Hello good people, Jonny Forumer reporting for duty Stoke City welcomed former England, Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Newcastle United striker Michael Owen to the Britannia Stadium the other day, prompting a generally enthused but still cautious response from the denizens of Potters message boards Oatcake Fanzine and Potters Online. I lurked in the bushes outside and eavesdropped on their thoughts about how Owen might fit into Tony Pulis’s side as they look to secure a fifth consecutive season of top-flight football…
yogibear78, Oatcake Fanzine…
Hasn’t started a Premier League game for over two years… and is suddenly going to be stoke fit/sharp. riiiiiiiIIIIggghhht
Shawn, Potters Online…
Hope this one works !!
See Gudjohnson for reasons of my reservation !
No denying though if we can get him fit, keep him fit and firing he is exactly what we are missing !
sbmstoke, Oatcake Fanzine…
Good piece of business by stoke, it can only increase the clubs profile for the better.
Bagwash, Oatcake Fanzine…
Happy with him signing just not too chuffed about him keeping us waiting and hoping a better deal comes along.
Will give him the benefit of the doubt,hope he stays fit and plays and scores a decent amount of games/goals.
stokie_bloke, Potters Online…
I’m old enough to remember us signing Geoff Hurst back in 1972, not long after we’d won the League Cup. There were some similarities. Hurst was perceived to be past his best and was coming to Stoke to see his years out (he actually went on to WBA after us). Hurst, at 31, knocked in 30 goals in less than 3 seasons. Not a bad return for someone deemed to be “over the hill”. I think we’d all settle for a similar return? The main difference is, Hurst was rarely injured.
WithChayze, Oatcake Fanzine…
Sky reports it being £1.5 million in wages if he’s fit and meets all the terms of the contact, if not then the outlay will be lower.
No real complaints about that kind of deal, fairly low risk. A little concerned on the back of Gudjohnsen and Woodgate but hopefully we’ll have better luck this time around.
Back in May I had reservations about us making chances for him given Man United have a midfield who can make them for fun, but it’ll be interesting to see how it might work now we’ve bought in a few more creative midfielders like Adams, Kightly etc. At Wigan coming on as a sub I’d have fancied Owen to tuck away that one that Kightly volleyed over in the second half plus the two late chances Jerome had.
Jamo on the wing, Oatcake Fanzine…
Potentially a deal that could be perfect for everyone.
Clearly the club are happy to pay him whatever it is we have agreed (so not sure why others are worried?) and if we can get 60% out of him he will still be light years ahead of anything we’ve got or had in many a year.
Welcome Michael, now score some goals!
steve pugh, Potters Online…
Think that if we can keep him fit, then we will of found the partnership of perfection up front. Crouch and Owen. He will more than likely only be a 20 min player.
mickmillslovechild, Oatcake Fanzine…
What’s the point of a poacher in our side, to mop all of those goal mouth scrambles we create or to pop into the six yard area for all those balls along the floor we drive into the area?
Goal scoring record at Man Utd. completely irrelevant given they play COMPLETELY differently to us and we created fewer chances than ANYONE else last season
8 games a year is a good turn out for £30k a week (reportedly)? really??????
don’t get me wrong, if he scores hatfuls then of course we’ll all love him BUT like you can’t see why some aren’t happy, some can;t see why you ARE happy given the actual facts that have been listed above.
the pro-Owen brigade are purely basing on facts from over 5 years ago in general whereas the “Anti-Owen” lot are using up to date, more relevant stats and not using the romantic idea of “World class Michael Owen” which he hasn’t been for ANY side for about 6 or 7 years.
neither camp know 100% who’s “Facts” will bear more fruit but it’s a bit patronising to slag us off for simply disagreeing with you (especially bearing in mind we are using factual and RECENT evidence to back it)
dirtyharry31, Oatcake Fanzine…
Fact of the matter is you don’t lose the instinct to score goals. The chance that Walters had against the Arse which ended up looking like a square pass, Owen would have buried it and we would have won the game.
Onneravineet, Oatcake Fanzine…
It is a MAJOR signing for Stoke!
Congrats to everyone involved. If Walters time reduces because of this it’ll be even better for me!
We’ll also sell some more Stoke shirts in the far east they absolutely love him in China and Japan
nicethrow, Oatcake Fanzine…
I get the feeling that he wanted to play for ANYONE BUT Stoke
And that’s what i don’t like about the signing
ShawThing17, Potters Online…
Absourlutely buzzing! Loved him for years him and crouch will lik up so well!
blurtonboy, Oatcake Fanzine…
For all of you saying he is unfit, are you his personal trainer?
Give the bloke a fucking chance, before you judge.
stackman, Oatcake Fanzine…
If Alex Ferguson had Owen in his Twenty five man squad last year then that’s good enough for me. I think he will be a good signing barring injury of course, always scored goals where ever he has been and very potent to bring on last twenty. Wins penalties too. Pay as you play deal I can’t see the problem
swanseastokie, Oatcake Fanzine…
5 goals in 31 PL games for United… I can’t delude myself into thinking he’ll be anything other than gash, It ain’t 1998.
sheffieldstokie82, Oatcake Fanzine…
I like how the official site says we’ve “won the race” to sign him. Is it still a race if there’s only one entrant?
stokie12345, Oatcake Fanzine…
He’s an absolute git for making chances look easier than they are, IMO. For a lot of the goals he scores, you’d see a lot of players going for low piledrivers and risking the keeper saving it – Owen gets his foot under the ball and over the keeper excellently
mermaidsal, Oatcake Fanzine…
Replacing Ric as last 30 mins pinch hitter I’d think, sub for Crouch if he’s having a bad day or… hmm, would Walters have to be on life support to get subbed though??
discokaraoke, Oatcake Fanzine…
Who would have thought when we were playing the likes of scunthorpe, that we would be playing top flight football and have the likes of crouch and owen on the books? I for one didn’t.
But to some that’s still not good enough.
delapattack2008, Oatcake Fanzine…
i think he could do a job in this formation;
3-4-3
……………bego…………..
shawcross…….huth……cameron/wilson/upson
whelan…….adam…….nzonzi………pennant
Kightly……….OWEN……….jerome/walters/ethers
or
3-5-2
………………..bego……………….
shawcross……….huth…………cameron/wilson/upson
pennant………adam……….whelan……nzonzi/wilson……….ethers/kightly
………………..owen……………crouch/jones/walters