Thomson Mouse

Article with direct quotes from the brochure. "Once upon a time Michael Owen was coveted by every club in the world. His breathtaking pace and lethal goal-scoring instinct established the young striker as a 24-carat superstar. His clean-cut image and impeccable sporting pedigree ensured only David Beckham could claim to be a bigger star in the England set-up. How times have changed. This month his management company, Wasserman Media Group, have sent a 34-page document to selected clubs telling them why they should give Owen a chance. The man who honed his footballing skills at Liverpool is virtually saying: "Gizza job," just like Yosser Hughes did all those years ago in Boys From The Blackstuff. Like Yosser, the Scouse anti-hero of the Eighties, Owen needs a break. Unlike Yosser, he isn't broke. Owen, 29, is out of contract on June 30 and available as a free agent. Sunday Mirror Sport has a copy of the WMG document. It's an astonishing read full of hype and marketing speak. It claims: "Were it not for an unhappy spell at Real Madrid and two injury-scarred years at Newcastle, he would be spoken about in the same breath as Torres and Ronaldo and valued in the priceless figures that only match-winning goalscorers ever justify. "Through circumstances he finds himself, with his contract expiring, about to make the biggest decision of his football career." Owen's advisers admit their client wants to stay in English football, which makes the logic behind translating their sales pitch into Italian and Spanish in the document hard to comprehend. But they love their buzz words. On a page revealing "Michael Owen - Brand Values" they list 21 of his virtues including "Fit and healthy" - which will provoke disbelief on Tyneside. Then there is "Good looking", "Sincere", "Respected" and "Charismatic". The fact that four pages are spent defending his injury record suggests they know why some clubs may be reluctant to step into the breach now. Advertisement - article continues below » There is even a section titled: "Tabloid stories and the Truth!" That deals with suggestions that Owen is always injured, has lost his desire and made a mistake in joining Newcastle. Owen has earned a fortune from football. His £17million capture from Real Madrid in 2005 was hailed in Newcastle as a footballing coup. About 20,000 fans turned out to welcome him joyously to St James' Park. Unfortunately, he is now acknowledged as the most expensive transfer flop in the club's history. Owen's four years on Tyneside have cost Newcastle an astounding £37m in wages and transfer payments. Even Freddy Shepherd, the man who signed him, admitted: "At the time it was seen as a major coup for Newcastle to land England's top scorer. "We took a gamble to give Newcastle fans a player most people thought was a worldclass signing. "But it quickly went sour for us, although to be fair he had bad luck with injuries. "In retrospect it turned out to be a disaster for us although we couldn't have known that at the time." Sam Rush, Chief Operating Officer of WMG, told Sunday Mirror Sport: "As one of the world's leading sports agencies, Wasserman regularly utilise comprehensive documentation and audiovisual material to illustrate the benefits of our clients. "Although there has been interest from abroad, Michael has told us that he would prefer to stay in the Premier League. "In the week after the season ended, we prepared a document showing all the information an interested club would require and this was circulated to a select group. "We also included a medical report and answers to frequentlyasked questions as well as a review of his commercial benefits and international name awareness." A Premier League chairman, who received the Owen sales pitch, said: "I've never seen anything like it. "I didn't need 34 pages to know who Michael is, what he's done and why we should sign him. "I think we all know the pros and cons surrounding Owen." http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/06/14/gimme-a-job-115875-21439030/

Why on earth would they do this? You could hardly picture Wenger opening his post and rushing to the Chairman to buy this exciting centre forward he hadn't known of before. It also smacks of desperation, desperately trying to sell his commercial value over his playing talent

Fair enough, it's not like anything reported lately has been 100% accurate. It was in a few different places that Shearer and Shepherd had met to discuss the plans though - I doubt that would happen if Shearer wasn't interested. Wonder if he's met with any other interested party? That's a reasonable point Dave, but you'd need to know who approached who. If it was Shepherd's lot approaching Shearer, then Shearer isn't in the position to approach 'interested consortiums', is he? James - what has Shepherd done ever to make you trust him?

No. And I would hardly call Neil Farrington an "old FFS cronies" Direct quotes from Shearer would be interesting, or this means nothing at all.

YES! Someone with a memory. But no brain. NUFC’s financial position wasn’t great when Ashley ousted Shepherd, but we weren’t nailed on certainties for relegation. Shepherd would never have appointed JFK, and he’d never of chosen Wise over Keegan. Not that he’d have appointed him DoF in the first place. One more point last season and we’d have stayed up, a season of stability would have been enough to avoid the drop. It took Ashley’s idiocy to bring us to where we are now. Blaming Shepherd is plain stupid. This debate is irrelevant unless Ashley significantly lowers his asking price, which he’s almost certainly not going to do. Utter rubbish. While JFK might be the bottom of the barrel, Souness and Allardyce weren't that far behind him when you look at this club. Shepherd DID contribute to this mess, although he was obviously not to blame for it all. I'm not aguing over who was worst, that is plain to see. What I'm saying is that Shepherd was not and will be no good for this club.

In what way is it an awful argument? Those keen to have him back will all be moaning about him as soon as the old tricks start again. If you think we'd not all be in here having the same whinges and moans about Shepherd after 6 months of his second tenure then you're hugely optimistic. He's not intelligent enough to have reflected on his tenure and learnt anything imo. A leopard can't change it's spots. The argument stands, just because Ashley is s****, we should not forget the sense of relief most fans had when he'd stitched the fat b****** up whilst he was on his back in hospital. Well done for completely changing the subject. My point is that no one has forgotten what he was like. And saying that we have reaks of pompous, self satisfied assumption. Then I can't understand why you would want him. Do you honestly think he has changed or has the ability to change. You need to think about what motivates people like that. One clue: it's not making other people happy.

Did I get it wrong?

I see the literacy standards in Sunderland are going backwards. Bit like the place really.

I'm interested, would you take Shepherd over any of the others mentioned?

it was awful playing in the championsleague. It was awful watching Souness's and Allardyce's teams

YES! Someone with a memory. What an annoying thing to say, especially with that avatar. A picture of Moyles winds you up? Aye, but thats another story obviously. Saying that people have a short memory is a bit degrading tbh, everyone remembers how s*** Shepherd was, only NE5 would defend him beyond reason. The point is that what good is going to do by constantly looking for something to hate him for if he comes back? Im not sure if this whole horrible episode is going to make me less trusting of the people in charge, but as bad as this may sound, the idea of having Shepherd, and at least knowing what to expect is strangely appealing at the moment. Yes, I want things to be done right, and I'd probably prefer many over Shepherd, but if he is in a position that doesnt allow him to pull the s*** he did last time then f*** it, move onwards and upwards and learn from our history instead of being bitter about it. I wont forget what he did, but I'd give him a chance to write some wrongs. Not because I've changed my opinion on him, and not because he's earned the right to. It's because Mike Ashley has earned him the right to, and for me that's what it comes down to. Fair enough on the memory thing, but I can't accept that Shepherd could change that much and as I've said having seen him in action I won't ever trust, accept or like him again.

YES! Someone with a memory. What an annoying thing to say, especially with that avatar. A picture of Moyles winds you up?

YES! Someone with a memory.

Gather the mongs, prepare the troops, ready yourselves.... For the welcoming back of the Geordie hero, our saviour, the only person to run this football club should be a Geordie, ye knaaaaa. Let's gather at SJP-our fortress, let's bring back Alan Oliver, let's embarrass ourselves again, let's give Kenny his office back, let's deal directly with agents, lets run the club into the ground. Is demonstrating against something you don't like not cool with today's yoof? Grow up son.

There wouldn't be, there's not a thing we could do to stop it. Doesn't mean I'd be giving my money to the new owner though.

Oh well, that's OK then, the lesser of two evils. FFS.

Shepherd contributed to this mess, he should not be allowed near the club. Saying words like 'tripe' and being aggressive about it, doesn't change that fact.

The ONLY reasons he will want us to succeed will be for his own ego and to fill his bank account. Probably less than ever supporter on here. The real question is, how much did he take out of the club? People seem to forget: He regularly threatened websites who were against him. He did the same to the local journo's who opposed him and TBF Luke Edwards and Neil Farrington must take the credit for that. He initially tried to shut down some of the fanzines, until he realised he couldn't. As stated above, he took more money out than he invested. He embarrassed us at an international level. He went behind the managers back, as has been documented and signed players. He was far to involved with agents, even his prick of a son had an office at SJP. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure if I really tried to think I could easily double the size of the list. Anyone who wants him back would be like choosing AIDS over Ebola. NO.

Probably the most realistic, and a sense of absolute desperation. If he comes back I'll really have to question whether I could actively support NUFC any more. I'd want them to do well, but that's about it. Explain in words, not stupid f***ing smilies You'd stop supporting the team just because of who the owner is? I didn't think I'd need to spell it out, seems mental to me. Might do to you, but I've seen Shepherd and a few of his cronies in action first hand and I didn't like it at all. If any of you think he gives a f*** about the club or the supporters over his own fortune and bloated, self inflated ego, then you are wrong - in a big way. I don't like Shepherd either so, no, I don't really want him back. That said, I wouldn't stop going to games just because he's in charge. That would be difficult for me, I'm in Australia now.

Probably the most realistic, and a sense of absolute desperation. If he comes back I'll really have to question whether I could actively support NUFC any more. I'd want them to do well, but that's about it. Explain in words, not stupid f***ing smilies You'd stop supporting the team just because of who the owner is? I didn't think I'd need to spell it out, seems mental to me. Might do to you, but I've seen Shepherd and a few of his cronies in action first hand and I didn't like it at all. If any of you think he gives a fuck about the club or the supporters over his own fortune and bloated, self inflated ego, then you are wrong - in a big way.

Probably the most realistic, and a sense of absolute desperation. If he comes back I'll really have to question whether I could actively support NUFC any more. I'd want them to do well, but that's about it. Explain in words, not stupid fucking smilies

Probably the most realistic, and a sense of absolute desperation. If he comes back I'll really have to question whether I could actively support NUFC any more. I'd want them to do well, but that's about it.

Can't believe how many people have voted for Shepherd

A poor attempt to get a big thread. What an utterly ridiculous statement.

The point in bold. Do anyone really think he'll stop dipping his fingers into the till? People need to realise that we would have ended up in a simiar mess under Shepherd. Ashley might have completely f***ed up, but at least he's left us debt free. Don't want Shepherd within a million miles of the place. Yep, being debt free is great. We just so happened to be relegated of course, but never mind that. Facts are they're both s*** in their own way. We probably need someone who's not either of them. Don't get me wrong Dave, I'm not trying to support Ashley. I just think that either way, with either bloke, we would have ended up in a right fucking mess. To make positives out of Shepherd's reign, just because Ashley has done this is nonsense. Shepherd should not even be allowed to be linked to the club.