King Kenny is still the best player to have played for the club, john barnes deserves praise, no contest between robbie and owen, there is only one GOD, fowler.
Owen every day of the week. Fowler gave us 4 great seasons but from the first minute Owen arrived on the scene success followed. I'd love to see him come back in January if Crouch decides to ruin his career.
Fowler without hesitation - most naturally gifted finisher in decades and nobody has even come close since
Best natural finisher we've ever had, Robbie will always be the one the only GOD, Owen doesn't even come close.
Robbie Fowler. Definately. He did some silly immature things, (taunting graham Le saux was childish and I hope he regrets that, and the line snort-which I thought was brilliant actually), but those acts simply served to reflect that through robbie, God was made man.
He signed for Real Madrid (arguably one of the few bigger clubs than Liverpool) and did well for them, got homesick and had to sign for Newcastle. Since then he has been crippled with injuries. Crouch is being linked with Manchester City. Fowler was class and yes he was an amazing finisher. Owen on the other hand was the complete striker and constantly developed his game. He was also a total professional from the moment he made his debut. As I said last week about Carra and Gerrard, I'd prefer to go for a pint with Robbie but Owen would be in my team ahead of him.
he didn;t 'have' to sign for Newcastle. I actually think we would have signed him back had he held his nerve a little longer. Madrid wanted rid and we weren;t prepared to pay the foolish money the Geordies were. IMO, had he said no to Newcaslte Madrid would have accept our bid. Either way, none of that detracts from the fact that the decision he made to leave, has ultimately led to a downturn in his career
I'd like to take issue on a couple of points there James 1) Owen did not HAVE to sign for Newcastle - I don't know one single incident whereby a player HAD to sign for a particular team against his wishes. A deal was done to bring Owen back to Anfield and Newcastle, desperate to land a big name striker (as always) offered £4m higher and effectively double the wages he had agreed at Anfield He could have refused to join Newcastle and at least tried to force Madrid to let him come home but he chose not to - to ensure he got regular football so as to not jeopardise his main priority (playing for Ingerlund) he jumped at the Newcastle opportunity and took the cash - what has happened to him since is unfortunate but something I fear will haunt him for the rest of his playing career 2) Owen was never a complete striker. I loved him as a Red and will forever be endebted to him for what he did for us but he was never a complete striker and not a patch of the finisher that Robbie was. Stereotypically, there are many small, nippy strikers around (granted maybe not all at Owen's level) but how many goalscorers have there been in world football since Robbie in his heyday? People who could score with left foot or right foot, inside or outside the box with power or finesse, headers and poached goals?
At the time I remember seeing it described as effectively a game of poker with 4 players, LFC, Real, Newcastle and Owen. Owen couldn;t stand the heat of the game and folded his hand first. Again, showing no real desire to play for this club and for me, I was glad then he made the decision he did
(we need a shake hands smiley ) That's effectively what happened mate. We saw the same thing when we were selling Baros - everyone knew we wanted rid so his price decreased somewhat. Lyon (& Hamburg I think) offered around £9m but he refused to go and ended up "having" to accept £7.5m from Villa as it was the best we could get from a club that Baros would agree to join. Owen needed to do the same, didn't have the bottle to challenge Madrid and saw Newcastle as an easy way out - over £100k a week, being idolised by thousands of thick and deranged Geordies and an assurance to be able to play regularly enough for his real goal & main priority, the World Cup Any notion that Owen was FORCED to sign for Newcastle is naive to say the least