**Summer Transfer Thread: News, Rumours and Speculation**

[HangTime]

Why do Man Utd want to sign a Striker who has never score 20 league goals in a season.

He's scored over 15 Premiership goals in a whopping SIX seasons, a feat Wayne Rooney has managed a grand total of, er, ONE time.

Drogba has managed it once.
Adebayor has managed it once.
Van Persie has NEVER managed it (never got more than 11 in fact).
Berbatov has NEVER managed it.
Torres has managed it once.
Anelka, to be fair to the lad, has managed it three times, only another 3 times to go to catch Owen.
Keane has managed it once.

So yeah, he's achieved that feat more times than Rooney, Berbatov, Drogba, Torres, Van Persie, Adebayor and Keane COMBINED. You will struggle to find many current Premiership strikers who can match him.

edit: To be more specific to the question, in their 11 Premiership seasons Rooney and Berba have never managed 20 goals either, and managed over 15 goals once. So Owen is certainly a vast improvement on what they already have at the club judging it on arbitrary goal return stats.

 

[mmj_uk]

After robbing Newcastle blind for 3yrs it will be interesting to see how Owen reacts to actually having to earn a wage.

Shrewd business from Ferguson but how will Owen react if he's left on the bench a lot? going by the Daily Mail article without performance bonuses he would be earning less in a month than he previously earned in a week.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Erm because he wanted him gone last summer?

And he does this season?

 

[Trusty]

He's scored over 15 Premiership goals in a whopping SIX seasons, a feat Wayne Rooney has managed a grand total of, er, ONE time.

Drogba has managed it once.
Adebayor has managed it once.
Van Persie has NEVER managed it (never got more than 11 in fact).
Berbatov has NEVER managed it.
Torres has managed it once.
Anelka, to be fair to the lad, has managed it three times, only another 3 times to go to catch Owen.
Keane has managed it once.

So yeah, he's achieved that feat more times than Rooney, Berbatov, Drogba, Torres, Van Persie, Adebayor and Keane COMBINED. You will struggle to find many current Premiership strikers who can match him.

^ I dont think anyone was ever debating his ability. I think its more a case of his fitness and if he'll be able to cope. He might never play 5 games in a row again.

 

[DanH84]

And he does this season?

how longs left on his contract?

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

how longs left on his contract?

3 years.

 

[DanH84]

all power to Benitez then. should get a good 10-12mill in.

 

[nikebee]

Officially announced

United have signed Owen
Source: Man United.com

Manchester United is delighted to announce that it has signed Michael Owen on a two-year contract. The striker was out of contract, so no transfer fee is involved.

Sir Alex Ferguson said: "Michael is a world class forward with a proven goalscoring record at the highest level and that has never been in question. Coming to Manchester United with the expectations that we have is something that Michael will relish.”

Michael Owen said: "I had just begun to talk to other clubs when out of the blue Sir Alex phoned me on Wednesday afternoon, invited me to have breakfast with him the next morning during which he told me that he wanted to sign me. I agreed without a moment's thought.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for me and I intend to seize it with both hands.

"I am now looking forward to being a Manchester United player and I am fortunate that I already know so many of the players here. I missed pre-season last year and am pleased that I will be starting at Carrington from day one.

"I want to thank Sir Alex for the faith he has shown in me and I give him my assurance that I will repay him with my goals and performances”

 

[ONESHOTKILL]

fergie must have his eye on one of owens horses lol

 

[HangTime]

^ I dont think anyone was ever debating his ability. I think its more a case of his fitness and if he'll be able to cope. He might never play 5 games in a row again.

I was purely responding to this stupid stat that tom_w introduced to this forum and sometimes gets repeated by others about how Owen has never scored 20 league goals in a season.

20 is just an arbitrary value plucked out of thin air that just happens to conveniently be 1 goal more than Owen's best return.

If pick my own arbritrary value of "over 15" goals then we have a completely different story altogether.

Adebayor has scored 20 league goals in a season, does that make his league goalscoring record better than Owen? No, because that is the ONLY time he's ever scored more than 10 league goals in a season in his entire career. Owen has done that NINE times.

It's bad enough that people obsess about league goals (given the importance many clubs place on the Champions League) without then just choosing a set target of goals to dictate how good a player is. I'd take a striker who scored 19 in 19 for a few seasons running over a player who scored 20 in 38 once and then 0 in 38 for the rest of them any day of the week.

 

[syke]

Still think that'll end up a great signing, should he stay fit for the majority of the season, especially on a free. Now he has all that money to buy where he wants.

 

[nikebee]

Can't argue with it to be honest, free transfer and a suposedly small wage gets us a world class forward when fit.

Leaves us an awful lot of cash from the Ronaldo sale that we can spend elsewhere as well.

Do we look at getting another forward as well likeLuis Fabiano or Huntelaar just incase... or strengthen other areas?

 

[syke]

Can't argue with it to be honest, free transfer and a suposedly small wage gets us a world class forward when fit.

Leaves us an awful lot of cash from the Ronaldo sale that we can spend elsewhere as well.

Do we look at getting another forward as well likeLuis Fabiano or Huntelaar just incase... or strengthen other areas?

Looking at the utd squad, and rooney wanting to play as a striker it should be Berbatov/Rooney/Owen and then the youngsters. Maybe sign another upcoming striker i guess. Utd should look at replacements for Giggs/Scholes (not including Anderson/Tosic etc). Oh and a right back?

 

[HangTime]

Rooney
Owen
Berbatov
Campbell
Macheda
Wellbeck

Looks reasonable enough strikeforce to me, plus Giggs and Scholes have played as support strikers in the past. I suppose the only question really is whether another experienced backup might come in handy for when Owen gets injured, Rooney is suspended and Berba is sulking.

 

[ONESHOTKILL]

i still think there will be a couple more players signing for united,i hope one of them is either huntelaar or aguero

 

[nikebee]

Rooney
Owen
Berbatov
Campbell
Macheda
Wellbeck

Looks reasonable enough strikeforce to me, plus Giggs and Scholes have played as support strikers in the past. I suppose the only question really is whether another experienced backup might come in handy for when Owen gets injured, Rooney is suspended and Berba is sulking.

Campbell is going to Hull, it's only a matter of time.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Rooney
Owen
Berbatov
Campbell
Macheda
Wellbeck

Looks reasonable enough strikeforce to me, plus Giggs and Scholes have played as support strikers in the past. I suppose the only question really is whether another experienced backup might come in handy for when Owen gets injured, Rooney is suspended and Berba is sulking.

Except for as it stands, Rooney is playing left wing, Campbell is almost certainly being sold or will get few games, and Wellbeck is simply and bluntly, crap.

Its still not bad by any means, Owen/Berbatov will be very good, with Rooney getting some games upfront. Macheda showed potential in his performances and some composed finishing, but that doesn't tell us enough, can he even play 90 minutes of full contact footie against the top players in the league yet? He might not have the size, maturity to play that much yet, not to mention at a younger age, still growing and gaining strength you're more liable to injury.


But I don't know why people think thats it already, theres another, well, almost two months of the window to go frankly I see Owen as cover who may end up playing loads, or might not play at all. Fergie will be looking for the right player, but he'll be buying a top class left winger or striker.

THats at the bare minimum, I would think he's looking at maybe buying a winger and a striker, and maybe shipping out Nani if possible and buying a squad player who can cover the wings. He's probably eyeing up a central midfielder aswell and possibly a keeper or right back if anyones available.

I think frankly at this point in time everyones just waiting on Real Madrid to stop throwing their money around so other people can get on with it.

 

[nikebee]

Looking at the utd squad, and rooney wanting to play as a striker it should be Berbatov/Rooney/Owen and then the youngsters. Maybe sign another upcoming striker i guess. Utd should look at replacements for Giggs/Scholes (not including Anderson/Tosic etc). Oh and a right back?

Tosic has the potential to be very good, we have Nani who has little to no consistancy but can have fantastic games when he wants.

We need a proper out and out Left Winger (not a RW that we buy and stick over there) and a good old fashioned Attacking Midfield that can score some goals.

We don't have a world class right back at the moment, I don't rate Brown all that well to be honest and Rafael still has a few years to go before he hits his full potential.

I wish we would sign someone like Keane or Scholes... real balls to the wall, take no prisoners style players. We seem to have lost that edge in the last few years.

 

[HangTime]

Except for as it stands, Rooney is playing left wing, Campbell is almost certainly being sold or will get few games, and Wellbeck is simply and bluntly, crap.

As it stands, Rooney is a forward regardless of where he played when Ronaldo and Tevez were at the club. Last time I saw him play it was through the middle. As it stands, Campbell is still at the club. As it stands, Wellbeck is the 6th choice striker at best (I don't know what other talents they might have lurking) who would get a run out in the Carling Cup etc.

 

[G|mp]

I really don't know what to think :/

On the one hand we could have just bought the Michael Owen who can still finish and just needed a decent club again.

Or.......we could have bought the Michael Owen of the last 2 years who can hardly ****ing run let alone finish.

I feel like my GF has cheated on me for some reason