by Owzat » Mon Jun 01, 2009 12:05 pm
I don't see why Owen should settle for pay as you play, would any of us be happy with that situation? (say 'commission only' work) Or if you applied for a job, they looked at your sick leave in the past two or three years and said "well you take a lot of time off work so we'll have to knock a bit off your starting salary and offer you only six month contracts at a time with no compensation if we decide not to renew.
The thing with Michael is he might be happy to be paid normally but sit on the bench as much as start, would we get a better quality striker who would be (as) happy not to start regularly?
He's been tagged "injury prone", yet made 29 Premiership appearances last season and 27 appearances this season - Torres only played 24 Premiership games and we aren't talking about him being "pay as you play". It's almost a kneejerk reaction by fans to a player with "injury problems", to talk of this scenario. We either want him or we don't, if we 27+ Premiership games and 10 or 12 goals then I see no reason why he should be singled out for a "pay as you play" contract.
As it happens, if we stick with one up front then Owen would be competing to start and unless his injuries coincided with Torres', it might not matter too much. Personally I think it is a problem at St Jim Jams Park, he has 27+ league appearances in every full season he's played except two - both at St Jim Jams Park
Michael Owen League Appearances
LIVERPOOL
96/97 : 2
97/98 : 36
98/99 : 30
99/00 : 27
00/01 : 28
01/02 : 29
02/03 : 35
03/04 : 29
REAL MADRID
04/05 : 35
NEWCASTLE
05/06 : 11
06/07 : 3
07/08 : 29
08/09 : 27
321 league appearances in 12 full seasons is an average of 27. Anelka started his first full season in 97/98, he has made 336 league appearances in the same period of 12 seasons (although no details of 06/07, perhaps missed most of it?). source : wikipedia
It's pure coincidence I should pick Anelka, mainly because he came to prominance for Arsenal in 97/98, but he and Michael Owen share 19 as their most league goals in a season.
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