When England’s own Michael Owen jogged nonchalantly onto the field with 20 or so minutes to go in the drab 0-0 draw with Aston Villa, what were you thinking? Was he the saviour of the club? Was he the club’s record signing, the fan favourite and the perfect replacement for the retired Alan Shearer? Or was he a mercenary? A man greedy enough to join a club heading nowhere managed by Graeme Souness to pick up a reported £100k/week wages? Or was he just a cringe-worthy trophy signing which has worked out well for neither him nor us? Nope, he’s not any of those things.

This is the defence of Michael Owen.

When Michael Owen won the European Footballer of the Year award in 2001, Gerard Houllier declared to his many suitors, with Real Madrid amongst them, that £30m could ‘only buy Michael Owen’s left foot’. Such was the value of the England and Liverpool hitman during that 01/02 season, a season in which Liverpool won a record 5 trophies in a calendar year and a season in which Owen hit 29 goals in 44 appearances, ending the season as joint top-scorer of the Premiership with 19 goals. It was also the year of England’s historic 5-1 victory against Germany, a game in which Owen notched an unforgettable hat-trick. At the tender age of 22, Owen had scored 100 Premiership goals. The world was his feet.

Then, it all began to crumble. Following an indifferent season with Liverpool and the sacking of his mentor Houllier, rumours were rife that Owen was on his way out. In came the troubled Spanish giants Real with £8m and Owen was quickly packing his bags to join the Galacticos of Madrid. The move was always destined to fail for both him and the club. He joined the striking ranks of the Madrid which included the prodigal son Raul and the legendary and still effective Ronaldo, which meant Owen rarely started. Each time the increasingly-ineffective Raul was dropped in favour of Owen, unfair criticism came his way. He did not belong. Nonetheless, he finished the season with 12 goals in the league and the best minutes : goals ratio. But, with the World Cup looming and Owen struggling to maintain any sort of match-fitness, he was destined to leave. His wish was granted after a tiresome couple of weeks in which only two clubs came in for him; his beloved hometown Liverpool, and the underperforming Newcastle United. He ended up joining us, Newcastle United, the only club who matched Real’s valuation, for a club record transfer fee of £16m.

What’s happened since August 31st 2005 has been frankly unbelievably disappointing for both him and us. We’ve endured the reign of two instantly forgettable managers; Graeme Souness formerly and latterly, Glenn Roeder. We finished our last season with the lowest league placing since the Premiership began. He’s endured a metatarsal injury which ruled him out of the second half of his first season here, and then suffered a cruciate ligament playing for England in the World Cup, which effectively ruled him out of his entire second season here. In total, he has played 14 games for us. He’s scored 7 goals. That’s £1.15m per game. That’s £2.3m per goal.

His signing was supposed to have ushered in a new era for the club. It was to be Graeme Souness’ first full season in charge. It was Owen and Shearer together again, just like they were for England. And then we had Scott Parker and Emre in the center of midfield ready to commence battle with the rest of the Premiership, ready for the assault on Europe, and then of course, we had also just signed the £10m star from La Liga, Albert Luque. Unfortunately, none of the things us fans, including those 10,000 who showed up to welcome Owen to the club envisioned, came true. Yet, this is not Michael Owen’s fault.

It is not his fault he broke a bone when the big lump of lard that is Paul Robinson crash-landed upon his foot. It is not his fault he ruptured his cruciate ligament whilst playing for his country in the biggest sporting event of the world. It is not his fault he went to the World Cup. It is a FIFA rule that if a player is called up, they have to go. It is not his fault for wanting to play for his country in the first place; it is simply an honour for him to do so. It is not his fault he’s being paid £100,000/week; it is the current state of football that a striker with Michael Owen’s pedigree shall be paid thus much. Michael Owen is a victim of circumstance and unfortunate events ever since he left Liverpool. Most pertinently, he’s a victim of the times that football and its fans currently live in.

In the past summer, as rumours circulated of a £9m ‘get-out’ clause in his contract, many fans described Owen, amongst many other things, as a self-serving prick with no loyalty. Yet, if were you in his position, would you honestly not have done the same? If you were someone with Michael Owen’s stature and attraction in the game, which is sufficiently proved by the fact that 10,000 fans showed up to the press conference of his signing, would you not cover your back when signing for a team which had just finished 14th and was being managed by Graeme Souness?

To borrow Bill Simmons’ idea, ‘Fans can be incredibly unrealistic and naive. We expect athletes to maintain an unyielding loyalty to their current [club], even if they have been playing there for only 3-4 years. We expect them to understand the “importance” of something like [derbies], to think exactly like us, to say to themselves, “Wait, I can’t switch sides to the [Mackems], that’s our archrival!” We expect them to feel hatred for the teams that WE don’t like, ignoring the fact that rivalries thrive solely because of the fan bases, because we’re the ones keeping them alive. And we expect them to turn down Godfather offers out of loyalty to their fans, only we’ll turn on them the moment they start struggling.’

If you were Michael Owen, why would you not be looking out for your own best interests? Would you have an unnatural bond with a club whom you’ve played only 14 games for? Would you have an unnatural bond with a city where you’ve lived for only a couple of years?

Bill Simmons is right. Sports fans, and especially football fans, need to realize that we place unrealistic expectations on footballers. They are people – just as we all are. If you were with a decent law firm and another firm came in and offered you mega-money and an offer of being a partner, you would happily accept the offer and would proudly celebrate it with your friends and family. It would be a joyous moment in your life and your career; something that you would rejoice over and cherish. That is life. That is how life works, and rightly so. Why should football be so different? Why should it be so different for our very own Michael Owen?