The Stoke City manager Tony Pulis is under a lot of pressure to deliver the results at the Britannia stadium.

He has spent a lot of money in the last few transfer windows, but the team has been unable to make any progress in the league positions. In fact, they have regressed in the last few years since qualifying for the Europa league. The manager is hoping that the visit of West Brom to the Britannia stadium will change the fortunes of his team. Stoke have just one win in the last 10 league matches.

As a result of this poor run of form, they have slipped into the bottom of the table. There remains a slight chance of relegation due to the fact that the team has only 34 points on the board. However, it needs a highly improbable combination of results in order to relegate Stoke City this season. Pulis has said that the team has been unable to get any breaks this season. One of the major problems for the club this season has been scoring goals. They have been able to maintain their place near the top of the table due to the good defending from the likes of Ryan Shawcross and Robert Huth.

“We just haven’t had the breaks. We seem either to shoot ourselves in the foot or things happen during the game that on another day could go for you. We played at West Ham earlier in the season, Steven Nzonzi hit the underside of the bar and it came out; on Sunday at Newcastle, (Yohan) Cabaye hits the underside of the bar and it goes in. There’s such fine dividing lines between getting results and not getting results,” said Pulis. The team have important matches against Manchester United and QPR in the run-in.

The manager of Stoke City, Tony Pulis, has said that he wants Michael Owen to be with his team till the end of the ongoing season.

Owen had joined Stoke City in September last year after the competition of his contract with Manchester United, but, he hasn’t spent much time on the field so far. He has featured for the Potters in only four matches in the ongoing season and he has not been able to score any goal for Stoke so far.

According to a few reports, the Australian A League club, Perth Glory is looking to sign Owen and the English striker is also interested in joining that club. But, Pulis has completely dismissed those reports and has made it clear that his club will not put Owen on sale during the mid season transfer window.

When asked about Owen being linked to Perth Glory, Pulis said, “I have no idea where these kinds of reports come from. I recently read somewhere that Danny Welbeck has been put on sale by Manchester United. You ask Sir Alex Ferguson about his thoughts on that. The rumours will always be there. As a manager, you got to deal with that.”

“Owen’s contract with us is for the whole of this season. He hasn’t told us that he wants to leave. We are not interested in putting him on sale. It means that he is going to be with us till the end of the ongoing season.”

“If a player is not getting that many playing opportunities, it doesn’t mean that he is not in the future plans of the manager. Owen is an experienced player and he is going to play a vital role for us in the second half of the season.”

The striker of Stoke City, Michael Owen, has said that he has recovered from his hamstring injury and he might be given his first starting opportunity of the season in the next match against Newcastle United which is going to be played at the Britannia Stadium on Wednesday.

Owen joined Stoke City in September this year, but, he hasn’t yet started any match for Stoke. He has featured for Stoke in four matches so far, but, in all those matches, he came to play as substitute. He is yet to score a goal in the current season. He had been suffering from hamstring strain since the last few days.

After Stoke City’s victory over Fulham in the Premier League match played on Saturday, Owen went through a fitness test. Talking to the reporters after the fitness test, Owen said, “The fitness test was quite good. I didn’t feel the pain while running out there which indicates that I have recovered now. I think I am ready to make a comeback in the next match against Newcastle.”

When asked if he thinks he would be given his first starting opportunity against Newcastle, Owen said, “Yes, I think so. I hadn’t been given the starting chances in the previous matches because my fitness wasn’t quite good. But, I have worked hard in the last few days and my fitness has improved considerably. So, I think I am not too far behind from getting my first starting opportunity. I might get it against Newcastle.”

On the other hand, the manager of Stoke City, Tony Pulis, has given a slightly different statement. When asked about Owen’s injury, Pulis said, “Owen has recovered pretty fast, but, he is still not 100% fit. There is very little possibility that he would get fit before the match against Newcastle, but, he would definitely get fit before the match against West Bromwich Albion.”

The manager of Stoke City, Tony Pulis, has said that Michael Owen is slowly regaining his form and he is not too far from getting a starting opportunity. Owen has signed for Stoke City this summer. He has joined the club on a short contract of 1 year.

Owen made his debut for Stoke a few days back in a Premier League match against the defending Champion Manchester City. He came to play as substitute in that match. The Stoke team performed pretty well in that match and didn’t let Manchester City run away with the three points. There was one goal scored by each side and the scorecard was saying 1-1 when the final whistle was blown by the referee.

Owen hasn’t yet got the opportunity to start any match for Stoke in the ongoing season. Stoke City has to play against Chelsea on Saturday. Chelsea is currently at no. 1 in the Premier League points table. Roberto De Matteo’s team hasn’t lost even a single game in the competition so far. So, that is going to be a tough match for stoke.

When asked whether Owen will be included in the first XI for the match against Chelsea, Pulis said, “Owen is all right at the moment and he is looking in good touch in the training sessions. But, there is not much possibility of him being included in the starting line up against Chelsea.”

“The guys who started the match against Manchester City had performed decently and we don’t want to make too many changes in that starting line up for the match against Chelsea. So, Owen might have to sit on the bench again, but, he will get starting chances at some point of time.”

When asked about the brilliant form of Chelsea in the current season, Pulis said, “Chelsea is a very strong team and they have been in sensational form in the current season. It is going to be a big test for us. We will have to play out of our skins to beat them on their home ground.”

Michael Owen has said that if he is not able to find a Premier League club in the near future, he might think about retirement. Owen’s contract with Manchester United finished at the end of the last season. Manchester United didn’t extend his contract. So, Owen is without a contract at the moment. He has been searching a new club since the last two months.

Owen has made it clear that he is looking for a Premier League Club and he would not accept the offer of Championship clubs. But, the Premier League clubs are not showing much interest in Owen. As per Owen, he hasn’t had any disrespect in his heart for the Championship teams, but, he doesn’t want to play at the lower level. He said that he still has the ability to perform at the top level. He is 32 years of age at the moment and he can still contribute for the top teams.

Owen played for Manchester United for three years. His first match for Manchester United was against a Malaysian eleven. That was a pre season friendly match. He scored a goal in his very first match for Manchester United. In the 2009-10 season, he scored a hat-trick in a Champions League match against Wolfsburg. He performed pretty well in his first two seasons for Manchester United. But, in the last season, he had to miss a lot of matches due to a serious thigh injury. However, he returned back in the team and played some matches in the later part of the season.

Meanwhile, some experts have criticized Owen for saying that he doesn’t want to play for the Championship clubs. According to the experts, some great players are playing for the Championship clubs and Owen shouldn’t have given such type of statement.

Former Manchester United striker Michael Owen has said that England failed to get past the quarter-final stage in the Euro 2012 due to the fact that they did not have a player like Paul Scholes, according to the Man Utd news website.

There was a rumour prior to the start of the tournament that Roy Hodgson would consider asking Paul Scholes to come out of retirement in order to help England do well at the Euro 2012. However, the rumour never materialised and Roy Hodgson did not take Paul Scholes to their Euro 2012. Even though his absence was not felt during the group matches, England could have certainly done with him in the quarter-final against Italy according to Michael Owen.

The 30-year-old former Liverpool striker was recently released by Manchester United after his contract came to an end. He has been linked with a move to Premier league club Stoke city. He has played alongside Paul Scholes for three seasons.

As a result, he has been able to appreciate the quality that the former England midfielder has. Andrea Pirlo was extremely influential in the match against Italy. Michael Owen reckons that Paul Scholes could have been very similar to Andrea Pirlo if he had been taken to the tournament.

‘Pirlo was awesome but we have a player of a similar age and equally as good. Unfortunately he wasn’t there. Scholes. We missed Wayne Rooney in the first two games too. Easy for people to say “until we keep possession better we will never win anything”. We are not as good as others at doing that. We played to our strengths but are just not quite good enough.

We were hoping to “do a Chelsea”. If you are not the best team then you have to find an alternative way to win. The other option is to forget results for a while and start from scratch playing a different style,” said Michael Owen.

Shanghai Shenhua will not be a potential destinations for Manchester United striker Michael Owen, who is currently out of contract at the end of the season, according to the owner of the club Zhu Jun.

The Chinese club has been linked with a number of big names players in the last few months following their ability to attract Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka to the club in the January transfer window.

It was initially expected that Didier Drogba would also follow suit by signing with the Chinese club, but player manager Nicolas Anelka ruled out any such possibility recently. Now, Michael Owen has become the latest high-profile striker to be linked with the club.

Manchester United are clearly not looking to keep Michael Lohan be to the end of the season, as they are yet to offer the 32-year-old a new contract. The former Real Madrid and Liverpool striker arrived on a free transfer from Newcastle United. Even though he has been suffering from a number of injury problems in the last few months at Manchester United, his goal record for the club is extremely good. Despite coming on as a substitute in most matches, Michael Owen has managed to maintain a goal ratio of scoring every other game.

The owner of the club Zhu Jun said on his Twitter account that there was no truth in the club looking to sign Michael Owen in the summer. Despite spending a lot of money on a number of players in the latest transfer window, Shanghai Shenhua are really struggling to get results at the moment. This led to the appointment of former Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka as the player manager of the club, but it is yet to show any dividends. They are still looking at the possibility of signing Didier Drogba.

Former England manager Glenn Hoddle has said that England currently lack the cutting edge in front of goal due to the lack of a player like Michael Owen.

Michael Owen is widely regarded to be one of the greatest strikers England has had in recent times. It is the thought that is further strengthened by the goal record Michael Owen has had for England over the years. Even though Michael Owen is not picked by Fabio Capello for the England national duty nowadays, he is widely thought to be the greatest goal scorer England of recent times.

Michael Owen has managed to score 40 goals for the national team in just 89 matches, which is just four behind the likes of Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker, and Jimmy Greaves. Fabio Capello is in a tough situation having to progress to the knockout stages of the Euro 2012 without the services of Wayne Rooney. The England striker was initially suspended for three matches, but it has now been reduced to 2 matches after appeal. Glenn Hoddle was one of the chief architects in bringing Michael Owen to the England national team fold during the 1998 World Cup. It was also during this time that players like Paul Scholes and David Beckham started to emerge under Glenn Hoddle.

Now, the former England manager recognises that Daniel Sturridge is probably one of the few players who comes close to being able to satisfy the England requirements. Despite being in excellent form at the start of the season, Daniel Sturridge is yet to make his international debut. So far, Sturridge has scored seven goals in the league this season, which is impressive considering that he has been largely employed as a winger. Michael Owen is currently ruled out due to a long-term injury.

Michael James Owen is the English international who currently plays at Premier League club Manchester United as the striker. Michael Owen is regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation and he is one of the recent English players to have been a recipient of the famous Ballon d’Or award. Michael Owen started his professional career with Liverpool, his youth team. He made his debut for the club in 1996 and soon became one of the most feared strikers in the league due to his exceptional pace.

Owen is a striker who primarily relied on pace to get him beyond the last defender and score goals. In his first season with Liverpool, Owen managed only two appearances, but managed to score his first League goal. His talent was soon recognised by the club and from his second season onwards, Owen was pretty much a first-team regular. In his second season at the club, he had scored 18 goals in 36 appearances. Michael Owen was an important part of the Liverpool team that won the treble in the 2000-01 season. His achievements with Liverpool along with his achievements for England at the Euro 2000 helped him win the European footballer of the year award, thus becoming the first Englishman after a long time to do so.

His best ever season with Liverpool came in the 2002-03 season when he scored an astonishing 28 goals.

Unsurprisingly, he was subject to transfer rumours from across Europe, but it was Real Madrid who decided to sign the player in 2004 for £8 million and player Antonio Núñez. However, his first season at Real Madrid did not go to plan. In fact, Michael Owen did not settle very well and Real Madrid decided to send him back to an English Premier League club. Newcastle United stepped up their interest and brought Owen for £16 million.

Despite the enormous interest amongst the general public, Michael Owen could not tide over his injury problems. He spent four seasons with Newcastle and his best ever season came in 2007-08 when he scored 13 goals. In order to reduce their wage bill, Owen was released from his contract in 2009. In July 2009, it was announced that Michael Owen will be signing for Manchester United.

In his first season at United, Owen made 31 appearances, although mostly they were as substitutes. Since then, his number of appearances has declined dramatically leading to speculation that he may leave United.

Owen has been regarded as one of the finest strikers England have had in recent years. It is a thought of that is reflected by the fact that he is just short of beating Bobby Charlton’s record of 49 goals for England. Owen has made 89 appearances for England.

Owen has won the likes of the FA Cup, Premier League title, UEFA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Football League Cup, and FA Community Shield in England with clubs like Manchester United and Liverpool. He won the Ballon d’Or award in 2001, while he is also part of the FIFA 100 list.