Ferguson’s faith fulfilled in former Red turned Red Devil

SEPT 24 — Back in July, Manchester United fans faced the stark reality that the £80 million (RM540 million) the club received for Cristiano Ronaldo was not going to be used to bring in some big-name players the fans were craving for.

Karim Benzema found Real Madrid irresistible, Franck Ribery was happy to give Bayern Munich another season, Samuel Eto’o was involved in a strange striker-swap between Barcelona and Inter Milan, and even Emmanuel Adebayor found the money more appealing at the blue half of Manchester than the higher potential for success at Old Trafford.

Alex Ferguson only had Anton Valencia to show amidst all the hype about potential players coming in to replace Ronaldo.

But unbeknownst to these fans, the wheels were actually set in motion for one of the most astonishing transfer stories of last summer.

One Michael Owen, a former Liverpool legend according to some reports (but not anymore, say Reds supporters), signed on the dotted line at Old Trafford on July 3 and immediately questions were raised by the fans, media and critics.

The questions mostly focused on Owen’s history on the treatment table. He had been out injured far too many times over the last couple of years or so most people thought.

When interviewed by club website manutd.com, Owen hit back with a simple statement: “I’m 29, I’ve played 500-plus games at the highest level. For me to play that many games, I think everyone would agree you can’t be on the treatment table all the time.” Good point.

To be fair to Owen the facts are on his side — if people even bother to look at the facts these days, that is. Sadly, most don’t and only rely on hearsay and innuendos. This is not unlike what some local mainstream media are prone to do of course when publishing local “news”. But that’s for another story on another day.

Getting back to Owen, he is constantly mocked about his record at Newcastle when he actually played 58 games and scored a decent 26 goals. This in a struggling team and in unfamiliar territory at times, having to play in midfield.

MU got him on a free transfer and the deal was supposedly incentive-based where his salary was concerned. It was obvious that Owen was desperate to: a) get out of Newcastle, and b) revive his international career.

I believe he was wise in not going for the assured high weekly salary that other clubs were offering in favour of the conditional package from MU. He doesn’t really need the money anyway.

Five games into the season, there were still more questions asked of Owen than answers. Then came game number six.

Trust Ferguson to get it right in terms of timing by giving Owen his ultimate moment of glory in the red of Manchester United, putting him on for the last 17 minutes of a pulsating derby match at Old Trafford last Sunday. All his previous minutes for MU in the Community Shield, Premier League and Champions League this season did not matter anymore.

Owen’s inspired last-gasp winner against city rivals Manchester City might only ease the pressure on him, for now at least, but it also means he has delivered on Ferguson’s key reason for signing him — to give an added edge in the box for MU.

This was something Fergie probably felt Carlos Tevez lacked and so was willing to let him go. For all of Tevez’s appearances last season, he scored only five league goals for MU.

I am willing to wager with anyone that Owen will at least double that tally this season. At £25 million cheaper and £50k a week less wages, that’s brilliant business by any standards.

Sure, there won’t be any of the energetic chases that Tevez puts in (one of which resulted in City’s first goal on Sunday), but MU have Park Ji-sung, Darren Fletcher and Anderson to do that. What the club needs is a fox-in-the-box-type striker and in Owen they have the right man for that specific task. Anything else he delivers is simply a bonus.

I also feel that Owen’s contribution in the match finally put an end to the debate over Tevez’s acrimonious departure from MU.

On Sunday, Tevez showed the Old Trafford faithful just why Ferguson was not too downhearted to see him leave. The Argentine looked distraught throughout the match and perhaps the only good thing he did was pressure Ben Foster into making an error that led to Gareth Barry's goal.

While City arguably have a talented enough squad to challenge for honours this season, they do not have the mentality. I say this after seeing them play 45 minutes of football where they barely made an attempt to get out of their own half.

You may say MU pegged them back but in reality they never wanted to push on and try to win the game. Even Shay Given delayed picking up the ball just to waste time at 2-2 after only 52 minutes played.

Would any of the big four have settled for a draw this early against a rival, be it playing home or away? I doubt it (though Liverpool’s tactics against Arsenal in recent seasons do come to mind). City clearly are still in the mindset that they are inferior and must try to hang on in games where they should be looking for more.

They were fortunate to have scored the way they did against Arsenal the previous week, with the Gunners going all guns blazing looking for a winner, instead of sitting back at 1-1. Yes, Arsenal lost, but it’s a risk one has to take if you are a club with a must-win mentality.

The records speak for itself with the same four clubs always at the pinnacle of English football year-in year-out for the past four seasons.

Speaking of records, I am not sure if Ferguson knew about a particularly unique achievement by Owen, but if he did, that might have helped him decide in bringing on Owen in the 78th minute, with the score still at 2-2.

Owen has now achieved the unique record of having scored in four major derby matches while playing for different clubs in the top-tier of league football in England and Spain. These are the Merseyside derby between Liverpool and Everton, “El Clásico” in which he scored for Real Madrid against Barcelona, the Tyne-Wear derby where Newcastle United take on Sunderland, and now the Manchester derby.

Actually, we can make that five “derbies” if we include his past achievement for England. Owen scored a hattrick against England’s greatest rivals, Germany, in a World Cup 2002 qualifier played in Munich on Sept 1, 2001.

Now, this latest derby goal may just have given him the right platform to work his way back into the national side in preparation for World Cup 2010.