Michael Owen and a question of duty- Martin Samuel

[Dinho lad]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/martin_samuel/article2563159.ece

 

“I am sick of this ‘England’s Michael Owen’ attitude. Newcastle United fans pay his wages and we want to see him benefit our club. He should never have played against Israel or Russia, would probably be fit now and we would have beaten Derby County or Arsenal.” Ed, from Newcastle, posting on Times Online, Wednesday.

 

He has a point. After all, who among us, while turning off the television having absorbed a pulsating draw between Russia and Finland next June and quivering in anticipation of Croatia’s fascinating encounter with Norway, to be broadcast later that night, would not trade our mild disappointment at England’s failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championship for the thrill we felt as Newcastle United overcame mighty Derby County at Pride Park to cement a position slap-bang in the middle of the table.

 

What memories, what highs and lows. Derby, relegation certainties, vanquished. Newcastle, boldly leaping towards another season of consolidation; not as good as Manchester City, but a bit better than West Ham United. Fair stirs the blood, doesn’t it? Thank goodness Owen conserved his energy for the big one in the East Midlands, we would cry. Now there is a man with a sense of priority.

 

Of course, Ed enjoys the populist perspective here. It is all the rage these days to feign a lack of interest in the England team or to belittle their status when compared with club football. We are meant to take seriously Alan Curbishley’s protests that Dean Ashton should not be considered for England when he has just completed three 90-minute stints in seven days for West Ham. We are supposed to nod sagely as Rafael BenÍtez explains how two games for England did more harm to Steven Gerrard than a match played for Liverpool with a painkilling injection into a broken big toe, administered four days after it was suffered.

 

The air waves are full of people claiming that it does not matter how the national team fare, provided that Middlesbrough or Wigan Athletic finish a steady fourteenth. They have lost sight of what is important. Great players are important. And great players want to play for their country.

 

What the contributors to this debate do not understand is that Owen and his dreams belonged to England before Newcastle were even on his radar. No boy with his talent grows up wishing to churn out mundane results. They imagine the romantic, the spectacular. First is the desire to be a professional footballer. But what type of footballer? The type that wins the World Cup, of course.

 

Clubs are all-consuming passions for supporters, but to players they are just clubs. Gerrard has a love for Liverpool but at 14 had a trial for Manchester United. Had Liverpool not come up with a contract, guess what? Ashton is on his third employer after Crewe Alexandra and Norwich City. This does not make him disloyal, or weaken his commitment to West Ham, but it is foolish to think that if the call comes from England next week he would have a second thought about making the trip. He broke an ankle while on England duty last season, the day before he was due to make his full debut against Greece. Ask him if he regrets joining up, though. It was the chance of a lifetime.

 

Owen is already talking as if he will miss England’s matches against Estonia and Russia after his operation and this is for the best. If he is not fully fit, he is half the player anyway. Yet as much as he has a duty to Newcastle, he also has one to the boy who saw a white shirt as a castle in the sky. He is not “England’s Owen” for any reason other than he wanted it that way. And it is not for Newcastle, or anybody, to deny him the right to be the player of his dreams.

 

PS. You would have beaten Arsenal, Ed? Are you sure? Did you see your lot at City?

 

I wonder what he would say if we missed out on a UEFA cup spot by 3 points?

[johnnypd]

message to martin samuel - ed from newcastle is a newcastle fan. this makes your article a waste of time.

[chicago_shearer]

The reason they put out stuff like this is because they know that it will draw in lots of people to the Times Online website who will then post "Martin Samuel is a cunt, we pay his wages!" or something like that in the comments section.  The hits to the website generate additional traffic.  It pays to be controversial/idiotic.

[Guest FlapjackJoe]

message to martin samuel - ed from newcastle is a newcastle fan. this makes your article a waste of time.

 

Huh?  Don't get that.

 

Anyway...

 

Martin Samuel's basically saying that playing for England should get priority over playing for NUFC because every starry-eyed lad dreams of playing for his country instead of churning out mundane results with his club team.

 

First of all, NUFC playing any most Premier League teams would be a better test of a professional footballer's ability than England playing Estonia.  I'm sure good players would rather test themselves at a high level, and nowadays there are more top games at club level than at international level.

 

Secondly, I don't even agree with that argument.  I'm sure there are lots of football fans whose ultimate aim would be to play for their club in a Champions' League final, rather than their country.

 

And thirdly, I know footballers are a bunch of spoilt brats, but even so they can't always just get what they want.  NUFC are paying Owen's weekly wages, he should do his job properly for them first, before gallavanting off to secure his dreams.

 

(having said that, I'm not slagging Owen, since he pretty much said as much today, I'm criticising Martin Samuel).

[Guest FlapjackJoe]

The reason they put out stuff like this is because they know that it will draw in lots of people to the Times Online website who will then post "Martin Samuel is a cunt, we pay his wages!" or something like that in the comments section.  The hits to the website generate additional traffic.  It pays to be controversial/idiotic.

 

Agreed.  But then we reduce additional traffic to their website by copying and pasting the article instead of linking to it.

 

Might not feel like much, but in my head, that's a victory against the big boys! 

[ohmelads]

Nobody has suggested a fully fit Michael Owen should turn down the chance to play for England, therefore Martin Samuel's entire point is moot.

 

His bias is pretty clear, he begins his article with petty sarcasm and ends with a cheap dig. "And it is not for Newcastle, or anybody, to deny him the right to be the player of his dreams." Apparently that is what we are trying to do

 

He talks about Owen playing in mundane Newcastle games. Perhaps he should watch Owen's goal celebration against Russia to see if this was the type of game he dreamt of playing in. World Cup qualifiers, however important, are pretty mundane if you ask me and as much as Newcastle might not have beaten City without Owen, I think he ignores the fact that England might have won both games without Owen anyway. Making such a fair comparison wouldn't suit his agenda though, so he left it out.

[Guest HGB1892]

Further message for Martin Samuel

 

You're a fat cunt. Fuck Off.

[Dave]

[Guest Steven_MB]

He never says We would have beaten Arsenal or didn't Martin read it? "we would have beaten Derby County OR Arsenal." I think that with Owen we would have beaten Derby, so that statement is true, dumb southern fuck.

[Guest Dev]

Or how about this for an article.

 

And so as England fans look forward to another quarter finals stage in a major tournament without their team taking part, they can at least look back with fond memories to when Wayne Rooney once again buckled under the pressure of being Englands only fit world class striker and was sent off. They are left, however, with fond memories of a meaningless win over Estonia back in late 2007, which Michael Owen dutifully rushed back for only to amazingly tear his groin into 15 pieces 5 minutes into the game. This is what every young footballer dreams of, however, being rushed back into the national team having not managed to string together 5 consecutive games for two years, in order to save England from the folly of hiring Steve McLaren as coach, if only for another 6 months before he was rousingly outwitted by every other coach at Euro 2008.

 

 

[Guest steppa]

Or how about this for an article.

 

And so as England fans look forward to another quarter finals stage in a major tournament without their team taking part, they can at least look back with fond memories to when Wayne Rooney once again buckled under the pressure of being Englands only fit world class striker and was sent off. They are left, however, with fond memories of a meaningless win over Estonia back in late 2007, which Michael Owen dutifully rushed back for only to amazingly tear his groin into 15 pieces 5 minutes into the game. This is what every young footballer dreams of, however, being rushed back into the national team having not managed to string together 5 consecutive games for two years, in order to save England from the folly of hiring Steve McLaren as coach, if only for another 6 months before he was rousingly outwitted by every other coach at Euro 2008.

 

 

 

Class, send that to the fat fcuk!

[Guest alex]

Or how about this for an article.

 

And so as England fans look forward to another quarter finals stage in a major tournament without their team taking part

Got to the quarters of the last 3 tbh

[Guest Dev]

Or how about this for an article.

 

And so as England fans look forward to another quarter finals stage in a major tournament without their team taking part

Got to the quarters of the last 3 tbh

 

oh semis then!

[Guest teepee]

Or how about this for an article.

 

And so as England fans look forward to another quarter finals stage in a major tournament without their team taking part, they can at least look back with fond memories to when Wayne Rooney once again buckled under the pressure of being Englands only fit world class striker and was sent off. They are left, however, with fond memories of a meaningless win over Estonia back in late 2007, which Michael Owen dutifully rushed back for only to amazingly tear his groin into 15 pieces 5 minutes into the game. This is what every young footballer dreams of, however, being rushed back into the national team having not managed to string together 5 consecutive games for two years, in order to save England from the folly of hiring Steve McLaren as coach, if only for another 6 months before he was rousingly outwitted by every other coach at Euro 2008.

 

 

 

haha

 

what a cock that martin samuel is - journalism like that is so so easy to write...

[Cronky]

Martin Samuel writes in a very entertaining way, but he does have this habit of demolishing straw men in order to produce punchy articles. Ed's views aren't particularly representative of NUFC supporters in general, I wouldn't say.

 

The game benefits from both an international and a club dimension. Neither is more important than the other. I certainly wouldn't want to get a situation like in cricket or rugby union, where the club game is subservient.

[Guest thenorthumbrian]

When it comes to football I have only one national team.

They play in black and white stripes, have a national stadium called St James Park, NE1, they represent the Geordie Nation and have our own national anthem - the Blaydon Races.

Boll@cks to the 3 lions (originally a French symbol anyway).

Let the cockneys have "London United" they're welcome to them.

 

[Guest alex]

When it comes to football I have only one national team.

They play in black and white stripes, have a national stadium called St James Park, NE1, they represent the Geordie Nation and have our own national anthem - the Blaydon Races.

Boll@cks to the 3 lions (originally a French symbol anyway).

Let the cockneys have "London United" they're welcome to them.

 

[Tom_NUFC]

I am seriously getting sick of England these days.

 

The thing is the guy Martin Samuel is slagging off has a  very valid point about how we pay his wages but basically he's England's Michael Owen.

 

This is how the top England players are thought of in the media:

 

Chelsea Captain John Terry (even though he's also England captain), Chelsea's Frank Lampard, Liverpool's Steven Gerrard, Man United's Wayne Rooney, England's Michael Owen.

When the four other players get injured, England is mentioned, but their club is mentioned with equal importance. When it's Owen it's all about England, with Newcastle as a lowly side mention, but hey it doesn't matter about the NUFC games he misses.

 

It's not particularly Owen's fault himself, it's the media.