EPL Talk » Emile Heskey

Is Michael Owen Past It?

Michael Timbury — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 23:17:21 +0000

The question is simple. Can Michael Owen still perform at the highest level? While many would say no, he’s past it, he’s too injury prone and when he is on the pitch he doesn’t do anything anyway, I tend to disagree. Yes Michael Owen is injury prone, it’s been well documented. Over the course of his career he has had some nasty injuries as well as picking up a succession of niggles and strains. But generally he has been unfortunate. The prime example of bad luck was sustaining severe knee ligament damage while on international duty at the 2006 World Cup when a minute into England’s group encounter with Sweden, he awkwardly twisted his knee and subsequently found himself sidelined for the best part of a year.

Ever since he first injured his hamstring in 1999 while playing for Liverpool, Owen has had injury after injury that has plagued his career. But here is why I still think Owen isn’t past it. When fit, Owen scores to put it simply. And I’m not just talking about the occasional tap in against weak opposition. When it matters Owen scores big goals in big games both domestically and internationally. I still think he is the best choice up front for England and think he would be worth taking a gamble on when his Newcastle contract expires in the summer.

Owen is the type of striker that is fast becoming extinct. He is a poacher, nothing more. For much of the game, he will be quiet and won’t really contribute a lot to general build up play in the way that modern strikers do such as Wayne Rooney. However, when the ball gets played into dangerous areas, he comes alive and is far more effective than most. One reason that he is effective is because he actually gets himself into the six yard box rather than still hanging around on the edge of the box or further away, still admiring the pass he made moments before.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think Rooney is a world class player but he doesn’t possess that knack for goal scoring that Owen does. In fact, very few players do. Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Filippo Inzaghi are other examples of strikers who thrive on scoring goals and little else. Like the aforementioned, Owen is a potent finisher who has proved time and time again that he only needs half a yard to punish a defence. Where as many strikers rely on their physical stature or blistering pace to get themselves a goal scoring opportunity, Owen’s sharpness of mind puts him one step ahead. This is the reason that many of his goals come from headers, because he reads the situation and gets across his marker before they’ve even had time to think.

From an England point of view, I think that Owen is a must for South Africa 2010, providing England qualify. It appears that Fabio Capello is uncertain about Owen and needs more convincing but I think he is undoubtedly the best option. Rooney and Heskey seem to be certainties for the squad, as does Walcott but considering the latter is more of a winger now, that would probably leave open two more places for strikers. Out of the possible contenders for the places, Owen’s goal scoring record outweighs the others by far. He has forty goals for his country in eighty nine appearances and has scored in every knock out game for England that he has played in. Someone like Defoe can score goals against weak nations such as Kazakhstan but is he really going to cause the Portuguese any problems? Even coming off the bench, I think when in desperate need of a goal Owen has to be the choice. In a tight match where chances are scarce, left foot, right foot or head, Owen is the person I would want to see presented with the opportunity to score as he is the most likely of all English forwards to put it in the net. To summarise, I think Owen is a long way off being ‘past it’ and as he has proved so many times before, those who write him off can do so at their peril.

Wigan Begin To Rebuild But Can Mido Help Or Hinder?

Paul Bestall — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:15:53 +0000

When the season began, few people would have given Wigan Athletic a snowball’s chance in hell of finishing in the top ten, never mind pushing on the brink of European Football as January almost comes to a close. After a fantastic first season under Paul Jewell in 2005-2006, which saw them finish in 10th place and then a nerve wracking final day survival by winning at Sheffield United to stay up on goal difference. Last season saw them struggle to cope after Paul Jewell walked away and Chris Hutchings paid the ultimate price after trying to fill his mentors boots again after unsuccessfully trying to follow him at Bradford City and Dave Whelan was left facing a major decision in who to turn to in order to keep Wigan Athletic in the Premiership. Thankfully for Dave Whelan, Steve Bruce was having a terrible time at Birmingham City and desperate to get away from the boardroom infighting and aborted takeover from Carson Yeung. It was in no small part to the laughable attempt at a takeover from Yeung that benefited Wigan Athletic but also, in my opinion, saw Birmingham relegated. Yeung’s statements that he wanted to get Birmingham into the Champions League certainly raised a smile on most football fans faces, especially Wigan Athletic’s once Bruce came back to the JJB Stadium in November 2007.

In the 14 months since Bruce returned for his second spell in Lancashire, Wigan have stabilised, survived and pushed on as Bruce looked to add some flair to the qualities that Wigan already had in their squad with players like Chris Kirkland, Emile Heske, Antonio Valencia and Mario Melchiot giving him an experienced and talented spine to add to. His two signings last January,Palacios and Figueroa certainly raised some eyebrows, but now no-one is in any doubt about the qualities of those two players. The duo certainly began to make certain other clubs wonder why their scouting networks couldn’t pick up these bargains and now with the sale of Palacios to Tottenham for £13 million, a fantastic piece of business for Bruce and Wigan. For whatever reasons Bruce has excelled at picking up some fantastic players for peanuts in his time at the JJB Stadium.

The fee for Palacios, coupled with the the money raised from the sales of Heskey and Kilbane has begun to allow Bruce a chance to build his Wigan Athletic. Crucial to this is the intriguing signing of Mido from Middlesborough and Bruce’s options of playing the Egyptian national side’s striking superstars week in, week out. Mido is a player so frustratingly talented, yet wildly inconsistent that Bruce is going to need every ounce of managerial nous to deal with him but Mido finally needs to stop acting like a primadonna to finally deliver on his natural talent.

At 25 years of age, he is now with his 9th club which should tell you all you need to know about his motivation issues and with a career that has seen him play in 7 different countries, banned from his national side after an amazing touchline argument with his national manager in the Semi Final of the African Nations Cup in 2006, numerous red cards, driving bans, alleged scissor throwing incidents at Ajax and so on. Wigan have made steady progress this year and Bruce tried to sign Mido whilst he was still at Birmingham City so he certainly seems to be keen on the striker. Perhaps Bruce is banking on Mido’s compatriot, Amr Zaki, to assist in getting the best out of the talismanic striker and if it pays off, Wigan Athletic will be a very different prospect to the one that faced sides prior to the transfer window opening.It is certainly an interesting replacement for Emile Heskey.

Who Will Move Premiership Clubs In January?

Paul Bestall — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:23:18 +0000

A little under 32 hours remain until the transfer window finally opens once again in World Football and the merry go round of mad money begins once again. I’ve seen several people claim that due to the economic climate, it’s probably going to be a quiet window with little money changing hands, but don’t bet on it. Back at the beginning of the Premiership, the world had seen a similar economic downturn and yet over the course of the first four seasons, the British transfer record was increased from the £3. 2 million that Blackburn Rovers paid Southampton in July 1992 to prise a young lad named Alan Shearer to Ewood Park to the whopping £15 million Kevin Keegan paid to take the same player back to his North East roots from Rovers in July 1996. I’m not stating that the British transfer record will be broken again but I doubt it will be overly quieter than usual. During the same period, the average players price moved upward, (£4.5 million for Chris Armstrong anyone??) , with Blackburn especially throwing money about like confetti which enabled other teams to spend and that leads us to the key two words of the transfer window, Manchester City.

There is no doubt that City will be looking to spend, spend and spend to get the players they need in and I read earlier today that since September 1st, in the British press alone, they’ve been linked with 103 different players but I don’t expect anything more than 5 or 6 big money arrivals coming to Eastlands. The advantage they have is that with the exception of the Big Four, Villa and Spurs, most clubs will be happy to listen to offers for most of their players, despite what they may say in press. The boards of football clubs will always come out, as Everton’s have today regarding Joleon Lescott and Mikael Arteta, saying players are not for sale, but we all know that virtually every player at every club has a price. If City came in on Thursday and offered Everton £40 million for those two, do we think Everton wouldn’t sell them? A board making a statement of intent not to sell usually is simply wanting to up the price of the player and courting the press in this manner simply keeps the fans sweet whilst allowing them to then save face by saying they were offered silly money, the players now want to leave and it’s in the clubs best interests to accept it.

Ironically, it’s probably going to be Blackburn who find themselves involved with the first big money move of the window, with the open secret that Roque Santa Cruz seems to be moving down the M66 to arrive at Eastlands. Whilst Blackburn would definitely like to keep him, they’re not in a position to fight off a major bid from City. Allardyce will want some funds in and moving on a player who simply hasn’t delivered so far this season for a large sum will enable Big Sam to bring in a few new faces to mix it up and try and pull Rovers up the table.

Portsmouth are another club who, despite the crazy amount they’ve received for Diarra, still need to balance the books and know that Defoe, Crouch and Johnson are all coveted by other clubs, once again pushing up the sale price. Harry Redknapp will certainly be casting his eyes over his former charges and it wouldn’t surprise me to see a couple rejoin him at White Hart Lane with Spurs needing at least 4 or 5 new faces to strengthen the side whilst trying to move on players like Boateng, Rocha, Gilberto and Ghaly. Adams will hope he can hang on to as many of his first choice side but with only 2 wins in their last 13 league games, Pompey are sliding fast and maybe he needs to ship out two or three to enable him to get some fresh impetus into the team before they find themselves sucked into the bottom three.

West Ham are also under pressure to sell, with a £30 million pound compensation deal hanging over them, several players on high wages and an owner desperate to sell, they may be the one to suffer the most in January. Bellamy, Ashton, Neill, Green, Upson, Bowyer and Boa Morte have all been touted around the rumour mill recently and it could be a perilous month for the Hammers. I really feel for the fans at West Ham, they’ve been through the mill in the last two seasons and now have to hope that the transfer speculation surrounding the majority of the first team squad is simply that, the fans deserve better than they way the club has been run over the last couple of seasons.

So my ten players who I’ll be amazed don’t move in January are below:

Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn)
Craig Bellamy (West Ham)
Emile Heskey but depends how bad his hamstring injury is (Wigan)
Jermaine Pennant (Liverpool)
Matthew Upson (West Ham)
Jermaine Defoe (Portsmouth)
Gilberto (Tottenham)
Peter Crouch (Portsmouth)
Elano (Manchester City)
Michael Owen (Newcastle)

So who do you think will be on the move and more importantly, who do you want your club to sign??

England v Czech Republic (Your Running Commentary)

The Gaffer — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:23:04 +0000

England plays the Czech Republic in a friendly today at 3pm ET/8pm UK time. The game will be shown live on Fox Soccer Channel for U.S. viewers, while U.K. viewers can find the match on Setanta Sports.

It should be interesting to see how Fabio Capello’s side does at Wembley on a night when Emile Heskey may get a chance to start up front, John Terry returns as captain and 30,000 seats are still unsold.

If you’ll be watching – or have watched – today’s matches, please share your thoughts, insight, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Agbonlahor Can Wear Shearer’s Crown

Phil McThomas — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 03:01:45 +0000

England have been missing a rampaging forward ever since Alan Shearer retired from national duty in 2000. Gabriel Agbonlahor has the physique, the skill and the attitude to finally replace Shearer at the center of England’s attack.

A potted history of England’s strikers since 2000:

Michael Owen has continued to shine whenever he’s pulled on the England shirt, but his injuries have meant that it’s been impossible to depend on his presence.
Wayne Rooney continues to promise a lot but doesn’t deliver often enough for the Three Lions (1 goal in 3 games, on average). He is also apt to vacate the central area even when playing as a lone striker.
Peter Crouch rarely disappoints when given a chance, but he finds himself under-utilized by manager after manager.
A handful of ultimately unsuccessful experiments with the likes of Darius Vassell and Jermaine Defoe.

Villa’s Agbonlahor has all the raw materials to pick up where Shearer left off. Defenders hate physically dominating strikers and direct running, areas in which Agbonlahor excels. He is proficient with both feet, scores an equal number of tap-ins and longer shots, and is also a great header of the ball.

A look at the strikers included in the current England squad has me scratching my head at his exclusion.

Rooney is there of course (and Owen isn’t, of course).
Jermaine Defoe – he of 5 goals in 28 England appearances – is likely to start.
Emile Heskey, who will be 32 by the time the next World Cup rolls around. Without Owen, he is Yang with no Ying.
Theo Walcott, who has fewer Premiership goals than Defoe has international goals.

Agbonlahor’s versatility is possibly his undoing. In John Carew, Villa have a classic center forward who would struggle to play anywhere else. Ashley Young and Agbonlahor are asked to fill-in on the flanks. Agbonlahor, particularly, looks like he would deliver more goals if he were allowed to play more centrally.

As it is, he has scored 23 times in 76 Premier League appearances since the start of the 06-07 season, a period in which he’s only missed one league game. Yeah, I’m looking at you, Michael Owen.