Michael Owen has always been a cringe monster

Chesterlestreet

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He's extremely stupid and tedious (so dull in fact, that you could've suspected it was done on purpose if not for the man's obvious lack of intelligence, you can't fake that kind of stupidity). In addition to that, he's just so...weird in an extremely annoying, Partridgey sort of way. I suppose the latter is a possible reason why he gets hired: in spite of the dullness and overall idiocy, he remains "interesting" in the sense that he's always good for saying something outlandishly silly.
 

Lord SInister

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Exactly. I am not disputing him. I am agreeing with him about the Liverpool is the better team idiocy as the Madrid keeper made good saves.
I think football fans have always the habit of overhyping the losers and underrating the winners, if losers play the conventional beautiful football. Like West Germany of 1974 was in no way inferior and played thier own brand of total football, but someone we all see overhyping of Holland. Same with Brazil 1982, when Itlay 1982 was simply a better team
 

Daydreamer

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I think person you quoted meant to say the same thing.
I’ve read it back and I think that is indeed what I’m saying.

Either way, we’re in agreement. Not only last night, that line of reasoning has always bothered me.
 

Daydreamer

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Exactly. I am not disputing him. I am agreeing with him about the Liverpool is the better team idiocy as the Madrid keeper made good saves.
Ah cool. Well, if nothing else, Owen has succeeded at bringing people together. Granted, it’s to criticise him - but in these divisive times I’ll take it.
 

Foxbatt

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I think football fans have always the habit of overhyping the losers and underrating the winners, if losers play the conventional beautiful football. Like West Germany of 1974 was in no way inferior and played thier own brand of total football, but someone we all see overhyping of Holland. Same with Brazil 1982, when Itlay 1982 was simply a better team
I agree with you. The Italians were underated because they were poor in the group stages. Man for man they were not inferior to The Brazilians. Their defense was obviously much better than the Brazilians, their strikers were better too. It's in midfield that the Brazilians were much better but Bruno Conti was brilliant in midfield for the Italians as an individual.
As for the Germans, I think Johnny Rep should have scored and both he and Rensenbrink had a poor game.
 

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He said if you put Gerrard in that great Guardiola Barca side he'd be the second best player in the team after Messi. Hoodwinked the Rio and Cole into putting him in the CL best ever 11.
 

ti vu

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He said if you put Gerrard in that great Guardiola Barca side he'd be the second best player in the team after Messi. Hoodwinked the Rio and Cole into putting him in the CL best ever 11.
:eek::houllier:

Gerrard is not on the same level as Xabi Alonso. Glossing all over the midfield that conquer everything with Barcelona and Spain NT.
 

WeePat

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:eek::houllier:

Gerrard is not on the same level as Xabi Alonso. Glossing all over the midfield that conquer everything with Barcelona and Spain NT.
His argument was that he was the best all round player out of the players in the discussion but not a specialist. The other players were Xavi, Iniesta, Zidane, Modric.
 

JPRouve

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Just a reminder that this is the type of person you're dealing with:

To tell you how much credit I give him. I double checked that he didn't misspelled eight and hate.
 

Buchan

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It may not have been in this thread but I distinctly remember a poster (or posters) speculating that Owen is on the autism spectrum to some degree based on certain mannerisms he displays. After reading those posts, I cannot unsee it.

The monotone voice, apparent inability to read social cues (outlandish, nonsensical claims in his punditry often), a tendency to speak about his own interests or directing conversations towards his own end (linked to previous point), inability to cope with unexpected events (his bizarre rant last night about Liverpool still being the best team in Europe despite not being i. English league champions and ii. European champions), inability to conform to basic humour, obsession with winning (a major theme of his recent autobiography, which I’ve read), straight-talking honesty/being very literal in his language (sometimes his analysis comes across as very harsh and ‘cutting’).

I know it may be construed as a wild leap to make, but as I said, since I read posters here mentioning it a few months back, it’s been in my head ever since.
 

horsechoker

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It may not have been in this thread but I distinctly remember a poster (or posters) speculating that Owen is on the autism spectrum to some degree based on certain mannerisms he displays. After reading those posts, I cannot unsee it.

The monotone voice, apparent inability to read social cues (outlandish, nonsensical claims in his punditry often), a tendency to speak about his own interests or directing conversations towards his own end (linked to previous point), inability to cope with unexpected events (his bizarre rant last night about Liverpool still being the best team in Europe despite not being i. English league champions and ii. European champions), inability to conform to basic humour, obsession with winning (a major theme of his recent autobiography, which I’ve read), straight-talking honesty/being very literal in his language (sometimes his analysis comes across as very harsh and ‘cutting’).

I know it may be construed as a wild leap to make, but as I said, since I read posters here mentioning it a few months back, it’s been in my head ever since.
I've seen it debunked also on here.
 

ti vu

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His argument was that he was the best all round player out of the players in the discussion but not a specialist. The other players were Xavi, Iniesta, Zidane, Modric.
The tendency to back pass to opposition forward alone would disqualify Gerrard from any serious midfielder debate, let alone that Barcelona midfield/team.

Owen argument is very similar to a FM gamer who look at only raw attribute like pace, workrate, tackling, passing range, shooting ability... via FM point standard. Gerrard however is very poor in term of tactical discipline. Constant short pass, moving, receiving, scanning the field, and picking the right moment is a discipline in itself. Gerrard couldn't play midfielder properly for Bentinez that he was pushed around in more attacking position because he loves himself Hollywood pass at the earliest moment. Gerrard is an anti Barcelona player, and he's automatically one of the worst in the squad, and sticking out like a sore thumb. Similarly Coutinho fits this profile and see what happened to him at Barcelona, even a much loose version from Pepball.
 

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I have a question for the non British football fans here. Do the foreign pundits sound as stupid as The British ones too normally?
to my mind, some of the foreign pundits are far worse than the british pundits. going off tangent, making weird noises, saying stupid shit. bizzarre.
 

Edwards6

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He said if you put Gerrard in that great Guardiola Barca side he'd be the second best player in the team after Messi. Hoodwinked the Rio and Cole into putting him in the CL best ever 11.
Watched that earlier and still can't believe they put Gerrard in the team?!
Owen talked like he won it in 05 on his own basically, truth is they were 3-0 down with him in midfield then had to bring Hamann on to change the game
 

WeePat

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Watched that earlier and still can't believe they put Gerrard in the team?!
Owen talked like he won it in 05 on his own basically, truth is they were 3-0 down with him in midfield then had to bring Hamann on to change the game
Yeah he was doubling down on it, and it seemed like Rio and Cole just said okay in the end because they wanted to move on to other positions. But they benched Xavi and Modric because Owen and Keown wanted to Gerrard in there.
 

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It's completely unrelated to his punditry, but Owen become so widely disliked by Liverpool, Newcastle, Man Utd and Stoke fans across the board was some going.
 

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I have no time For Owen and his stupid statements. Carragher should have been sacked for spitting in a young girls face. Others were sacked for less.
 

Lay

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It's completely unrelated to his punditry, but Owen become so widely disliked by Liverpool, Newcastle, Man Utd and Stoke fans across the board was some going.
Madrid fans probably don’t remember him enough to care.

Isn’t he an ambassador for Liverpool or something? The fans were against it and it’s why he’s spends his time trying to win them back
 

WeePat

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It's completely unrelated to his punditry, but Owen become so widely disliked by Liverpool, Newcastle, Man Utd and Stoke fans across the board was some going.
I'm guessing Liverpool fans dislike him because left them at his peak and then wound up playing for United? The rest of the teams got a heavily declined, half-arsed version of him that no-one would like given the huge wages each club committed to him.
 

BerryBerryShrew

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What's funniest to me is that of all those clubs, the Liverpool ambassador is least despised by United fans- after all he came in and did a job for us and the goal against Citeh was a glorious moment.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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Madrid fans probably don’t remember him enough to care.

Isn’t he an ambassador for Liverpool or something? The fans were against it and it’s why he’s spends his time trying to win them back
Yes I was wondering how he was remembered by Real fans, if at all given that he wasn't there for a long.

There have been numerous petitions started by Liverpool fans over the last few years demanding that he was removed as club ambassador, and it appears that his desperate attempts to get back on side with their fans has failed.

I'm guessing Liverpool fans dislike him because left them at his peak and then wound up playing for United? The rest of the teams got a heavily declined, half-arsed version of him that no-one would like given the huge wages each club committed to him.
The Liverpool fans I know hate him for those reasons, thinking that he was egotistical and cared more about his stats than the club, and of course joining Utd in 2009 was seen as a betrayal. They thought that he ran down his contract with 1 year left, to force a move to Real at a reduced price.

He clearly wanted to go back to Liverpool in 2005/2006, but understandably they were not willing to match Newcastle's huge offer of £16 or 17 million, so his only choices at stage and ahead of the 2006 World Cup were to go Newcastle or to sit on the bench at Real.

He admitted that he went through the motions at Stoke and was basically mentally checked. Clearly he was never going to fit in a team managed by Tony Pulis.
 

poleglass red

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I'm guessing Liverpool fans dislike him because left them at his peak and then wound up playing for United? The rest of the teams got a heavily declined, half-arsed version of him that no-one would like given the huge wages each club committed to him.
so that's Owen, Souness and McManaman, 3 current pundits and ex Liverpool players who aren't exactly loved by the Liverpool fans for different reasons.
 

Rajiztar

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He didn't win cl in his life time. Is that true despite playing for madrid,liverpool and United.
 

adexkola

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I can't imagine letting someone this dumb wind me up.

But then again he exists because he is satisfying a demand from the public for pundits who speak like them at the same elementary level.

It's why people like Stephen A make the big bucks and people who break down the game really well past cliche level are stuck on that Tifo channel asking for donations
 

Withnail

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I can't imagine letting someone this dumb wind me up.

But then again he exists because he is satisfying a demand from the public for pundits who speak like them at the same elementary level.

It's why people like Stephen A make the big bucks and people who break down the game really well past cliche level are stuck on that Tifo channel asking for donations
They've made a choice to dumb it down and get ex star players with zero insight in to talk bollox. They didn't have to do that and there is a happy medium. You can educate your audience as you go.