Is Michael Owen A Striking Option?

There are several reports in the papers this weekend that Manchester United are about to place a bid for Michael Owen from Newcastle United. The story is the offer includes £4 million plus Alan Smith. Apparently Owen has an exit clause in his contract that is triggered with an offer of £9 million so I don’t know how that works if we’re only offering £4m.

We all know that we need another striker and United have done some excellent transfer business this summer with the arrival of Owen Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson. However, we have several other players who should be in front of Smudge in the queue for the exit door. Rather than get rid of Alan Smith who, in my opinion, gives his all every time he wears the shirt and can do a job for Manchester United, they should be looking to offload the likes of Saha and Richardson.

Is Michael Owen a viable option to fill the striker gap? Well, he is a proven goalscorer at international and club level - there are very few of them about and, with the supply he will receive from Ronaldo, Giggs, Scholes and Carrick, I think he will score a bundle of goals….. BUT will he be able to stay fit? The jury is still out on what long-term effect the knee ligament injury has had on Owen and Manchester United striking options have suffered in the last couple of seasons with the injury prone Louis Saha (who apparently only plays if he is 100% fit!?!) . The last thing we need is to have him on the sidelines for months. Also, Alex Ferguson is building the bedrock of the team on bringing in younger players, I’m not sure that a 27 year old who has been out injured for a season fits in with the rest of the players who have come in.

But, as we have seen before, don’t believe everything you read in the papers! We are getting into the transfer silly season but I think this one has got legs.