wacko

Yup. Oh well. He wanted to leave and we got our £30m, so it worked out better than usual. What the fuck is it about Real that seems to turn every player's head? FFS it's a circus.

True. Obviously, I know absolutely nothing about the facts of the matter, but I find it very suspicious that Gerrard was not guilty of affray for hitting the guy but his mates were... His mates said they were guilty. Gerrard denied the charge. I knew that some had plead guilty, but I thought a couple had also plead not guilty. I stand corrected.

True. Obviously, I know absolutely nothing about the facts of the matter, but I find it very suspicious that Gerrard was not guilty of affray for hitting the guy but his mates were...

One of his mates said something like, "I pushed him away and couldn't stop myself following through with my elbow." I'd like to see him re-enacting that one in court. Way I see it, Gerrard got the hump because the guy wouldn't let him do the DJing (he IS Stevie G, after all, world famous DJ), got his mates and went back to give the lad a kicking. I guess he'll end up with community service like sportsmen usually do.

Yup - he's going to try his arse off next season, he'll get the supply and he'll score goals. We're going to hate it but people need to get used to it and move on. He was a disastrous signing for us, you cannot build a side around Michael Owen and if a club like us pay £17 million then it needs to be for someone who you can build around. It was a case of wrong player, wrong club. Ridiculous decision to make him captain, he is quite clearly not a leader and never will be. His faults were on full view at the end but the club is not blameless IMO. Every word spot on. I think the most important factor for Owen is that he will be happy at his club and with the prospect of being closer to home (his real home). That was never the case here from the first day to the last and that's the only reason very few up here have taken to him. A bad deal all round. Liverpool fans never really took to him either, not to the extent you'd expect given how important he was to the side. It's because Owen never engaged emotionally with the club or the fans, only with Michael Owen's career. So what you're trying to say is that he's always been a selfish cunt? In a nutshell, yup.

Pardon me... I didn't realise "pregnancy weight" gives you manky eyes, horse teeth, joker lips & a 'Jay Leno' chin.

Yup - he's going to try his arse off next season, he'll get the supply and he'll score goals. We're going to hate it but people need to get used to it and move on. He was a disastrous signing for us, you cannot build a side around Michael Owen and if a club like us pay £17 million then it needs to be for someone who you can build around. It was a case of wrong player, wrong club. Ridiculous decision to make him captain, he is quite clearly not a leader and never will be. His faults were on full view at the end but the club is not blameless IMO. Every word spot on. I think the most important factor for Owen is that he will be happy at his club and with the prospect of being closer to home (his real home). That was never the case here from the first day to the last and that's the only reason very few up here have taken to him. A bad deal all round. Liverpool fans never really took to him either, not to the extent you'd expect given how important he was to the side. It's because Owen never engaged emotionally with the club or the fans, only with Michael Owen's career.

On the other hand, Liverpool's been getting better year on year whereas Arsenal seem to be perennially stuck with a team that's two or three years too young. No-one really knows about Arsenal's finances. The new stadium appears to be more than paying for itself, but they'll only make a fraction of what was expected from the redevelopment of Highbury. Liverpool's finances are solid, if unspectacular. Those of the company that owns the club are disastrous, however

Yup - he's going to try his arse off next season, he'll get the supply and he'll score goals. We're going to hate it but people need to get used to it and move on. He was a disastrous signing for us, you cannot build a side around Michael Owen and if a club like us pay £17 million then it needs to be for someone who you can build around. It was a case of wrong player, wrong club. Ridiculous decision to make him captain, he is quite clearly not a leader and never will be. His faults were on full view at the end but the club is not blameless IMO. Every word spot on.

And at least 3 molecules too much fat on her hips. Fecking heifer.

They won't finish behind anyone. Here's hoping! Can't see Citeh breaking into the top 4. Their squad lacks the depth of the top 4 squads, and there's a huge gulf in class between Hughes and Wenger, Benitez, Fergie and Ancelotti. Arsenal have been close to missing the CL in recent seasons, and if Wenger does drop the ball, I don't think it will be Citeh that takes advantage. Everton or Villa for me.

Me, too. Bidding more is a no-brainer. The player's current club will put pressure on him to sign for the club offering more. He can always refuse, of course, but it's still a sound tactic. To other clubs, shaking on a deal is just notification that the player is available.

While Newcastle is not the easiest club to own, he'd have taken whichever side he bought down a division. Paying off the debt was the only thing he did right as owner. Beyond that, it was one bad decision after another.

From a player's point of view, an agent more than pays for himself in negotiating a better deal. They act like nannies to a lot of players, too. As is the case with pretty much any agent, their best interests are not always the same as those of the people they represent. And certainly, they remove a lot of money from the game while adding little else.

Perhaps NUFC could win Owen's head on a spike?

http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/9352/picsvaderwaterfilter.jpg

I'd love to know what they're paying him, because I assumed the low wages would be what kept him from signing on as a third/fourth-choice striker for a top 4 club. It won't help him get a game for England, though. I think those days are long gone, unless there's the mother of all injury crises.

Not at all. I'm sure any of the top 4 clubs would be interested in signing Owen for free, but only as backup. He might be fragile, but that's not a problem if you only want to play him in emergencies, and he certainly has the experience at all levels. I figured they'd offer him much lower wages than clubs lower down the table, however, and that Owen would refuse.

Who's the dwarf with Ferdinand? Is that his Nick Nack? http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j218/grimmronin/Men/nicknack.jpg

He'll have to sell his chopper and get one of these: http://www.freewebs.com/basoar/xwing.jpg Owen would fit in R2D2's spot.

There's a German saying: Like a choice between the plague and cholera.

I think most of these billionaires believe there are massive untapped TV markets abroad and that the Premiership pot itself will expand. Most of them are in it for profit, not to chuck their cash away. They're hoping the expansion of Premiership TV coverage will increase the value of the whole league, and with that every club in it. Only Abramovich and Citeh's new sheiks are actually splashing the cash (as opposed to piling debt on the club) and losing money. Hicks and Gillett have been open to offers north of £500m from day one. It's possible that Citeh will break into the top four, with Arsenal currently looking like the low-hanging fruit, but it'll take them another season or two to put together a squad good enough, no matter how much they spend, and there's no indication Hughes is in the same class as Wenger, Fergie, Ancelotti and Rafa.

Which may be a blessing in disguise. They seem to be going down with the Owen syndrome ie paying over the odds in order to tempt a reluctant player. 'twill end in tears. He has turned them down, hasn't he?

That's the smart ones. The rest end up doing what Michael Jackson and MC Hammer did, and spunking it all away living like the Pasha of Egypt.

And anyone who had any sense of morality would walk away feeling mightily ashamed that they had managed to dupe the money off hard-working fans. However Owen is motivated by money, it doesn't matter that he is worth millions, and that the £2 million "loyalty" bonus and nearly £500,000 for the extra month is more than most of us will have in our lifetimes. He couldn't give a fuck, its all about the cash for Mr Owen, always has been, always will be. Well, not really. It's not like he was throwing bongo parties till 3 a.m. every morning and snorting coke from a stripper's tits. As far as he's concerned, he might not have scored the goals, but he put in the work, ate the right stuff, got enough sleep etc. etc. You can be sure he doesn't feel any guilt at all about his performances for NUFC, even if he'll be the first to agree he's disappointed. He's 29 now, and currently a former European Player of the Year who's been unlucky with injuries. This is his last chance at a massive jackpot before he retires to breed horses. If he stayed at NUFC for even a season, he'd not only take a big pay cut, but he'd be a 30-year-old Championship player who's not getting any better, and his earning potential for the remainder of his career would be perhaps a third of what it is right now if he plays his cards right. Any working-class person with an ounce of sense would do exactly the same thing. £30,000 a week from football for a few more years and then however much he makes from his horses is substantially more than the average joe will ever make tbh though Doesn't work like that though. 10 years on £30k pw would be more that enough for anyone, but everyone takes what they can. Everyone in top level football is a mercenary. I wouldn't expect Owen to be any different just because he's not justified his wages so far, and I certainly wouldn't use it as a stick to beat him with compared to any of the overpaid shower of shite that helped us go down. But not quite mercenary enough to join Citeh. Lol.