reminds me of Owen...which is why I'd love for Bale to wear red.

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  21. just out of curiosity, how can a free transfer be regarded as a flop?

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  22. were you hating him when he scored those 2 goals in Cardiff 2001?

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  23. Wages and sign on fee. A free transfer can be very expensive I.E. Joe cole and the Serbian we signed.

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  24. With all due respect....Bahahhahahahah!

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  25. What Gerrard did is far worse than Owen's comparatively minor infraction. At the time, SG was the CAPTAIN of his hometown club, something every LFC fan can only dream of. He'd been saying for months how much he loved LFC, and how he didn't want to leave etc, and then he handed in a transfer request?! Traitorous behaviour. The LFC website actually reported at the time that SG had left the club, but then, as we all know, he did a U-Turn.

    Gerrard did this not once, but twice - two years in a row he was on the brink of leaving LFC. As I said, far worse than what Owen did.

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  26. My point being that players don't view club loyalty as us fans do. LFC had to fork out a massive contract to persuade him to stay.


    A transfer request has to be submitted in writing, so Gerrard must have thought long and hard about leaving.

    Would Gerrard have stayed if Liverpool did not offer him a big bucks contract?


    Owen left for RM. He gave the club several years scoring over 150 goals.

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  27. I don't think love has nothing to do with playing for a club anymore sadly. Technically and legally Owen did not do anything wrong. But football morals of course play a part. I was gutted when he left. Him and Torres up front would be a sight to see.

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  28. You know I forgot he done it twice!!!!!!

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  29. well m8 we all know gerrard is not one of your favourites at the end of the day he stayed owen did not gerrard would have gone for his market value owen did not,when in years to come ,and fans talk about lfc legends gerrard will get the recognision he deserves owen will not,

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  30. they had to fork out what he was worth its the way of the world owen was offered contract after contract which he did not sign for selfish reasons

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  31. Minor infraction? He cheated the club that had made him what he was out of millions of pounds. Owen was one of the most coveted players on the planet when he left and he did so after running down his contract. Gerrard was desillusioned with the club by its owners which isn't that hard to understand. They were feeding the players the same rubbish they had been feeding us fans. At the end of the day all that matters is that he couldn't leave us in the end. He didn't stay for the money. Chelsea would have been able to match any paydeal we could offer him and they would have. At the end of the day, Gerrard realised, albeit a bit late, that this club is more than its owners and chairmen. Something that Owen never showed any understanding of. Had Owen had one inckling of understanding what this club is about, he would have never had signed for Man United.

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  32. "Gerrard was disillusioned by the club and its owners"...Are you serious?

    We just had won the Champions League!!!

    Time after time he waxing lyrical about his love of Liverpool and how he would never leave etc...he then writes a transfer request days after us winning the CL! He only stayed, as I've said, because Liverpool offered him a new shiny multi million pound contract.

    I am glad he stayed but the intent was there. If it wasn't for the Board entering into a panic and offer him a new contract he would probably have gone.

    After Owen signed for Newcastle and especially with his injuries he was never going to sign for Liverpool, especially not under Benitez.

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  33. Hicks and Gillet took over in 2007... 2 years after gerrard almost left.

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  34. That was before he did what he did. I didnt hate jimmy saville until I found out what he'd been up to. Things change.

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  35. It's always difficult if your not party to details of why he didn't sign the contract at liverpool greed ego trophies. Liverpool not being the force to attract top players, no buy back clause inserted into the contract should it not work out. The club being commercially inept along with the ownership.

    if you look at the bigger picture we got the best out of Owen,I'm sure he has regrets about leaving and the same can be said about Torres. Not many players leave Liverpool to go on to better things do they?

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  36. Milan Jovanovic? He's one of the best soccer players in the world.

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  37. I think Liverpool fans were more annoyed about the manner of his departure (a lá Macca) than his actual leaving. Look at Alonso. No grudges there.
    Also, Owen was never that well loved. He always made clear that England came first and would injure himself on duty often or else miraculously recover from an injury in order to join the England squad.
    As for Gerrard, you can say what you want, but he didn't leave. He also has carried the club far more than Owen ever did and I believe that he cares about the club more than Owen did/does.
    Owen was a great player for a while and a great pro, but never a great Liverpool player.
    I don't personally dislike Owen, but I feel no great love for him either. I have more affection for Torres to be honest, regardless of his leaving us.
    I respect Owen, I regard him coldly with no hot flushes of emotion, negative or positive, and I think in this sense, I reflect the relationship Owen had with fans throughout his career.

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  38. agree m8 but he still did the dirty on us

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  39. Why put a capital at the start of every word. That must be 10 times harder than just typing!

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