Fire in my Heart

So I'm kind of glad that I deleted the huge slagging off of Owen I originally wrote for yesterday's paper round up. Instead I simply implied it was a silly idea and suggested Owen would have trouble finding a place on our bench. Having had a night to consider the news that he seems pretty likely to sign for us am I sticking to this? Sort of.
Ignoring the fact that he used to play for Liverpool, for the moment, the major problem with the transfer seems to be the timing. It's the juxtaposition of Owen with Benzema, one upcoming star, one star whose light is fading. On Tuesday we were all imagining signing Benzema, on Thursday we were faced with the reality of Owen. It is certainly unfortunate timing. And the papers make the most of it, this in The Sun for example:

There was a time when United would just snap their fingers and a player would come running.

That time seems to be in the past. Now they seem to be banking on a veteran striker to lift the gloom.

The way to view the Owen transfer in its proper light is to take it on its own merits. He's free, he's a proven goal scorer. He will certainly make a good player to have in reserve. Of course there's a downside, his injury problems and his Liverpool past specifically. On the injuries, it would seem that the deal could well be based on performance, rather than a huge wage upfront, plus Newcastle are a club that always seem to have problems with injuries, for whatever reason, players at Newcastle just seem to be beset by injuries, even if they weren't beforehand. His Liverpool past is worrying, but perhaps a more worrying thing is this quote, which is in The Independent, from 13 years ago:

Owen had, in his own words, "no raging desire" to play for United. Instead then, as now, the Owen camp had an eye for an opportunity.

Since when did we buy players with "no raging desire"? Since when did we buy "opportunists"? This worries me. But, for a good squad player, on a free transfer, we should probably give him the benefit of the doubt: that he will give his all to try and prove the doubters wrong, I just wish he'd be giving his all for Man Utd, rather than for himself...
And yet another but ... we should trust Sir Alex's decisions, even if they seem on the surface "silly", he's proven time and again that he knows what he's doing, let us assume that he will also be signing some great, exciting, upcoming stars to go with Owen...