APRIL 28
Owen
feeling 'fitter than ever'
itv.com
Liverpool striker Michael Owen, fresh from his four goals at
West Brom on Saturday, has revealed he feels in the finest
physical shape of his career.
The England forward passed 100 Premier League goals at The
Hawthorns and his next immediate objective is to fire his club
back into the Champions League with victories at home to
Manchester City and away to Chelsea.
"I am feeling fitter and stronger at this stage of the season than
I ever have before,'' Owen told the club's website,
www.liverpoolfc.tv.
"At last, it's all coming right for me again, which is the reward
for all the hard work I have put in.
"To be honest, I was ready to write off the whole of this season
after setting myself physical targets which had to be attained
before anything else could happen. So I'm ahead of schedule.
"People claim it's been a poor season for Michael Owen due to
injury. Well, I should like to point out that I've missed only two
matches through the hamstring trouble, and that was some while
ago.
"I've now equalled my best haul of Premiership goals in one
campaign for Liverpool, with two games still to go. I'm on an
overall total of 28, and that also equals my highest for the
club.''
The 23-year-old added: "Everything is on the up and up. And when
you mix in the fact that last summer I was at the World Cup
Finals, which severely restricted any holiday, then I believe
there is every reason to feel optimistic.
"Despite a couple of England fixtures in early June, I reckon I
can pinch at least one month's rest this summer which should stand
me in extremely good stead.''
Liverpool's greatest-ever goalscorer Ian Rush, who is now the
Anfield club's striker's coach, was full of praise for his
most-prized student.
"Michael is absolutely flying at the moment and was before
Saturday's match. Four goals for one player in any game is great,
but it shows how on top of his game he is,'' he said.
"Next season will be his year again I think. He's only still young
and is going to get better and better.
"Even when he didn't score against Charlton last week, he was
probably the best player out there with his linking play.''
MARCH 3
Owen: Cup
win just the start
By Paul Walker - PA Sport
Worthington Cup final hero Michael Owen believes
Liverpool must still "grow and develop" before they can be
considered a top-ranked side.
Owen scored the second goal which secured the Cup against
Manchester United on Sunday, sprinting clear and finishing
superbly at the same end of the Millennium Stadium where he struck
twice to sink Arsenal in the FA Cup final two seasons ago.
But the England striker will be aware his team still have their
critics, especially in a season when Liverpool were expected to
expand and improve their style and to cement their place back
among the elite at home and in Europe.
That has not happened and 19-goal Owen, who has been used as the
spearhead of what some might call a long-ball game, said: "It's a
ball we play a lot, and we played it well in Cardiff.
"But we need to develop as a team. We are not the finished article
but we need to develop and to go forward.
"Defensively we are very good, but we still have to improve to be
considered among the very top sides.
"We have one of the best defences in the league, if not the best,
but we have to develop more as a team going forward.
"Everyone wants the team to move on. It's been a backward step
this season but we still have time to put it right and to get back
to the level we were at.
"Obviously we have to improve a bit but I'm sure that is going to
happen."
Owen, who scored from his only clear-cut chance of the match in
Cardiff, is acutely aware of how this Liverpool team are perceived
by the critics and no doubt believes he will improve more as a
player in a more attack-minded team.
"It will help my game obviously if we can grow, if we can perform
to this level and improve on it."
Liverpool did nothing different to their tried and tested
counter-attacking style in Cardiff, they just did it better than
they have done for months. As recently as November, they led the
Premiership table by seven points.
Owen added: "It's been difficult for all of us, the players, the
fans, everyone has been feeling the pain of what has been
happening to us this season - especially the manager, Gerard
Houllier.
"It's always nice to win something and he has backed us, so this
has been great for him too."
Owen also revealed there have been no talks over a new contract
despite speculation in the build-up to the final.
He has two years left on his current deal, and said: "I don't know
anything about a new contract, it's the first I have heard of it
on the morning of the match.
"I've not been offered one and I've not been in talks."
Instead, Owen would prefer to concentrate on trying to help
Liverpool reach fourth place and qualify for the Champions League.
"The Champions League is within our capabilities. It's just about
doing it now. We needed a bit of confidence and hopefully this has
given us that.
"When we play like we did in Cardiff it's baffling how we have
gone on such a poor run in the league.
"But this will give us confidence to take the shackles off and we
can go out and play without any fear."
On a personal note, Owen knows he has given his answer to the
critics with three goals in a week, culminating in his cracker in
Cardiff.
"I scored with just about my only clear-cut chance. We were
defending well at the time but that goal gave everyone a bit of
breathing space.
"I enjoy playing in Cardiff, it's a big, wide pitch for me to run
around on. So many of the Premiership pitches are tight and narrow
and there's not much room.
"It was a one-off game with a trophy at the end of it. But
hopefully we can treat it as more than that, another kickstart to
our season and we can go on and put a run of games together how.
"I hope it gives us the confidence to do that. Sammy (Lee) and
Phil (Thompson) were saying before the game that in their day they
won the League Cup and then went on a great run afterwards when
they hadn't been doing as well as they would have liked in the
league beforehand.
"I hope we can do that as well."
MARCH 2
Owen staying at Anfield
By Adam Marshall - Planet Football
Michael Owen has handed Liverpool a boost ahead of
the Worthington Cup final with Manchester United by declaring that
he wants to remain with the Merseysiders.
The England international, harshly judged by the media ever since
his heroics as a teenage boy wonder in the 1998 World Cup finals,
has seen his game and fitness problems analysed and scrutinised in
great detail by pundits and columnists.
When asked if there was a message for Gerard Houllier in the face
of recent criticism of the French boss, Owen responded by saying
that he too had taken flak, so perhaps people should start feeling
sorry for him as well.
With Liverpool desperate to salvage something from a disastrous
campaign, that started so promisingly, their star striker has
admitted he has no plans to leave Anfield.
"My immediate ambitions are to help Liverpool turn the corner and
end the season on a high note," he told News of the World.
"I still have this season and two more left on my contract so I
won't be going anywhere in a hurry.
"In an ideal world, and in the long term, I want to help Liverpool
become the most successful club in the world again."
FEBRUARY 28
Owen: We need more time
premierleague.com
Michael Owen has hit a seam of goalscoring form but
admitted even a return to his best may not help Liverpool
challenge for the Barclaycard Premiership title.
Owen believes Liverpool could have turned the corner after
reaching the UEFA Cup quarter-finals with his goal that equalled
Ian Rush’s 20-strikes European club record.
However, the England striker conceded the lifeblood of Barclaycard
Premiership success could evade the Anfield side for a few more
seasons.
Owen said: “We are obviously not at the place we were aiming at in
the league and this is a great disappointment.
“The objective at the start of the season was the title. Even if
the team has been progressing gradually in the past two years, we
knew that the last hurdle to clear would be the most difficult.
Maybe we will need another few years to clear it.”
Owen spelled out his own doubts and fears when he said: “I have
suffered a big lack of confidence, I am like any other player.
“My career has always been made of ups and downs but I have always
managed to bounce back.
“When you are constantly criticised and under pressure it is
important to remain united as a team. We remained united and we
kept working hard while the boss and the whole staff supported,
encouraged and protected us.
“As a team and individuals I am convinced we will come out even
stronger.”
He added: “In a season every single team experiences a bad spell,
periods of time when their game decreases in quality and where the
bad results pile up.
“Arsenal and Manchester United have also experienced that, but it
was more at the start of the campaign and it did not last too
long, unlike us. This probably shows that their players are more
consistent. But we feel things are starting to go right again.”
JANUARY 21
Betting uproar is
Fl-utter nonsense
By Ian Rush - Liverpool Echo
Judging by some of the
headlines over the last few days, gambling is now illegal in this
country.
Some of the treatment of Michael Owen in the national
press has been out of line. He does not deserve the kind of
negative publicity he has received in the last week.
But while criticism of him is ridiculous, it could prove a good
thing for Liverpool.
A siege mentality can help bring the best out of a side.
The players stick together and that solidarity is translated into
performances on the pitch.
The players will know there is nothing wrong with Michael having a
regular flutter.
They will know he has been harshly treated in some circles.
That will bring them together. It will bring the best out of them
and inspire Michael.
He will know he has done nothing wrong. I used to gamble myself
during my playing days.
As long as you gamble what you know you can afford to lose, then
there is no problem.
If Michael has lost £40,000 in the last couple of years, what does
it matter? That sum is less than 1% of the income he has received
in that time. Hardly a problem.
Like playing golf or snooker, having a flutter is a reasonable way
of switching off and relaxing away from the training ground.
JANUARY 20
Untarnished Golden Boy
By John May - BBC Sport Online
Michael Owen is the 24-carat
golden boy whose lustre can apparently not be tarnished.
Allegations over his gambling have merely been useful scratches to
show that he is not rolled gold, or thinly gold-plated, but the
real deal.
His goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup propelled him
into the public consciousness.
Since then cherub-faced Owen has been England's favourite son.
It is a marketable image which he has traded on, but it appears
the golden boy is not so innocent and has a hobby more expensive
than collecting football programmes.
As a possible damage-limitation exercise, his agents SFX issued a
statement from him, rubbishing reports that his gambling losses
approached £2m.
But it appears their efforts were needless.
The string of companies who attach their products to Owen's
marketable persona appear completely unfazed by all the furore
surrounding him.
Owen's impressive stable includes the likes of Jaguar, Nestle,
Umbro, Lucozade and Tissot watches.
BBC Sport Online contacted all the companies to see if they had
any plans to review their arrangement with Owen in the light of
the publicity.
Jaguar confirmed it is are currently happy with the association
with Owen.
A spokesperson said: "He's been involved with us for some years
and recently renewed his arrangement with us to the end of 2004.
"We have a good close working relationship with Michael and his
advisors, and he's very supportive of our NSPCC campaign.
"We intend to monitor the current media attention but we have no
plans to review our arrangment with him."
A spokesman for Lucozade said: "Michael Owen's success is due in
no small way to his meticulous preparation, which makes him an
ideal ambassador for Lucozade Sport.
"We see nothing in recent media reports which appear to focus on
an entirely legal activity to change our mind."
The lack of a reply from the other companies is a litmus-test of
how they view the whole thing with a yawn.
A daring dash of notoriety sits well on goody two-shoes shoulders
but it begs the question of whether we really care.
Owen's admitted losses of £40,000 over two years is an obscene
amount to those who earn half that in a year.
But for a man whose £70,000 weekly wedge from Liverpool is topped
up to around £100,000 a week by his product endorsements, it is
peanuts.
His losses equate to less than half a week's wages spread over two
years. In Joe Public's terms, the equivalent of a couple of
lottery tickets a week.
Is Owen's hobby any more obscene than the sums of money David
Beckham spends on cars?
The sums earned by Premiership footballers places them so far away
from the reality endured by their supporters, they could be living
on other planets.
Even when golden boys apparently fly too close to the sun, it is
not often they crash and burn.
JANUARY 18
Owen a safe bet, says
Houllier
By Dominic Fifield - The Guardian
Gérard Houllier last night
described Michael Owen as a "gem" to work with as the Football
Association denied that the Liverpool striker had signed a £30,000
cheque for gambling losses to other England players during the
World Cup finals in Japan.
Owen, acting alongside Teddy Sheringham as a bookmaker, was named
in the Star yesterday as having run up the debt over the six weeks
England's players were away on international duty last summer. He
has apparently denied the claim, with his club manager laughing
off such talk about the striker.
"Michael's whole attitude has been spot-on," said Houllier. "He
doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke and he rarely goes out. If he'd
not been serious about his game he wouldn't have won the balon
d'or last season. I haven't spoken to him and I won't because I
don't think it's a major deal.
"On pre-season summer camps we organise race nights and we gamble,
if only small amounts, for fun. It's good for team bonding - when
we do things, we do things together. But Michael's a world-class
professional and, for a manager, he's a gem. His desire to learn
and bring more into his game, and also his desire to develop off
the field, is first class. There's no problem."
The FA has rejected claims that there is excessive gambling when
the England squad meet and does not intend to investigate the
allegations. "If someone was to bring us hard evidence we would do
so," said the spokesman Adrian Bevington.
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