Michael Owen: A Tribute

Michael Owen: A Tribute

With the news of Michael Owen's retirement at the end of the season, I decided to write a short article looking at the career and the legacy of one of England’s most prolific strikers.

As a child, I can remember Owen breaking onto the scene. I remember watching his ‘Soccer Skills’ programme on the BBC and his brilliant goal against Argentina.

He had a great spell at Liverpool and a decent record (mostly off the bench) at Real Madrid that earned him the respect of the footballing world.

But I can also remember him labouring as Newcastle were inexplicably relegated in the 08-09 season, or when he turned his knee in the first few minutes of the 2006 World Cup game against Sweden.

Then there are the more recent years spent as a benchwarmer for Manchester United, until finally he can’t get a game for Stoke.

Some may say it’s a sad end to the career of one of England’s biggest footballing superstars.

But which Owen will we collectively remember? The young man in his glory days or the broken shell he seems to have become?

His goal for Stoke against Swansea is a testament to the prolific nature of his play. Even as his body fails him, his instincts just don’t seem to dampen.

Where did it all go wrong? The media like to portray Owen as somebody who ‘likes his horses’ and I’ve seen a few comments suggesting his heart just isn’t in football anymore.

Did Owen lose his love for the game? Playing at prestigious clubs such as Madrid and Liverpool are most players’ dreams come true.

But most professionals don’t move club to sit on a bench, especially at the later stages of their careers, even if that bench does belong to Man Utd.

It was a gamble that didn’t pay off, with Javier Hernandez establishing himself above Owen in the pecking order in his glorious breakthrough season at the Red Devils.

You may blame the injuries which stole Owens pace, but Ledley King proved that desire and class can overcome the worst of afflictions.

It’s a sorry end to the former galáctico’s career and English football will be sure to miss its former prodigal son.

He shouldn’t be remembered as a man who didn’t fulfil his potential, because for a time he was England’s shining light on the world stage along with David Beckham.

We should remember Owen as proof that England can still produce world beaters and as one of the best strikers to grace the EPL.

Never mind the ‘what if’s’ and the ‘could have’s’, injuries and the slow, steady trickle of time will never rob you of class.

Class, now that’s something Michael Owen has in spades.

FA Trophy Final match report

FA Trophy: Grimsby beaten by wily Wrexham

Wrexham faced off against Grimsby in the FA trophy final at Wembley.

Nerves were wracked for the first fifteen minutes, as both teams tried not to concede early, instead preferring the long ball approach.

Wrexham had the best of the first few exchanges, pressuring Grimsby back into their half, with Jay Harris rifling his shot just over the crossbar in the 20th minute.

They continued to press Grimsby with Kevin Thornton impressing for Wrexham in central midfield, spraying balls out to the flanks well.

Harris then scuffed his shot wide in the 27th minute, after a great spell for Wrexham.

Grimsby finally managed to get a chance in the 38th minute with Aswad Thomas getting down the byline and past two players, but he overran his last touch and the chance was  snuffed out.

Perhaps sensing the danger, Wrexham doubled their efforts to score with a free-kick from Dean Keates that left James McKeown scrambling in the Grimsby goal.

After the restart, Wrexham nearly opened the scoring with Andy Morrell put through. The advancing McKeown slipped but recovered brilliantly to make a double save to keep Grimsby in the game.

Grimsby showed why they got to the final, choosing to soak up the pressure and hit Wrexham on the counter and this tactic nearly paid off in the 56th minute with Andy Cook coming close, with his shot just wide.

With 30 minutes to go, both managers decided to make a change, with Ross Hannah off for Andi Thanoj and Andy Morell coming off for the fresh legs of Adrian Cieslewicz.

Suddenly, the game opened up and Andy Cook was released by Joe Colbeck. His first shot was smothered by the legs of Chris Maxwell but he smashed his second shot emphatically over the line to leave Grimsby with one hand on the FA Trophy.

Wrexham made another substitution, with Danny Wright off for Robert Ogleby.

As the situation turned desperate for Wrexham, a darting run in the box by Dean Keates drew two desperate challenges from the Grimsby backline and Jonathan Moss had no choice but to point at the spot.

Kevin Thornton stepped up and dispatched the penalty to break Grimsby hearts and level the tie at one apiece with 10 minutes to go.

Extra time beckoned and there was another substitution from both teams with Marcus Marshall off for Richard Brodie and Joe Clarke replacing Kevin Thornton for Wrexham.

Sure enough, the 90 minutes ended with nothing to separate the two teams.

The first half of extra-time was quiet, until a thunderous volley from Cieslewicz from 25 yards out drew another outstanding save from McKeown.         

The second half saw Wrexham in the ascendency, with three great chances to kill the tie, but the inspired McKeown yet again kept the wolves at bay.

 There was only one way this tie would be decided and penalties were soon on the agenda.

With the penalties to be taken at the Wrexham end, the vocal Welsh support acted as a 12th man and Grimsby fell to pieces missing their first two spot kicks. Johnny Hunt dispatched the  deciding penalty to send the Wrexham fans into raptures and the FA Trophy back to Wales.

MOM: James McKeown

does Rafa deserve a second chance?

Does Rafa deserve a second chance?

Rafa Benitez has certainly had a rough couple of months.

Facing insurrection from both sets of fans each game must get tiresome and as his ‘rant’ a few weeks ago proved, the pressure had become too much for the beleaguered Chelsea boss.

Why do we as an audience believe we have a right to abuse players and managers we don’t like?

All I know of Benitez is what I’ve read in papers or seen in interviews with former players etc, I don’t know him personally and I’ve never spoken with him.

I think we can safely assume most of the ‘fans’ that have a big problem with Rafa are in the same boat, they have had no personal interactions with the man, yet dislike him with a passion.

I can understand why to an extent, I mean, I’ve never met David Cameron, but I have a perception of him based from what I’ve seen in the media and don’t like him because of it.

(The idea of 50,000 plus people screaming ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ in the House of Commons brings a smile to my face though).

I have no personal vendetta against Rafa, I would prefer that he did well. I saw his (job) interview in the Independent in which he said he could get Torres firing again and a part of me wanted to believe him.

From his time at Liverpool he was known to be tactically astute and he had no control over the firing of RDM, so maybe we were all a little quick to judge Rafa and throw him on the proverbial scrapheap.

We’ve crashed out of a few cups and surrendered the league to the Manchester clubs more than a month ago, but this season hasn’t been a complete failure in the grand scheme of things.

Successfully navigating through to the Europa league quarter finals as well as masterminding a legendary comeback from 2-0 down at United to still be in the FA cup shouldn’t be seen as a failure on Rafa’s part, we should get behind the team as this is the business end of the season and it must affect the players’ morale.

Even though the ‘interim’ status is confirmed, with Rafa himself confirming that he’ll leave at the end of the season, the fans shouldn’t give him a hard time for the rest of his tenure.

I mean, they did get what they wanted, with Rafa effectively hounded out without completing a full season. To be fair to the fans, actions speak louder than words and he could have probably won over more of the crowd with a good run of results, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

We can’t blame Rafa for RDM, we can’t blame him for Torres misfiring, or for comments he made about Chelsea nigh on 6 years ago, he honestly deserves a true first chance, never mind a second.

Benitez is simply a figurehead for the team and we as fans could do well to remember that. Abusing him is abusing the team, so we should support him for the small amount of time he has left, not just for the good of the team, but because he is still a human being.

Is English football's time over?

Is England’s time as a major footballing power over?

Is England’s time as a major footballing power over? None can deny English clubs have been dominant in the Champions League, but with Man Utd out of the Champions League courtesy of Real Madrid and Arsenal facing a hard task against Bayern, there could be no English clubs in the quarter finals for the first time since 1996.

As a Chelsea fan, I’m well aware that we rode our luck en-route to the final last season. At Napoli, after losing 3-1 in the first leg to come back and win 5-4 after many had written us off, to Leo Messi’s infamous penalty miss in the semis.

Last season Chelsea and Arsenal were the only teams to reach the last sixteen and Arsenal fell against Milan.

Compare these poor showings to the 10-11 season, where all four English entrants navigated the group stages successfully and had three in the quarter finals, with Man Utd eventually losing to Barcelona in the final.

A couple of years are a massive amount of time in football. Ask Fernando Torres or Harry Redknapp.

But do these diminishing returns in the Champions League signify a power shift away from London and Manchester? For all their money, City just can’t get it right at the highest level, failing to win a single game in this year’s competition becoming the first ever English club to do so.

At the highest pinnacle of the game, there is usually very little between top teams and this ‘blip’ that English clubs are currently going through could be explained away as simple bad luck, that these things even themselves out over time.

With City on course to qualify for the CL again this year, their star-studded squad has another chance to win Europe’s most coveted competition.

If results do continue to slide, the inevitable blame game may come into play, but who will fingers be pointed at?

Will it be argued that the decline is due to the lack of investment at grass roots level? The German and Spanish leagues have a fairly high proportion of home grown players with 53% of players in the Bundesliga registered as home grown.

These two leagues are the ones providing competition at the highest level and English footballs grip appears to be slipping if recent results are to be believed.

There is a distinct lack of English players at the top 4-5 clubs, but the premiership has prided itself on being a multicultural, international league and foreign players have lit up pitches up and down the country for decades now.

The influx of foreign players can’t be used as a factor as English clubs have been cherry picking top footballing talent for a long time now.

Maybe, it is simply the fact that foreign teams have improved and the minuscule gap has been closed, or even surpassed.

English football is in an international malaise at the moment, but it would be wrong to start taking the knives out as we don’t have a God-given right to be in the quarter finals.

One of the reasons football is loved worldwide is its unpredictability, that’s why I can’t honestly say that there has been degradation in the quality of English football, in the last decade at least.

 This season, Arsenal have suffered from managerial woes, City capitulated in the CL, United have relentlessly continued chipping away at the league, (as they do so well) and Chelsea have had a poor season.

With teams such as Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle challenging in the Europa League (and Spurs’ 

impressive win against Milan) surely this lends more credence to the EPL being a strong all round league with a lot to offer in continental competition.

I suppose we’ll just have to wait until next year to see what happens in the CL, unless Arsenal manages to overcome the deficit at Bayern, but I think it's too early to write off the big four/five clubs yet.

Arsenal's recent struggles

Arsenal’s Recent Struggles

With the loss against Spurs, Arsenal's season has been thrown into further discontent. Faith in the manager is waning rapidly with a portion of the fans and with the players not performing well enough, where is the light at the end of the tunnel for the Gunners?

With a reported £50 million to spend in the summer, is Arsene the man to lead the squad into the new season and a new era of success? He certainly has the pedigree despite Arsenal's recent lean years. Arsene could find a top European club to manage almost immediately if he resigned.

Who would replace the man who signed Thierry Henry, Fabregas, Walcott and a host of other superstars? Recent signings such as Carzorla and Podolski show that Arsene still has an eye for a quality player, but their defence has been questionable yet again this season, shipping goals in important games such as the north London derby.

Without Van Persie’s ability to lead the line on his own and no true replacement in sight, Arsenal are struggling to keep pace with their arch-rivals and many correctly predicted that Spurs would have enough to win it on the day.

Astonishingly, Arsenal has only been in the top 4 three times this season, for a total of only five games. By this time last year, even after their appalling early form, Arsenal had clawed their way back into the top 4 and finished in impressive form.

Yet another summer transfer saga befell Arsenal last year and they can’t afford to go through it all again. If they lose any more key players (such as Wilshire and Walcott) the spine of an already fragile team may be broken and any manager will struggle to get them challenging for a title.

As usual with Arsenal nowadays, it seems the emphasis is on the future, but the squad could do with a few world class players. Mike Ashley’s Newcastle have stolen a lead in French talent and players like Ben-Arfa and Cabaye would no doubt have complimented Arsenals continental, fluid style.

I think Arsenal have what it takes to challenge for honours, but until the belief comes back the squad will keep getting beaten by ‘big’ teams. The recent champions league mauling’s after the groups these past years have dented Arsenals confidence but on their day they can beat the best.

I hope they stick with Arsene, he clearly loves the club, but major investment is needed to overhaul the defence and they could do with big personalities to usher the club on to a new era of success, aiming for more than just qualifying for the top 4.