After three disastrous seasons during which Owen Hargreaves played a total of around ten minutes of football for Manchester United, mention of his name was met with a mixture of sadness that such an excellent player might never play again and had been cut down in his prime but this was watered down with an element of almost embarrassment because, let’s face it, hearing the stories coming from OT during his “rehabilitation” was almost hilarious.

“He’s making good progress, could be back in training next week.”

“He’s broken down again.”

“He’s looking sharp, could make a surprise return within the fortnight.”

“He’s done his shoulder. He’ll be out for two more months.”

I think that it is fair to say that the vast, vast majority of United supporters, whilst hoping against hope, feared that we would never see Owen Hargreaves play football ever again and it came as no great surprise when United didn’t renew his contract when it expired over the summer. We all felt that it was a shame for the lad but it made no sense to be paying him what must have been millions of pounds a year (his salary was a reported £70k/week), plus “wasting” a squad place on him during this time of strict squad numbers when there were others who could do a far better job than someone who was perpetually injured.

Of course, I’m sure that there would have been some insurance in place which may well have covered some or all of his salary and possibly all the medical bills that his treatment would have ran up over the last few years but what cannot be replaced is the time and effort afforded him by the Manchester United medical and physio staff. The time Fergie and his coaching staff must have spent as they tried to establish the prognosis and devise plans to get him back into the picture.

As an outsider looking in, it did appear to me that Manchester United and Fergie, in particular, gave him every reasonable chance to get back to playing football and there is nothing any of us wanted more than to see him tearing through that midfield once again with the red shirt of United on his back.

So, for Owen Hargreaves to come out and criticise the Manchester United medical staff as he has done this week is absolutely baffling.

Hargreaves clearly feels that the injections he was given by the United medical staff in 2008 in order to treat a tendon problem made the problem worse. In his expert medical opinion, they made his tendons feel “as though they were made of glass“.

What Hargreaves is saying is clearly not as bad as some reporters are making it out to be as he does go on to say that “Everybody tries their best. They said that I wouldn’t have any side effects from the injections. That wasn’t the case and if I’d known, I wouldn’t have done it” and he also says that he holds no grudges against the Manchester United staff (although his comments would suggest otherwise, to me).

My question to Hargreaves would be, “Why say anything, then?” Why not just accept that you had a bad injury that kept you out for three years and that the medical staff were trying their best to get you back into action? It was in everyone’s best interests to get you playing again as soon as possible, why would anyone deliberately do anything to prevent this?

Personally, I did feel at times, reading between the lines of one or two comments that Fergie made, that a lot of the problems with Hargreaves were psychological in that he felt as though his leg wasn’t right and this prevented him from putting the trust in it to do the intense training required to get back into action for fear of another breakdown. However, when you end up out for three years anyway, what difference would it have made?

On a side note: when I heard the shock news that City had taken him on a free, I said to a City supporting friend of mine that I would be pretty surprised if he suddenly found his best form again after all that time on the treatment table whilst with us.

When I saw him play the best part of an hour for City the other night, knocking in a trademark Owen screamer to boot, I could only sit there shaking my head. Something about this whole debacle stinks but I don’t think that biting the hand that once fed him makes the situation any better and it would please me if Owen Hargreaves just shut it and be grateful for everything United did for him.

Rio Ferdinand complete 45 minutes for the Reserves this evening when they took on Oldham in the Manchester Senior Cup and has surely put himself back into contention for a start against Everton in ten days’ time.

It has come as a bit of a surprise this one as the news was that he was still a couple of weeks away from fitness but with Anderson suddenly appearing in a reserve fixture last week it seems to be the way at United at the moment – give absolutely nothing away!

On a related note, Owen Hargreaves fans will be interested to see that he has been included in United’s 25 man Premier League squad for the current season. With the transfer window closing yesterday, Premier League clubs had to send in their final squads for the current campaign and Hargo’s inclusion had been subject of some debate but he is there and that may mean that Fergie sees him playing some kind of role over the next few months.

It isn’t a guarantee though – it does appear that we were easily able to accomodate our players into the restrictions of the new ruling and many clubs appear to have actually put forward a squad list of less than 25 players – even with Hargo, we have only submitted 24.

In other news of the last few days, Tom Cleverley went out on loan to Wigan which, I must admit, I found strange. I really thought he would be brought through into the first team this season but Fergie has clearly decided that he has enough options in midfield at the moment and a loan to a Premier League side will be a good experience for Cleverley.

Let’s hope he does for Wigan what Mame Biram Diouf has done for Blackburn so far!