Former Liverpool player Michael Owen has claimed that he doesn’t feel welcome back at Anfield.
Speaking to the Athletic about travelling to the ground, he revealed: “I don’t feel as though I’m welcomed or loved and it bloody hurts, so I prefer to avoid it.”
But an offer the former striker delivered in the Telegraph in a separate interview certainly won’t do much to thaw relations at his boyhood club.
Michael Owen offers Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold a helping hand out of Anfield
Trent Alexander-Arnold has recently been touted to follow in Owen’s footsteps and, talking to the Telegraph, the former Liverpool man seemed a little too keen to assist the full-back’s departure.
“Trent’s got my number,” Owen said. “A few of the lads have owned horses at my stables, but we generally don’t talk football unless I am working. But I would be at the end of the phone for anyone who wanted to discuss it.”
With Alexander-Arnold’s current contract running out this summer, and him being far and away the most important Liverpool-born player at the club, fans seeing Owen offer to facilitate a move away, even in a small way, is unlikely to boost his standing.
But the former England forward is realistic about what that move could do to the right-back’s reputation in his hometown, based on his own experiences of the same move.
Owen said: “Whatever happens he [Alexander-Arnold] should be regarded as a hero. Sadly, it does affect the way people view you. It will tarnish him in some eyes even though it shouldn’t.”
With the 44-year-old seemingly resigned to the way he’s viewed at Anfield himself, it appears Owen — who scored 158 goals in 297 appearances for the Reds — just wants to help Alexander-Arnold do what’s best for him.
Owen complaining about his standing at Anfield, before not long afterwards offering one of their biggest — and homegrown — stars advice on leaving has understandably not gone down well with Liverpool fans.
However, in FourFourTwo’s view, the parallels in the two players’ stories and their apparent existing relationship make it unthinkable that the pair wouldn’t discuss the matter.
Owen might have been wise to keep it quiet in the national press, though, if he wants a chance at mending relations with supporters of his former club.
