Interpolic

I seem to recall that the club said there was a contract offer on the table. However, Owen and the media are rewriting history here. Was anyone really upset that he left at the end of that season? By that time, he had already burned his bridges with the fans. Certainly for the second half of the season from my POV, he stopped putting in any effort as he had already decided that he would leaving on a free. It was all about self-preservation and making sure he did not get injured hence him pulling out of challenges and missing so many one on one chances. It is very telling that Shearer after trumpeting him as a reason why we would escape relegation ended up dropping him. If Owen wasn't going to give his utmost for a supposedly good friend, then he obviously didn't care one bit. As a captain and therefore someone you would expect to set an example to his teammates, he was a disgrace. Surely everyone was glad to see the back of him and even the most deluded fan would have realised that there is no way we could have afforded him in the Championship. The reason why fans resent Michael Owen has absolutely nothing to so with him leaving at the end of the season and not staying to help us win promotion. We managed that quite well without him (infact I think his continued presence would have been resented by the other players and the infamous team spirit may well not have happened). It is all to so with his attitude and performances in that season being one of the main contributions to our relegation. This Not forgetting that his priority over the course of 4 years appeared to be being fit and playing well for England, rather than the club paying him £100k a week. There was apparently the same perception of him at Liverpool, it was the first thing a few Liverpool fans said to me when he signed. Him getting injured at that tournament when he wasn't fully fit was the icing on the cake. Utterly bizarre and I can't think of any other player who carries on like that these days.

Mint, that.

Thought that was the official Wigan website for a minute. Total WUM whoever it is, not worth the time of day.

Aye. wot

Only 4 more careers to catch up with Shearer. Turns out he averages a goal every 270 mins since he started playing for us. 1 in 3, not that bad for a backup. A goal every 321 mins this season. To put that in context, Danny Welbeck (a player who does a similar job on a far better level for the current league leaders) averages a goal every 299 mins in his Man United career to date. As I said earlier for someone to keep around the squad and bring on for 10 mins here and there he is fine. The chances of us buying the 2 or probably 3 strikers we'd need if we got shot off him are low too. The problem with any goalscoring stat for Shola is that if he's on the pitch he often takes (quite rightly) the penalties. Which anyone, even Tim Krul, would expect to score more often than not. Therefore Shola's goals to minutes ration is actually a lot better than it would be were he not so good with spot kicks. Plus he's generally used from the bench (he's the most used sub in Premier League history, and he's being used that way even more so in recent years), which makes this goals per minutes on the pitch thing a bit daft. Say he plays 15-20 minutes for 10 games in a row and he scores 1 goal, you could say he's scoring a goal every 2 games. Do you think he'd score 5 goals if he played 90 minutes in those 10 games? NOOOOOOOOO! Means that these comparisons with players that are doing more than the odd cameo don't make any sense. And that's before you consider his general play FFS.

He has a canny knack for stating heresay as fact.

Only 4 more careers to catch up with Shearer. Turns out he averages a goal every 270 mins since he started playing for us. 1 in 3, not that bad for a backup. A goal every 321 mins this season. To put that in context, Danny Welbeck (a player who does a similar job on a far better level for the current league leaders) averages a goal every 299 mins in his Man United career to date. As I said earlier for someone to keep around the squad and bring on for 10 mins here and there he is fine. The chances of us buying the 2 or probably 3 strikers we'd need if we got shot off him are low too. I'm not sure that is putting things into context, aren't there far more goals scored in the last 15 minutes than any other time? Plus Welbeck plays 90 minutes here and there because he can, sort of warps the stats tbh.

No NUFC fan in their right mind even wanted him to stay, what the fuck is he on about?

How many times has Pirlo got an assist at the Reebok stadium?

How many FA Cups has Lionel Messi won?

Wouldn't want him, don't like him.

Are you particularly worried about what? Him leaving. Well he's leaving, so I don't know what you mean. If you mean we'll be OK then I agree if we replace him adequately.

Are you particularly worried about what?

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Jonas, because he might end up fucking his mate over n'all.

Yeah, I don't put any value on him staying with us when we were relegated, I do put value on him knuckling down and becoming the leader of the club thereafter, A lot of that's out of the window now though, I'm not angry with him or anything - he can just fuck off. Was unimaginable to lose him a few months ago, now I'm quite keen to see the back of him.

Part of me thinks 'Colo owes us nothing', having stuck around to get us back up, and then played a vital role in us consolidating our position in the Premier League again. After his abysmal first season, he's been a tremendous servant to us. It's just depressing, as you say, that he's seemingly lost all interest. There's nothing wrong with a footballer having his own team - that's life - but it's incredibly insensitive given the context (the tapping up business, the fact that he's club captain, his wages and the current minor turmoil at his own club). He should be pretty red-faced but, as we've gathered, he clearly just doesn't give a shit any more. If someone paid me £80k a week I'd do whatever the fuck they wanted, I'd be fully committed, I'd work anywhere in the world. The guy just seems like a dickhead now, can't be arsed with it and would rather he just cleared off. And again, that's meant to be our captain.

A few acting like battered wives in here, it's not the same as Ben Arfa going away for treatment as Ben Arfa isn't clearly off somewhere else shortly. Coloccini's been treating us (his employers) like muppets for a number of months and Ronaldo's right in saying that he doesn't really give a fuck at this point. It's sad, it's annoying but the guy's been a great professional for us and seems to be finished doing that and is now acting like a cunt. £80k a week and this is what you get in the end when he's decided he can't be arsed with it anymore. Pretty depressing.

Same as I said the other day, lost a lot of respect for him and won't regard him as highly as loads of less talented former players once he leaves.

He's definitely played there a few times for Man Utd but then again that was during an injury crisis outside a transfer window and I don't think Ferguson had a choice of all of the fit English actual centre halves to fill the gap.

He's fucking hilarious man, I'll be watching the games avidly just in case he does something funny.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/callum-mcmanaman-tackle-newcastle-every-1773562 The bottom video at 3:15, when Whelan's asked whether he'll have to accept a ban if it comes, his response seems fishy to me - I doubt he thought there was any possibility of it happening.

Don't think so. Owt interesting? Not really: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/callum-mcmanaman-tackle-newcastle-every-1773562

Simon Bird's column been put on here yet?

Sometimes proving a really stupid point that you can tell people about later is more important than £450 actually, Neil.