Breaking News: Gerard Houllier reiterates his desire to bring Michael Owen to Aston Villa
Gerard Houllier has come out and stated his desire to bring Michael Owen to Aston Villa. Houllier was at Liverpool when Michael Owen had just emerged as one of the brightest strikers to grace English football; the Frenchman played
a massive role in maturing Owen’s talent and giving him tips which helped him succeed at great clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United.
Recent rumors suggest that Michael Owen might be on his way out of Old Trafford as Sir Alex Ferguson has looked towards Gabriel Obertan and Federico Macheda to lead the line for Manchester United when Wayne Rooney was out injured.
Owen has had his fair share of injuries lately. After his move to Newcastle United from Real Madrid earlier on in the decade, the Englishman hardly played a lot of first team football for the Magpies as he suffered set back after set back in fitness terms.
At Manchester United, he has only started a single game in the English Premier League thus far in the 2010-2011 season but for most part of the present season, he has been out injured with a hamstring injury. In 2004, when Houllier
left Liverpool and Benitez came in, Michael Owen was sold by his childhood club to Real Madrid. Aston Villa play Liverpool on Monday night and their manager told the press in his pre-match interview that he would love to be reunited with Owen.
Villa’s manager said, “I would love to bring him here. He would be good for the group and has a joyful attitude to playing." In a surprising piece of news, Houllier also revealed that he wants to sign Ronaldo in the winger’s more
youthful days, before he joined Manchester United following the departure of David Beckham.
Houllier said, "I saw him (Cristiano Ronaldo) in the Toulon Under-21 tournament and we went for him, but we had a wage scale and we weren't paying the sort of salary he wanted. Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting
Lisbon and all their boys said to Sir Alex Ferguson, 'You have to sign him'. But I agreed with not breaking the wage structure. I thought it would cause problems in our dressing room.”
He added, "I know some of the signings were not as sharp as they could have been. Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time and was very hungry but got a bad injury.
After that, he never had the same confidence, the same appetite."
Gerard Houllier will be looking to at least lead his Aston Villa side to a respectable Europa League finish in his first season at Villa Park. Villa finished sixth in last year’s English Premier League under Martin O’Neill who
left the Birmingham club in the summer just before the season kicked off after having an argument with Randy Lerner, Villa’s owner.
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