Michael Owen

[4me2]

IF STEVIE GOES THEN I GO, TOO

Jun 27 2004

By Steve Bates

MICHAEL OWEN has warned Liverpool he will quit if Steven Gerrard goes ahead with a £31million move to Chelsea after Euro 2004. Owen has told his closest confidantes if Gerrard is allowed to leave, it will signal they cannot match his own ambitions - and he'll head for Barcelona. Liverpool's hierarchy, including new boss Rafael Benitez, have held talks in Portugal with Owen and more detailed talks are planned on his return. But they are aware if they lose Gerrard to Chelsea, Owen will follow - and that's why Benitez has lined up an £11million swoop for Valencia hot-shot Miguel Angel Mista to form a £25m strike- force with Djibril Cisse. Benitez desperately wants Owen and Gerrard to stay while he attempts to turn Liverpool into a team capable of winning the Premiership. But if Owen says no to Benitez, the Spaniard will turn to his former Valencia hit-man Mista - and he has already told chief executive Rick Parry and chairman David Moores. The 25-year-old played a key role in helping Valencia out-muscle Real Madrid and Barca to clinch La Liga last season. Mista scored 14 league goals and was picked alongside Ronaldo in the prestigious La Liga Team of the Season. Spain seems Owen's likeliest destination, although Inter Milan are known to be monitoring the situation. Owen, once rated at £30 million, has been eclipsed by Wayne Rooney during the European Championship and some pundits no longer consider the one-time England golden boy to be in the top five of the world's best strikers. Real Madrid star Ronaldo, Arsenal's Thierry Henry, Barcelona's brilliant Brazilian Ronaldinho, Ruud van Nistelrooy of Manchester United and now Rooney occupy those places. Despite a widespread belief Gerrard is nailed on for Stamford Bridge, Benitez is hopeful face-to-face talks may persuade the dynamic midfielder to be the foundation for exciting re-development of the Anfield squad. Benitez has assessed the Liverpool squad - and identified three areas for improvement if he can beat the odds and persuade Owen and Gerrard stay. He wants a right back which spells bad news for Ireland defender Steve Finnan, who only arrived a year ago. Benitez also wants to recruit a top-class centre-back, possibly Carlos Marchena from his old club, and a right-sided winger. But he knows his plans will have to stay on hold until Owen and Gerrard decide on their futures.

http://www.people.co.uk/sport/tm_obj...name_page.html

[Shotgunjim]

Hmmmm who will be missed more :nowords:

[lampshade]

StevieG has deffo' handed in a transfer request (the two faced, badge kissing Chelsea rent boy)
I would rather tell him to **** off now than try and persuade him to stay. "and by the way Stevie, dont bang your arse on the Shankly Gates on your way out!!!"

[superflysi]

its qiuality story this - scouser jumping ship.....

better than this story was the Baros - I was ready to leave before Houllier was sacked story run in some of the rags today..... he proving himself in the Euro's and re-inforcing the statement that someone said in here a few months back - that Bogeyes was a loon for letting Heskey play rather than developing Baros ...

[Thalamus]

Our kid is staying !

[gunner]

Yea pure press bullshit as per usual.

[diablos]

lucky liverpool at the euro,s i think you saw gerrard at his best no first touch and poor passing ratio..

[beekae]

Two scouse wasters,shown up against quality opposition.

Michael"full of demands"Owen...no-one wants him,Gerrard.."Im brilliant,honest"

My,my didnt they both show up well against Croatia. :thumbs

[GameKing]

Two scouse wasters,shown up against quality opposition.

Michael"full of demands"Owen...no-one wants him,Gerrard.."Im brilliant,honest"

My,my didnt they both show up well against Croatia. :thumbs

'beekae' if you think those two are wasters, then all I can say is you must have some unbelievable players at Celtic, Hartson, Sutton etc. :nowords:
or is it that you are prejudiced to English players? :nowords:
I`m not a Liverpool supporter by any stretch of the imagination, but I can see that they are not 'wasters'. why dont you give it a rest and stop taking the piss out of the English players? we are out of euro 2004 now...so be happy

[gunner]

You sweatys make me laugh. Bugger all worth talking about north of the border so you like to try and provoke proper fans in a proper league.
It must be lonely being a jock footbally fan during most summers.

[lampshade]

Here is a post off 1 of the Liverpool forums (the guy is 100% gen) and I believe this to be what happend.

"Just to make sure people know what was going on.

--

Some background to what’s gone on so fuller conclusions as to what has transpired may be drawn by those who so wish.

As you may have deduced the person I know at the club is Rick Parry.

Our conversation on the Friday evening brimmed with anger and frustration at the situation that had developed over the preceding few weeks.

What was absolutely certain at that moment was that Steven Gerrard would be joining Chelsea.

He and his agent were desperate to push through the deal as quickly as possible. Rick’s concerted attempts at persuading SG and his agent that the player’s future would be better served by remaining at Anfield or at least not moving to Chelsea had been repeatedly frustrated and rejected.

Rick Parry – understandably – was a dispirited man. He would certainly drive a hard bargain with Chelsea but the fight to persuade SG to remain here was seemingly lost. He felt LFC were competing against such superior financial might. There appeared little if any support from media sources including our own ex-players. He was utterly resigned to SG joining Chelsea.

Then this morning around nine o’clock I spoke to Rick again. It was to reassure him that from what I could glean the fans appeared to be behind the club on the issue.

Before I could continue he told me of the dramatic turn-around.

[Incidentally, I was asked to treat this news confidentially which is why I never posted it this morning. If I’d not been not specifically requested by Rick I obviously would have disclosed it. I told only Steve Kelly [TTWAR], Steve Davies and Tim Kelly (Timbos Goals) who each honoured the confidentiality]

It had begun on the Saturday morning with further depressing contact from SG’s agent seeking to push the deal through asap.

Then sometime later that weekend – I think he said it was Sunday evening but I’m not sure - came that dramatic turn around.

A somewhat upset SG phoned Rick Parry and confirmed his desire to remain at Anfield.
The full realization of what it would mean to leave Anfield had hit him very hard. He had gone to the brink but realized that in his heart of hearts he simply could not go through with the move.

Rick, of course was both relieved and delighted. However, he could not relax. There was still work to do.

SG ‘s agent wanted to defer an announcement until SG’s return from holiday. Evidently he leaves for the Caribbean tomorrow. Presumably one can only deduce from this that it was to give the deal time to resurface.

Rick insisted on a press conference today to avoid any further s*** from the agent or Chelsea’s media campaign and to provide the turn-around with as much pro-LFC publicity as possibility.

SG’s agent wanted the reason for the deal’s demise to be cited as the failure of the respective clubs to reach an agreement on a fee. This presumably was to save face for Chelsea.

Rick Parry insisted on the true reason being cited.

And so the emotional magnitude and pull that LFC exerts on one of its own would be demonstrated to have outweighed any financial clout of the Russian pimp [my interpretation btw]

Also I guess in the very final analysis the true spirit of football had clawed back some self-respect."

[empo]

good post lampshade

stevie g, u r the man

footbal agents are cock sucking scum.

[Porthos]

very good post, if true (I believe it). Respect to SG, loyalty rarely wins out over money nowadays.

[maverick_15]

if thats true then good bloke, if not then it wont come of much of a surprise to many

[Raptor]

I think they're both shit tbh

[Chaos-uk]

LOL Raptor, that coz they dont play for man u?

[gunner]

I think they're both shit tbh

LMAO. Typical Man U comment.

[redarmy]

StevieG has deffo' handed in a transfer request (the two faced, badge kissing Chelsea rent boy)
I would rather tell him to **** off now than try and persuade him to stay. "and by the way Stevie, dont bang your arse on the Shankly Gates on your way out!!!"

All forgiven now is he you was'nt one of the "Local well known mobsters" threatening his family was you..........................

[WalterPill]

Here is a post off 1 of the Liverpool forums (the guy is 100% gen) and I believe this to be what happend.

"Just to make sure people know what was going on.

--

Some background to what’s gone on so fuller conclusions as to what has transpired may be drawn by those who so wish.

As you may have deduced the person I know at the club is Rick Parry.

Our conversation on the Friday evening brimmed with anger and frustration at the situation that had developed over the preceding few weeks.

What was absolutely certain at that moment was that Steven Gerrard would be joining Chelsea.

He and his agent were desperate to push through the deal as quickly as possible. Rick’s concerted attempts at persuading SG and his agent that the player’s future would be better served by remaining at Anfield or at least not moving to Chelsea had been repeatedly frustrated and rejected.

Rick Parry – understandably – was a dispirited man. He would certainly drive a hard bargain with Chelsea but the fight to persuade SG to remain here was seemingly lost. He felt LFC were competing against such superior financial might. There appeared little if any support from media sources including our own ex-players. He was utterly resigned to SG joining Chelsea.

Then this morning around nine o’clock I spoke to Rick again. It was to reassure him that from what I could glean the fans appeared to be behind the club on the issue.

Before I could continue he told me of the dramatic turn-around.

[Incidentally, I was asked to treat this news confidentially which is why I never posted it this morning. If I’d not been not specifically requested by Rick I obviously would have disclosed it. I told only Steve Kelly [TTWAR], Steve Davies and Tim Kelly (Timbos Goals) who each honoured the confidentiality]

It had begun on the Saturday morning with further depressing contact from SG’s agent seeking to push the deal through asap.

Then sometime later that weekend – I think he said it was Sunday evening but I’m not sure - came that dramatic turn around.

A somewhat upset SG phoned Rick Parry and confirmed his desire to remain at Anfield.
The full realization of what it would mean to leave Anfield had hit him very hard. He had gone to the brink but realized that in his heart of hearts he simply could not go through with the move.

Rick, of course was both relieved and delighted. However, he could not relax. There was still work to do.

SG ‘s agent wanted to defer an announcement until SG’s return from holiday. Evidently he leaves for the Caribbean tomorrow. Presumably one can only deduce from this that it was to give the deal time to resurface.

Rick insisted on a press conference today to avoid any further s*** from the agent or Chelsea’s media campaign and to provide the turn-around with as much pro-LFC publicity as possibility.

SG’s agent wanted the reason for the deal’s demise to be cited as the failure of the respective clubs to reach an agreement on a fee. This presumably was to save face for Chelsea.

Rick Parry insisted on the true reason being cited.

And so the emotional magnitude and pull that LFC exerts on one of its own would be demonstrated to have outweighed any financial clout of the Russian pimp [my interpretation btw]

Also I guess in the very final analysis the true spirit of football had clawed back some self-respect."

Heart warming.

Any truth to the rumour of why SG may have been looking to leave Liverpool in the first place? The rumour was that an ex boyfriend of a girl he is currently or was recently seeing was exerting some kind of pressure on SG. Roughly translated as SG was frightened of said person who may or may not be an underworld figure of some stature which is why he was looking to move away from Liverpool and why he had a poor European Championships and now this threat has dissipated (why?) he is comfortable to stay at Liverpool.

This may or may not be rumour but I for one am confident that SG didn't just change his mind because "He loves Liverpool so much". Call me a bitter cynic but there's certainly more to all this than a simple change of heart.
If he loved Liverpool so much in the first place, why all the noises about going etc.

As well as all this it may be that SG wants to see how the team do until the January transfer window. If Liverpool are still at the same level (let's say that this level is a place or two below the real title contenders, as they finished last season) we'll see then if he jumps ship.

[lampshade]

All forgiven now is he you was'nt one of the "Local well known mobsters" threatening his family was you..........................

Right, StevieG DID hand in a transfer request ,via his agent's SFX. A lot of L/Pool fans won't forgive him for this.

As for the mobster story...... Some/most of you will remember last year a post on here "england star having affair" (or something like that) and I posted that it was a L/Pool player, well every1 thought it was Owen so I did'nt say anything. But I was talking about StevieG.

What it's about is this... StevieG was banging this girl behind his bird's back, but it turned out this bird was also seing a real gangster (no bullshit, the lad would have you shot if you crossed him!!) the gangster found out about StevieG and his bird, but as luck would have it he was also a Red so did'nt do anything, but he let it be known through Sammy Lee (I believe)that if StevieG was seen in town (L/pool city center) then he would have Stevie's knee caps.
When the club found out about this they told Stevie (think he knew anyway) that he was'nt allowed into town and could only go out in Southport/Chester ETC ETC

Sorry for the spelling and grammer, think most of you can work out what I'm sayin'