In Defence of Owen Hargreaves

"I want curly hair too"

News that every United fans favourite Canadian has suffered yet another injury has been met with a universal groan from the Red Army.

There’s been a growing clamour for Hargreaves to finally call it a day and hang up his boots and if I’m totally honest even I’ve suggested it might be time for the curly haired one to move on from Old trafford.

It’s not that Hargreave’s isn’t a top player it’s just that three years of injuries have worn myself and a lot of United fans down.

Thinking about the Hargreave’s situation following his latest set back I was tempted to advocate a suggestion of him moving on or even calling it a day.

Then one thing popped into my little brain to make me think otherwise, a simple question which required an equally obviuos answer.

What would you do?

If one of us was fortunate enough to have a contract at Old Trafford yet unfortunate enough to have a career blighted by injury would we leave United? Or would we try every effort we could muster to try and make a go of it, no matter how much the odds were stacked against us.

I’ve read a lot of posts, comments and tweets suggesting Hargreaves should call it a day and I’ve even fallen into that way of thinking myself.

Yet the more I think about it the clearer it becomes that quitting is not the right thing to do.

I’d like to think that if I were lucky enough to play for United nothing could stop me trying my hardest to make my career there as long as possible.

Hargreaves deserves credit for not giving up when lesser men would have called it a day a long time ago. There must be nothing worse for a professional footballer than constantly spending time on the treatment table.

I can only imagine how difficult it is for Hargreaves having a cotract with the world’s greatest club and not being able to fulfill it. It’s like having the most beautiful wife in the world only to suffer from impotence. Hargreaves has battled constantly to try and come back from one injury after another.

His knee problems have been well documented yet it seems there’s also another catalogue of ailments afflicting the man with the strangest accent in world football.

The latest problem is with his shoulder, which up until now had never been a issue, it seems that Hargreaves’s bad luck knows no bounds.

Just how good the former Bayern Munich man is should not be underestimated, for me he’s the greatest defensive midfielder since Claude Makelele.

For me Steve Maclaren’s biggest blunder as England manager was not playing Hargreaves against Croatia, it was quite simply unfathomable,

Should Hargreaves come back from his injuries he’d be much needed at Old Trafford and could well be the difference between a decent season and a great one. Although it’s looking increasingly unlikely, I for one will be getting behind him at every possible opportunity.

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