Why did Owen leave?

The Game podcast by The Times is, in my humble opinion, the best podcast out there. It draws its journalistic sword, and stabs at all those addle-brained media pundits, who are still stuck in the Dark Ages of English football, and often provides insightful information, and strong opinions, which are much in tune with, not just English football, but with European football, along with the odd block-busting statistic or two.

The two main reasons for its credibility are messrs Gabrielle Marcotti, and Guilleume Ballague. It was the latter who said something that made me realise, possibly by Rafael Benitez let one of Liverpool’s talismans go.

This season, I have noticed some similarities between the Premier League’s two Spanish managers Rafa, and Juande Ramos at Tottenham Hotspur. Both seem suited to cup competitions, and both have a very strategist mind-set, and are able to outthink the opposition. Both are very strong defensively, when they have all their players fit. Thirdly, it has to be said that they both like players with qualities above and beyond their station. For this, you must ignore, in Spurs’ case, strikers like Jermaine Defoe, and Darren Bent, who are good at scoring goals, but little else. If you take a look at Benitez’s signings, Kuyt, Crouch, Torres, and even maybe Morientets, all of them have abilities that go beyond scoring goals. Michael Owen could only offer goals.

So whats wrong with that? I hear you ask. Well its down to the sort of manager that Rafael Benitez, and Juande Ramos are. They are tacticians, who opt to play to the opposition’s weaknesses, rather than to their teams’ strengths. This invariably involves players having to be versatile, something which Owen, and certainly Defoe are not.

I always thought that the reason why Michael left was because Rafa offered him an ultimatum as soon as he came in. The whole contract saga was perhaps dragging too long, and perhaps Benitez wanted to bring it to an end, one way or another in order to get all his early plans into place. So invariably, when Real Madrid came knocking, Owen’s hand was forced, and he left in a flurry of abject disbelief. But now, I am beginning to think that maybe footballing matters did come into play, and Michael Owen did not fit the type of team Benitez wanted to manage. Then why has he said that he was thinking about resigning the Newcastle man? For the same reason he signed Robbie Fowler? Did he really want to earn back some brownie-points from the Liverpool fans (some of whom would not have him back, and all of whom who would rather keep hold of the ‘alternative,’ to Owen - Fernando Torres).

Who knows what weird and wonderful things goes on in the Spaniards head?