May 22nd 2011 was for me one of those days that fans of football clubs worldwide dread, the moment one of your favourite players leave the club you love. They may have done many things while at the club, a goal scoring machine, the driving force in the machine, or a defender ready to throw himself in the way of a screaming shot on a rainy miserable November night.
When the news broke that Manchester United wouldn’t offer Owen Hargreaves a new contract I was sat preparing to watch the final game of the season against Blackpool, where we would finally be presented as Champions. For the first hour I sat there dumbfounded, it didn’t make sense. Why Sir Alex I thought, Hargreaves can still a job for us, I knew it, but no one would listen to me as I ranted to whoever would listen to me.
Justifications came thick and fast, he’s better than some of our other players, he’s what we’ve been missing. A week later, Barcelona showed us that our we needed a world class defensive midfielder to protect our back line.
A work colleague, a Liverpool fan said to me before the final, “The player you need to beat them hasn’t played for you properly for the last two years”, a perfectly valid comment that people have pointed out about both the 2009 and 2011 finals, both of which have seen us lose the game in the middle of the pitch, although Darren Fletchers presence was also missed in these two games.
When Hargreaves signed with us back in 2007 I was overjoyed, he was the midfield enforcer we needed and much more, his versatility was vital throughout the season, no more so than in the two semi-finals against Barca, in which we shut them out over both legs, and the thrilling final in Moscow. Playing at right back, right wing(as part of an adaptable midfield quartet) and in his natural central midfield role throughout the extra time periods.
Often when Manchester United fans think back on the 2007/2008 season, they think of one man, Cristiano Ronaldo, and being fair it is hard to look past the phenomenal season he had, and it is fair to say that without Ronaldo, the campaign may have gone differently. But looking back through the games, were many other star performers, the back four and goalkeeper (usually consisting of Edwin Van Der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Wes Brown) were imperious, especially at the start of the season when the attacking players weren’t hitting the heights they would later in the season.
Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez instantly developed an almost telepathic understanding, finding each other in and around the box without evening looking up. Finally the midfield, which was without doubt the strongest it had been in years, offered a multitude of options and combinations for Sir Alex Ferguson.
The additions of Anderson and Owen Hargreaves could have been seen as a way of finding a new version of the Paul Scholes and Roy Keane combination that served the club so well towards the end of the last decade and the start of this one. Hargreaves and Anderson even showed early signs of developing a great partnership, the home game against Middlesbrough was one their stand out performances.
It would be far fetched to say that Owen Hargreaves was the most important member of that part of the team, although he did repeatedly manage to draw out great performances from those he was partnered with in the middle, Paul Scholes being the obvious exception to this claim, his consistent form and quality on the ball over the duration of his career has been a joy to watch. In recent seasons, Anderson and to some extent Michael Carrick, a man who was pivotal in his first two or three or seasons, and no doubt contributed to all three league titles significantly, have seen their form dip and come under criticism.
It would seem to be a valid theory that Hargreaves absence has been felt by these two players, maybe it was Hargreaves reading of the game and defensive mindset that helped his team mates, winning the ball back in situations that would generate space for them, allowing them to play their own game, in Carrick’s case, dictating the pace of the game, for Anderson it would be driving forward with the ball and having the freedom to express himself in the final third.
It wouldn’t be a fair discussion about Owen Hargreaves without bringing up the obvious subject of injuries. It has been a long time since were saw Hargreaves play a full game, but when he consider some of the previous events. At the start of the season, renowned knee surgeon Dr Richard Steadman claimed, angering Ferguson in the process, that Hargreaves was ready to return. Ferguson rebuffed these comments. Steadman could have been talking from the perspective of a surgeon, in as much as that as far as he could see, the tendinitis had been addressed and the problem solved, as much as it can be. Where as Ferguson was most definitely talking in terms of Hargreaves playing Premier League football.
Then we have the unfortunate game against Wolves in November. Clearly Ferguson wouldn’t have played him if he didn’t think he was capable of playing, the hamstring injury could be attributed any number of possibilities. The shoulder injury in the last two months of the season just seemed to come out of nowhere, and effectively ended his United career, despite reports that he had been training well, and was doing everything to get back into the team.
But the biggest indicator has come from the player himself, in not choosing to retire, despite what many journalists and fans have suggested. This surely is this biggest fact to take note of, as no one will know his body better than himself, so surely he feels that he is capable of getting back into a top flight club.
In the crazy world of football the chance of seeing Owen Hargreaves pulling on Manchester United shirt again is impossible. Who would of thought we would ever see Michael Owen in Manchester United shirt? Stranger things have happened in this game. But it would be a long road, and the odds are against him, but if for one year he played at either a promotion chasing Championship team, or a mid table Premier League side, Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion have both been rumoured, and were to find his old form and prove that he was physically able to compete in the top leagues week in, week out. Then who is to say that on a free transfer Sir Alex Ferguson wouldn’t make that call again.
I’m sure that my optimistic, or deluded point of view on Owen Hargreaves would be ridiculed by some fans, and turned away with comments of “He had his time” by fellow Manchester United fans. But faced with the possibility of a resurgent Owen Hargreaves a year from now, I would find it hard to believe that many of them would turn down that option if our midfield was still lacking that disciplined energy.
So to the managers out there considering the move for Owen Hargreaves as a risk, consider not the pitfalls, but contemplate the positives, then rethink that decision.
