Michael Owen once revealed just how close he really came to returning to Liverpool
Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version or go back to LFC Live.net.
Michael Owen is not the most liked character on the red half of Merseyside, but things could have been very different.
The Reds have one of the most prestigious academies in world football and have produced some top talents from their ranks, with one of the best being Michael Owen.
Even if Liverpool fans do not want to admit it, the former striker is one of the best goalscorers they have ever had, with the Englishman winning the Golden Boot aged just 17.
He also picked up the Ballon d’Or at 22, and just two years later, he joined Real Madrid in a move that broke Reds fans’ hearts.
That is not the reason he is disliked by many, though, with this being because he later joined rivals Manchester United in a move that ruined what was left of his legacy.
However, things could have taken a different turn if it was not for one thing, with Owen once revealing just how close he came to an Anfield return.
Photo by Ian Horrocks/Newcastle United via Getty Images
Owen certainly did not hit the heights at Madrid that he once did at Liverpool, with his spell in Spain largely considered as a failure.
He scored just 16 goals in 45 games for the club, and in 2005, just over a year since joining, there was speculation that he would be returning to England.
MORE LIVERPOOL STORIES
This is exactly what he did by joining Newcastle, but Owen himself once revealed that he was moments away from returning to his boyhood club instead, with everything already agreed.
“I can comfort myself because as soon as I knew I was coming back [to England] I was on the phone to Rafa Benitez,” Owen said on the Off The Ball podcast back in 2018.
“We met, we did this, we did that, we agreed, Liverpool said they would pay X amount, but then Newcastle came to the party and just offered £6m more.
“Liverpool couldn’t budge, which is fair enough, they said they’d go to £10m, but Real Madrid said ‘you either stay here or you go to Newcastle,’ and I had no option.
READ MORE: The former Liverpool player who ‘hated’ the club so much he would refuse to wear the kit in training
“But then in the Newcastle contract, we put things in there because they knew I wanted to go to Liverpool, and they knew I could go in different summers or leave for an agreed fee.
“So at every point I tried [to go back to Liverpool].
In the first year, I did my knee in the World Cup so I couldn’t go back to Liverpool.
All is fine, I’m not bitter at all, time moves on, so that was that.
We all wanted it to happen, both the chairman and the manager.”
At the time, most Liverpool fans would have probably said that they would have loved Owen to return to Anfield, with this one way he could rebuild the relationship.
However, as the striker mentioned, they had Fernando Torres and then Luis Suarez at the time, two players who went on to have hugely successful careers with the Reds.
And if Owen had come in during that time, they may not have progressed in the way in which they did, suggesting it was the best thing for the club to forget any sort of reunion.
Moving to Man United really was the final nail in the coffin, though, with almost no Liverpool fan forgiving him for making that move.