Filed under: Manchester United, Carling Cup, Football
For a while now, the Carling Cup has been a vehicle for blooding young players. This latest round, though, has been all about offering a proving ground for crocks and veterans.Liverpool successfully came through at Brighton with Craig Bellamy and Steven Gerrard playing important roles; Manchester City were sent on their way to victory over Birmingham City with a goal by Owen Hargreaves.
The immediate question as a result was whether the classy but perennially injured midfield player might even make it back into the England squad. It was asked, too, of Michael Owen following his two-goal show for Manchester United at Leeds.
Many watchers seemed to have viewed with delight Owen's return to prominence. I found it profoundly depressing.
Interviewed after the match, Sir Alex Ferguson repeated his respect for Owen by pointing out his remarkable goal-scoring record - 11 in 16 starts for United, 16 goals in all in 49 appearances - and consummate professionalism around the club's Carrington training ground.
It simply begged the question: how come, then, he is not picked more often, not even on the bench for bigger games?
Owen himself accepted his role in things. "I obviously know my position in the squad," he said. "We have got some top strikers in Wayne Rooney, Chicharito, Danny Welbeck and Dimitar Berbatov.
"I get criticised a lot by people who say I don't play but I just pick my money up. I am not proud of that fact. I want to play all the time."
In which case, how come Owen signed again for another year in the summer? He knew that Rooney and Berbatov were established, that Javier Hernandez - Chicharito - was the new bright young thing and that Ferugson was constantly saying that it was time for Welbeck to get his chance.
The simple fact is that Owen lives within easy commuting distance of Carrington and being a part-timer these days affords him plenty of time to indulge his passion for owning racehorses and seeing them run.
When he is at work, he may well be professional around the training ground, may well set have encouraging words for young players and still show some old sharpness when he does play, despite a waning of pace.
He is, though, at 31, wasting the last couple of seasons of his career. He could still be plying his trade on a more regular basis at a Premier League club and could still force his way into the England squad for next summer's European Championship finals by scoring the goals that would end Fabio Capello's ignoring of him.
For that to happen, Owen would need to go to Ferguson and ask for a loan move in January to somewhere decent like an Aston Villa or, dare one say it, Everton. You sense in his quotes that he himself is embarrassed by his current predicament.
All this is said in a desire from this quarter to see Owen going out in the blaze of glory that his injury-plagued career deserves, and for fans to be treated to more of that goal-poaching talent.
The real question is not whether Michael Owen could yet play for England - he certainly could - but whether he himself has the hunger yet to make it happen.
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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/09/22/michael-owen-league-cup/
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