Look out! little mickey's back just in time for England! Will he return fit?

[Guest bluegeordie]

Alright lads. As a serial lurker on your messageboard I've noticed more and more posts slagging MO off recently, and to be honest, I think the people having a go are completely out of order.

 

I am a Lfc fan and was gutted when he couldn't come back to us the other year, even more so when it became clear that as long as Rafa's in charge then Owen will never come back - but if I could add my two pence worth on the "England" debate I wouls say this:

 

Owen used to have the same thing thrown at him when he was with us, it was used as a stick to beat him with regularly (esp. when he took the place of our hero Fowler). What some people couldn't/didn't want to get their heads around was that the Southern based media weren't interested in our team(which at the time of Owen's emergence wasn't very good) and would rather ask Michael about englands chances in upcoming internationals than the last Houllier inspired bore-athon.You could watch an Owen interview on SKY and see him answer 10 questions, only two or three of which would be about LFC and the rest about England - open the papers the next day and the bits where he talked about goings on at Anfield would be nowhere to be seen - cue many,many phone calls to local radio stations " He doesn't care about us, only cares for England, get rid,etc,etc" - Owen himself has admitted in interviews how much it used to hurt him when he heard these comments.

 

The reason I'm bothering to post is to say this - many of the posters on here (and other forums) are saying much the same thing, get rid we'll replace him with Martins or A.N other, many Liverpool fans said the same when he left us - after  spending £50m+ on Cisse,Baros,Crouch,Morientes,Pongolle and Bellamy we've had to spend a further £26m on Torres to have a striker that comes close to Owens ability.

 

The point is you won't know what you got until he leaves, I've seen posts on sites wherby toon fans are saying that they booed him - believe me lads, you'll regret it if you allow him to be driven out of your club - Do people REALLY believe that he's happy that he's hardly played in the last two years?

 

I enjoyed your post, and agree in part with what you've written (especially about how stupid it is for some of our supporters to be adopting - or at least presenting - a blase attitude about the possibility of us losing Owen). However, where his club versus country priorities are concerned, surely there can't be that much long term smoke without some degree of fire? For instance, how hard would it be (or have been) for Owen to repeatedly say things like this to the press: "I'm a full-time player for Newcastle United (or Liverpool FC), and a part-time player for England, and I'll be fielding and answering questions from you on that basis - in short, you'll find me less than talkative if you persist in asking questions about England"; or "as sweet as it is, playing for your country is no more than the icing on the cake for a professional footballer, with the cake being your club, and so my club will always be my clear first priority"; or "it's a real honour to represent your country, but an absolute duty to represent the club (which, after all, pays your wages on a weekly basis) to the very best of your ability, and so as a professional footballer it's completely unacceptable to me to jeopardise my club duties in the quest for international honours"; or "I'm only prepared to answer questions about international football 5 days before England games, and 3 days after them, and in-between times I am only prepared to talk about club football - if you ignore this principle of mine, then you'll get absolutely nothing out of me"; or, specific to the current situation, "although I feel fit and healthy at the moment, and I'm confident that my body could get through the upcoming international fixtures, I've decided to err on the side of caution and declare myself unavailable for England selection. While this has been a difficult decision, I feel that after the horror run with injuries that I've experienced during my time on Tyneside, I owe it to the club, the fans, and myself to prove that I am capable of stringing together a significant run of games without injury before I return to the international fold". You get the picture, and my point is basically that Owen invites and fuels the scepticism and paranoia of his club's supporters by typically speaking and acting as if his first priority is (or at least may be) England, regardless of whether or not this is the case.     

 

In my view though, the club versus country issue is but a small part of a much bigger problem, and that is the traumatic nature of the Toon Army's "love affair" with Owen. Specifically, I feel that there's obviously a fear on the part of the majority of the Toon Army that Owen has never been fully committed to us, and that no matter how much we want and appreciate him, he'd rather be with someone else and, worse still, he'd run to someone else if given a chance (fears that were exacerbated by the revelation of the buy-out clause in Owen's contract, and his apparent wait-and-see approach during the summer transfer window). In my view, even more than his injury nightmares, it is this ever-present threat of "unrequited love" that has stopped the Toon Army from wholeheartedly embracing Owen, and it's a smouldering recipe for disaster. Why? Because with unrequited love the end result for the partner who feels "unloved" (the Toon Army, in this instance) is inevitably a potent mixture of paranoia and mistrust (over Owen's true motives), self doubt (over our club's capacity to hold on to him), anger (due to the niggling feeling that he's using us and taking us for granted), and fear (over the ever-present threat of his rejection and betrayal). Of course, this negative cocktail of emotions runs the risk of serving as a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby (sections of) the Toon Army might act in such a way as to drive Owen into the arms of another club, or at least to provide him with a ready-made excuse for jumping ship (cue the "go fuck yourself Owen" brigade on here, and on talk-back radio, as well as the boo boys at Saint James's last Sunday ... even if most of the latter weren't booing at what the press, and Owen himself apparently, seem to think they were).

 

My only (rather desperate) hope from this point on is that Owen can finally enjoy an injury-free run for NUFC, because I think it's obvious that he'll score a lot of goals if that's the case, and we'll find ourselves in a more or less healthy position on the league table as a result. In turn, this would see the more fickle elements of our support-base (the boo boys) quickly turn their affections around, and in no time they'll doubtless be investing their pocket money in replica shirts with "Wor Mickey" on the back, and pretty much forgetting about the club versus country issue (personally, I couldn't give a rat's arse if Owen plays for seven different countries, as long as he regularly turns out and performs for NUFC). For his part, if Owen actually has been tempted to look elsewhere to further his career (which I guess we'll never really know), then just maybe he'll reconsider, and perhaps he'll even go so far as to sign a new contract with us, minus the release clause. From that point on, I think that the whole of the Toon Army would at last be in a position to unequivocally embrace Owen as one of our own, instead of harbouring a fear (stupidly vocalised at the shallow end of our supporter gene pool; privately expressed but publicly concealed at the deeper end) that if we get too close, he'll only break our hearts by doing a treacherous runner in January, or at the end of the season.     

[Razor]

bluegeordie you make outstandingly good posts  :thup:

 

Btw i agree

[Guest scousertommy]

Bloody hell, had something youy wanted te get off your chest like?

 

If you go on the LFC websites you'll see a lot of debate about Owen - you'll also see a lot of posts similar to the ones on here "only cares about england,blah,blah" "could've joined us if he'd wanted to" but you'll also see just as many posts from people defending him. The simple fact that so much time gets taken up by a player that left us 3 yrs ago is an indication of how good he is/can be. Incidently, there also seems to be a trend on LFC forums to slag off our captain - ignore these posts - there from people we call gobs**tes.Unfortunately, a by -product of Owen scoring at the 98 WC was during pre season we had a lot of pre pubescent girls coming to matches simply to scream their heads off whenever Owen was in possession. Obviously, he had no control over this but it certainly pi**ed off a lot of people around where I sat. Personally, I don't think the KOP ever took him to their hearts and this was one of the reasons why - he didn't belong to us, he belonged to england. If you thinbk about it it's an incredibly unfair way of looking at things but there you go.

 

As for thinking that he didn't want to join/will leave at any time all I can say to that is to blame Shepherd/Souness/Shearer for that. Owen came out publicly and stated that he only wanted to go back to Anfield and that St.James Park was only an option for a year on loan if the Liverpool deal fell through. In one way, you could give Shepherd credit for outmanouvering us and Owen in order to paint him into a corner. I don't know if you've heard of Guillem Balague b ut he wrote a book about Rafa's time in Liverpool and according to him Owen was literally in tears on the morning that he signed for you because he was trying to get Liverpool to sort out a deal.

 

BTW, I'm not saying this as a wind up merchant, but to just point out that instead of directing your anger at Owen maybe you should direct at Freddie Shepherd for signing someone on outrageous wages who clearly did not want to join but felt forced into it due to his pregnant wife. If it had happened out my club I'd be absolutely livid but you've got to realise that it wasn't Owens fault. He (and everyone else at Newcastle) viewed it as a one year loan, nobody could have predicted the injuries that happened to him whilst at your club.

 

I do realise that there will be a lot of f*** offs directed my way but honestly, i'm not a WUM, I'm just asking that you don't take it out on one of englands best players, blame Souness for being a s*** manager, Shearer for using inside info on Owens wife wanting desperately to come home - but most of all blame Shepherd for spending £5m above the asking price on a player that he KNEW was reluctant to join and would only do so if he was allowed to leave the following year.

 

 

[Guest bluegeordie]

Bloody hell, had something youy wanted te get off your chest like?

 

Absolutely. "Narrative therapy", I think, is what the shrinks call it - that is, write like a maniac, and eventually you should feel better (either way, they get rich)!

 

If you go on the LFC websites you'll see a lot of debate about Owen - you'll also see a lot of posts similar to the ones on here "only cares about england,blah,blah" "could've joined us if he'd wanted to" but you'll also see just as many posts from people defending him. The simple fact that so much time gets taken up by a player that left us 3 yrs ago is an indication of how good he is/can be.

 

Agreed. I can certainly understand (and indeed I share) the frustration that many Toon supporters feel with Owen, but not those who fail to see his obvious class and potential contribution to our cause (his reading of the game, timing of runs, and positioning are superb; he is a proven quality goal scorer, as opposed to an inconsistent scorer of quality goals (Oba, obviously - although I remain a supporter of him, btw); he rarely gives away the ball cheaply; and he has a psychological strength that few can rival, whereby more pressure seems to bring about a better performance. No, in my view, Owen's fitness could easily make a difference of 4 or 5 places on the league table come the end of the season, and as such it could well be the determining factor in whether we qualify for Europe.     

 

Personally, I don't think the KOP ever took him to their hearts and this was one of the reasons why - he didn't belong to us, he belonged to england. If you think about it it's an incredibly unfair way of looking at things but there you go.

 

I can relate, although in our case I sometimes feel that we not only come second behind England, but third behind Liverpool, or God-only-knows-where behind any number of teams with prospects that are perceived to be better than our's (although hopefully that list has shortened with the demise of Fat Fred, and the appointment of Big Sam, and his army of allied health professionals). In a weird way then, although legally I know that Owen belongs to us, psychologically it feels like we've only got him on loan. Providing you allow for a degree of poetic licence to change his sex, he's like a holiday romance that you know is going to end, and this is made worse by the fact that he's been sick for most of the fucking holiday!         

 

As for thinking that he didn't want to join/will leave at any time all I can say to that is to blame Shepherd/Souness/Shearer for that. Owen came out publicly and stated that he only wanted to go back to Anfield and that St.James Park was only an option for a year on loan if the Liverpool deal fell through. In one way, you could give Shepherd credit for outmanouvering us and Owen in order to paint him into a corner. I don't know if you've heard of Guillem Balague but he wrote a book about Rafa's time in Liverpool and according to him Owen was literally in tears on the morning that he signed for you because he was trying to get Liverpool to sort out a deal.

 

Hmm, interesting and disturbing in equal measure. Still, I think I might send Mickey a vinyl LP of that old classic song, with the lyrics - "if you can't be with the one you love honey, love the one you're with". In other words, you're a professional Michael, and there are worse places to be than NUFC (Sunderland springs to mind ... as does a pine bench in Madrid), so as long as you signed on that dotted line, you owe us 100 percent of yourself, which means remaining focused on who coffs up for your wages (tip: it ain't England Mickey, unless you've had a near-death experience at the World Cup, of course, in which case we'll share the bill).   

 

BTW, I'm not saying this as a wind up merchant, but to just point out that instead of directing your anger at Owen maybe you should direct at Freddie Shepherd for signing someone on outrageous wages who clearly did not want to join but felt forced into it due to his pregnant wife. If it had happened out my club I'd be absolutely livid but you've got to realise that it wasn't Owens fault. He (and everyone else at Newcastle) viewed it as a one year loan, nobody could have predicted the injuries that happened to him whilst at your club.

 

I do realise that there will be a lot of f*** offs directed my way but honestly, i'm not a WUM, I'm just asking that you don't take it out on one of englands best players, blame Souness for being a s*** manager, Shearer for using inside info on Owens wife wanting desperately to come home - but most of all blame Shepherd for spending £5m above the asking price on a player that he KNEW was reluctant to join and would only do so if he was allowed to leave the following year.

 

I definitely don't have you pegged as a WUM, and I've really enjoyed reading and thinking through your posts. However, can I just say that I didn't mean to come across as being globally angry at Owen - basically, I'm locally a bit pissed off about his handling of the club versus country issue, but beyond that my overwhelming feeling is one of us frustration - at his injuries (which I don't blame him for, btw), but most of all at the degree of uncertainty that seems to surround his very presence on Tyneside. As I said in my initial post, what I'm hoping for, in short, is that Owen will 1) have a productive injury-free run for Newcastle; 2) score a shitload of goals that propel us to the verge of greatness (or something similar); 3) become an unproblematic hero of the Toon Army, including its most notoriously fickle "platoons"; 4) sign a super-long term contract with a zillion pound buy-out clause; 5) help us to win heaps of silverware to make up for the post-1969 drought; and 6) guarantee that we all live happily ever after in Geordieland.

 

Now, is that too much to ask?              

[James]

This is turning into an endless downward spiral.

 

The only people that can stop it are Newcastle United. Get some proper support from the management backing his injury record, and get some popular Newcastle players to weigh in with some decent support.

 

Then ban Owen from talking to the media. Even if Owen talks at length about Newcastle, the only thing the public sees is the England angle. That can only stop if the press no longer have Owen as a source.

[Guest Ridzuan]

We should get the surgeon who operated on Owen to join our physio team and the problem will be solve once and for all.

[alpal78]

Alright lads. As a serial lurker on your messageboard I've noticed more and more posts slagging MO off recently, and to be honest, I think the people having a go are completely out of order.

 

I am a Lfc fan and was gutted when he couldn't come back to us the other year, even more so when it became clear that as long as Rafa's in charge then Owen will never come back - but if I could add my two pence worth on the "England" debate I wouls say this:

 

Owen used to have the same thing thrown at him when he was with us, it was used as a stick to beat him with regularly (esp. when he took the place of our hero Fowler). What some people couldn't/didn't want to get their heads around was that the Southern based media weren't interested in our team(which at the time of Owen's emergence wasn't very good) and would rather ask Michael about englands chances in upcoming internationals than the last Houllier inspired bore-athon.You could watch an Owen interview on SKY and see him answer 10 questions, only two or three of which would be about LFC and the rest about England - open the papers the next day and the bits where he talked about goings on at Anfield would be nowhere to be seen - cue many,many phone calls to local radio stations " He doesn't care about us, only cares for England, get rid,etc,etc" - Owen himself has admitted in interviews how much it used to hurt him when he heard these comments.

 

The reason I'm bothering to post is to say this - many of the posters on here (and other forums) are saying much the same thing, get rid we'll replace him with Martins or A.N other, many Liverpool fans said the same when he left us - after  spending £50m+ on Cisse,Baros,Crouch,Morientes,Pongolle and Bellamy we've had to spend a further £26m on Torres to have a striker that comes close to Owens ability.

 

The point is you won't know what you got until he leaves, I've seen posts on sites wherby toon fans are saying that they booed him - believe me lads, you'll regret it if you allow him to be driven out of your club - Do people REALLY believe that he's happy that he's hardly played in the last two years?

 

I enjoyed your post, and agree in part with what you've written (especially about how stupid it is for some of our supporters to be adopting - or at least presenting - a blase attitude about the possibility of us losing Owen). However, where his club versus country priorities are concerned, surely there can't be that much long term smoke without some degree of fire? For instance, how hard would it be (or have been) for Owen to repeatedly say things like this to the press: "I'm a full-time player for Newcastle United (or Liverpool FC), and a part-time player for England, and I'll be fielding and answering questions from you on that basis - in short, you'll find me less than talkative if you persist in asking questions about England"; or "as sweet as it is, playing for your country is no more than the icing on the cake for a professional footballer, with the cake being your club, and so my club will always be my clear first priority"; or "it's a real honour to represent your country, but an absolute duty to represent the club (which, after all, pays your wages on a weekly basis) to the very best of your ability, and so as a professional footballer it's completely unacceptable to me to jeopardise my club duties in the quest for international honours"; or "I'm only prepared to answer questions about international football 5 days before England games, and 3 days after them, and in-between times I am only prepared to talk about club football - if you ignore this principle of mine, then you'll get absolutely nothing out of me"; or, specific to the current situation, "although I feel fit and healthy at the moment, and I'm confident that my body could get through the upcoming international fixtures, I've decided to err on the side of caution and declare myself unavailable for England selection. While this has been a difficult decision, I feel that after the horror run with injuries that I've experienced during my time on Tyneside, I owe it to the club, the fans, and myself to prove that I am capable of stringing together a significant run of games without injury before I return to the international fold". You get the picture, and my point is basically that Owen invites and fuels the scepticism and paranoia of his club's supporters by typically speaking and acting as if his first priority is (or at least may be) England, regardless of whether or not this is the case.     

 

In my view though, the club versus country issue is but a small part of a much bigger problem, and that is the traumatic nature of the Toon Army's "love affair" with Owen. Specifically, I feel that there's obviously a fear on the part of the majority of the Toon Army that Owen has never been fully committed to us, and that no matter how much we want and appreciate him, he'd rather be with someone else and, worse still, he'd run to someone else if given a chance (fears that were exacerbated by the revelation of the buy-out clause in Owen's contract, and his apparent wait-and-see approach during the summer transfer window). In my view, even more than his injury nightmares, it is this ever-present threat of "unrequited love" that has stopped the Toon Army from wholeheartedly embracing Owen, and it's a smouldering recipe for disaster. Why? Because with unrequited love the end result for the partner who feels "unloved" (the Toon Army, in this instance) is inevitably a potent mixture of paranoia and mistrust (over Owen's true motives), self doubt (over our club's capacity to hold on to him), anger (due to the niggling feeling that he's using us and taking us for granted), and fear (over the ever-present threat of his rejection and betrayal). Of course, this negative cocktail of emotions runs the risk of serving as a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby (sections of) the Toon Army might act in such a way as to drive Owen into the arms of another club, or at least to provide him with a ready-made excuse for jumping ship (cue the "go f*** yourself Owen" brigade on here, and on talk-back radio, as well as the boo boys at Saint James's last Sunday ... even if most of the latter weren't booing at what the press, and Owen himself apparently, seem to think they were).

 

My only (rather desperate) hope from this point on is that Owen can finally enjoy an injury-free run for NUFC, because I think it's obvious that he'll score a lot of goals if that's the case, and we'll find ourselves in a more or less healthy position on the league table as a result. In turn, this would see the more fickle elements of our support-base (the boo boys) quickly turn their affections around, and in no time they'll doubtless be investing their pocket money in replica shirts with "Wor Mickey" on the back, and pretty much forgetting about the club versus country issue (personally, I couldn't give a rat's arse if Owen plays for seven different countries, as long as he regularly turns out and performs for NUFC). For his part, if Owen actually has been tempted to look elsewhere to further his career (which I guess we'll never really know), then just maybe he'll reconsider, and perhaps he'll even go so far as to sign a new contract with us, minus the release clause. From that point on, I think that the whole of the Toon Army would at last be in a position to unequivocally embrace Owen as one of our own, instead of harbouring a fear (stupidly vocalised at the shallow end of our supporter gene pool; privately expressed but publicly concealed at the deeper end) that if we get too close, he'll only break our hearts by doing a treacherous runner in January, or at the end of the season.     

 

Spot on, it's too convenient of an ecxcuse to say that Owen's answers are based on what journalists ask him. If he wanted to, he could easily spin the questions around and show that he cares for the club whilst still answering the questions on England. The fact that he choses not to is at best him being ignorant of PR skills and in the worst case scenario proof of him not giving a toss bout Newcastle.

[Guest bluegeordie]

Spot on, it's too convenient of an ecxcuse to say that Owen's answers are based on what journalists ask him. If he wanted to, he could easily spin the questions around and show that he cares for the club whilst still answering the questions on England. The fact that he choses not to is at best him being ignorant of PR skills and in the worst case scenario proof of him not giving a toss bout Newcastle.

 

Yeah, I agree, and in relation to the second phrase in bold, the fact that overall Owen seems pretty media savvy and image-conscious makes this seem highly unlikely. This, in turn, takes us in the direction of your closing remark (of him perhaps not giving a toss about Newcastle), which is what is so worrying.

 

[Keefaz]

My current impression is that Owen is either being overly-sensitive or is actually feeding the scandal himself. True, there is no smoke without fire, but the fire in this case is pretty small; the media are trying their best to fuel it and it seems as if Owen is either buying into it or is right there with a bagful of coal. [/poor analogy]

[KaKa]

Wow ...

 

Owen is a really silly boy. Why is he so up in arms about all this. He should have just kept his mouth shut, played for England (hoping to God he didn't get injured!), and then returned and played for newcastle too (hoping he scored a goal and all). That would have been it. Job done and it would have shut everyone up and we could have all moved on.

 

Instead he is getting a bit too sensitive and his goign on and on about how fit he is and therefore how he shouldn't be questioned. He is setting himself up for a fall bigtime! Can you imagine if he actually gets injured now?! Besides, why is he surprised people are concerned?! The last time we were in this kind of situation he ended up getting injured and he was out ofr the season!!! He also told us then how strong and fit he was but it didn't work out that way did it.

 

All this talk of the fans driving Owen out of the club is laughable. Verbally abusing him every game or egging his house would be driving him out, but questioning whether he should be playing these two games despite the fact he has just had an operation? No I don't think so. He can say he is fit all he likes and the surgeon can say it is okay to push himself as hard as he wants to, but it's Owen we are talking about here he has a history of being particularly frail! Everyone's body is not the same, and based on past history the club and indeed the fans have every reason to at least urge caution.

 

Owen is being really soft right now in my opinion. He needs to man up.

[Guest bluegeordie]

My current impression is that Owen is either being overly-sensitive or is actually feeding the scandal himself. True, there is no smoke without fire, but the fire in this case is pretty small; the media are trying their best to fuel it and it seems as if Owen is either buying into it or is right there with a bagful of coal. [/poor analogy]

 

I have to admit, that thought has crossed my mind too ... and I fully agree, the fire is relatively small at this stage, and it seems that Owen could extinguish it altogether without too much fuss. Of course, this was also true of the "will he, won't he" transfer saga in the summer. I know his official position is "I won't fuel media speculation by being dragged into it", but ffs nobody's asking him to appear on the Jerry Springer Show with a dwarf member of the KKK - just a simple statement, with some well chosen words about his commitment to NUFC and loyalty to Big Sam would do!       

[TRon]

The Sun ran a back page story yesterday quoting a source claiming Owen hadn't forgotten how Sam spoke against his selection for England during the World Cup due to injury worries. It might just be shit-stirring by the Sun but everything about Owen's demeanour since the recent selection furore makes you wonder whether there's some truth in it.

[Yorkie]

Sick of this 'who Owen plays more for' tripe.

 

I'm personally of the opinion that he does care more about his club, at this moment in time, and the idea that he rushed back soley to play England is nonsencial. I think most people would agree that he gives 100% for both England and Newcastle, and scores goals for both England and Newcastle. It really is such a pathetic little debate.

 

If he thinks he's fit then he's going to be frustrated if he is not allowed to play. How dare he not be desperate to play for his country?

 

... if Allardyce thinks that it's in the club's best interests, then he'll see about trying to stop Owen from playing.

 

Owen's hardly saying that he doesn't care about playing for us ffs, he just feels that there's no reason not to play for his country, so is subsequently frustrated.

[ohmelads]

Owen will ultimately be judged by what he does for Newcastle, not what he says. If he comes through these international fixtures and features regularly for the rest of the season, all of this will be forgotten about. If he breaks down in Russia or a couple of games later for Newcastle and needs further treatment, you get the feeling it'll be the last straw.

[UV]

We really need to get together a squad of players who are nowhere near getting picked for their national teams so the nightmare of having a world class player who wants to play for their country can be avoided in the future.

[quayside]

Bloody hell, had something youy wanted te get off your chest like?

 

If you go on the LFC websites you'll see a lot of debate about Owen - you'll also see a lot of posts similar to the ones on here "only cares about england,blah,blah" "could've joined us if he'd wanted to" but you'll also see just as many posts from people defending him. The simple fact that so much time gets taken up by a player that left us 3 yrs ago is an indication of how good he is/can be. Incidently, there also seems to be a trend on LFC forums to slag off our captain - ignore these posts - there from people we call gobs**tes.Unfortunately, a by -product of Owen scoring at the 98 WC was during pre season we had a lot of pre pubescent girls coming to matches simply to scream their heads off whenever Owen was in possession. Obviously, he had no control over this but it certainly pi**ed off a lot of people around where I sat. Personally, I don't think the KOP ever took him to their hearts and this was one of the reasons why - he didn't belong to us, he belonged to england. If you thinbk about it it's an incredibly unfair way of looking at things but there you go.

 

As for thinking that he didn't want to join/will leave at any time all I can say to that is to blame Shepherd/Souness/Shearer for that. Owen came out publicly and stated that he only wanted to go back to Anfield and that St.James Park was only an option for a year on loan if the Liverpool deal fell through. In one way, you could give Shepherd credit for outmanouvering us and Owen in order to paint him into a corner. I don't know if you've heard of Guillem Balague b ut he wrote a book about Rafa's time in Liverpool and according to him Owen was literally in tears on the morning that he signed for you because he was trying to get Liverpool to sort out a deal.

BTW, I'm not saying this as a wind up merchant, but to just point out that instead of directing your anger at Owen maybe you should direct at Freddie Shepherd for signing someone on outrageous wages who clearly did not want to join but felt forced into it due to his pregnant wife. If it had happened out my club I'd be absolutely livid but you've got to realise that it wasn't Owens fault. He (and everyone else at Newcastle) viewed it as a one year loan, nobody could have predicted the injuries that happened to him whilst at your club.

 

I do realise that there will be a lot of f*** offs directed my way but honestly, i'm not a WUM, I'm just asking that you don't take it out on one of englands best players, blame Souness for being a s*** manager, Shearer for using inside info on Owens wife wanting desperately to come home - but most of all blame Shepherd for spending £5m above the asking price on a player that he KNEW was reluctant to join and would only do so if he was allowed to leave the following year.

 

 

 

 

The bit in bold above is regularly trotted out by scousers as being proof that Owen was gutted at having to join us. I have always wondered how Ballague would have known about Owen's tears - was he in the North of England at the time mixing it with Owen's nearest and dearest?

[Superior Acuña]

I really dont think there are a significant number of boo boys.  I thought the boos on sunday were a mixture of everton fans and people booing the taking off of martins

[Razor]

I really dont think there are a significant number of boo boys.  I thought the boos on sunday were a mixture of everton fans and people booing the taking off of martins

 

Thats the issue, it seems Owen thinks there are a lot of people against him when there isnt.

[UV]

I really dont think there are a significant number of boo boys.  I thought the boos on sunday were a mixture of everton fans and people booing the taking off of martins

 

Thats the issue, it seems Owen thinks there are a lot of people against him when there isnt.

 

I take it you're new to this message board then.

[Guest scousertommy]

Bloody hell, had something youy wanted te get off your chest like?

 

If you go on the LFC websites you'll see a lot of debate about Owen - you'll also see a lot of posts similar to the ones on here "only cares about england,blah,blah" "could've joined us if he'd wanted to" but you'll also see just as many posts from people defending him. The simple fact that so much time gets taken up by a player that left us 3 yrs ago is an indication of how good he is/can be. Incidently, there also seems to be a trend on LFC forums to slag off our captain - ignore these posts - there from people we call gobs**tes.Unfortunately, a by -product of Owen scoring at the 98 WC was during pre season we had a lot of pre pubescent girls coming to matches simply to scream their heads off whenever Owen was in possession. Obviously, he had no control over this but it certainly pi**ed off a lot of people around where I sat. Personally, I don't think the KOP ever took him to their hearts and this was one of the reasons why - he didn't belong to us, he belonged to england. If you thinbk about it it's an incredibly unfair way of looking at things but there you go.

 

As for thinking that he didn't want to join/will leave at any time all I can say to that is to blame Shepherd/Souness/Shearer for that. Owen came out publicly and stated that he only wanted to go back to Anfield and that St.James Park was only an option for a year on loan if the Liverpool deal fell through. In one way, you could give Shepherd credit for outmanouvering us and Owen in order to paint him into a corner. I don't know if you've heard of Guillem Balague b ut he wrote a book about Rafa's time in Liverpool and according to him Owen was literally in tears on the morning that he signed for you because he was trying to get Liverpool to sort out a deal.

BTW, I'm not saying this as a wind up merchant, but to just point out that instead of directing your anger at Owen maybe you should direct at Freddie Shepherd for signing someone on outrageous wages who clearly did not want to join but felt forced into it due to his pregnant wife. If it had happened out my club I'd be absolutely livid but you've got to realise that it wasn't Owens fault. He (and everyone else at Newcastle) viewed it as a one year loan, nobody could have predicted the injuries that happened to him whilst at your club.

 

I do realise that there will be a lot of f*** offs directed my way but honestly, i'm not a WUM, I'm just asking that you don't take it out on one of englands best players, blame Souness for being a s*** manager, Shearer for using inside info on Owens wife wanting desperately to come home - but most of all blame Shepherd for spending £5m above the asking price on a player that he KNEW was reluctant to join and would only do so if he was allowed to leave the following year.

 

 

 

 

The bit in bold above is regularly trotted out by scousers as being proof that Owen was gutted at having to join us. I have always wondered how Ballague would have known about Owen's tears - was he in the North of England at the time mixing it with Owen's nearest and dearest?

 

Liverpool is a rumour city, the day he was paraded in St.James the Liverpool Echo ran pretty much the same story (inc., the bit about the get out clauses). When asked about his contract Shepherd dived in before Owen  stating that there were no get outs in the contract - it's undeniable now that Shepherd was lying to you.

 

As for the crying bit, obviously Balague wasn't there at the time - but he DID have unparalelled access to Benitez, that actual part of the book comes across a bit sneering in a "haha he cried, f*** him" type of way - a bit cruel but it seems as though Benitez perhaps wasn't entirely unhappy that the transfer had fallen through (there's a story that when Benitez joined that Owen,Murphy,Hamman, Gerrard and Carragher would all sit together leaving no room for anyone else on their table - he thought this was bad for team morale so decided to get rid and within a couple of mnths had sold Murphy and Owen).

 

Owen will almost certainly never play for us again, Benitez won't go back for him and by the time Rafa leaves (hopefully, not for a long time yet!) Owen will be too old. From what I've heard/read (inc. an article by your own Micky Quinn) Owen found himself desperate to come back to England, Shepherd and Souness were under a lot of pressure at the time and painted Owen into a corner - stay on the bench at Madrid (with the rumours of an unhappy pregnant wife to deal with) or join newcastle for a year, score some goals, play in the WC and then join either LFc or possibly even the Mancs, injuries have meant that the plan was well and truly knackered...

 

Personally, I would say that you shouldn't blame Owen, instead blame Shepherd and Souness for being so weak that instead of buying defensive players that you needed instead broke the bank (almost literally) for a "big name" to silence the supporters discontent. Put it another way, if Beckham had been available they would have signed him instead of Owen to create more headlines/goodwill from the fans.

[Dinho lad]

don't give a monkey what happend in the past regarding Owen's transfer.

[ChezGiven]

don't give a monkey what happend in the past regarding Owen's transfer.

 

Exactly.

[Guest BooBoo]

I cant help feeling this whole shebang has been given legs by the amount of flipping boo boys at St James these days. We were drawing 1-1 versus a side who comfortably finished above us last season and Allardyce decided correctly to sub the ineffective (on the day) Martins for Owen. Cue uproar at the perceived lack of "going for the jugular" by the manager. When did our home crowd take on this ridiculous bunch of pantomime goers, booing everyt time a result doesnt go their way or a substitution is questioned. Its nothing short of pathetic and embarassing, Owen clearly interpreted the boos as being for him, hence his rather muted goal celebration.

 

One bloke up along my row, stomped off after 75 minutes saying it was shite and he was going for a pint. Dont come back in a hurry and that applies to the rest of the cringe inducing booers.

[Guest Micktoon]

I cant help feeling this whole shebang has been given legs by the amount of flipping boo boys at St James these days. We were drawing 1-1 versus a side who comfortably finished above us last season and Allardyce decided correctly to sub the ineffective (on the day) Martins for Owen. Cue uproar at the perceived lack of "going for the jugular" by the manager. When did our home crowd take on this ridiculous bunch of pantomime goers, booing everyt time a result doesnt go their way or a substitution is questioned. Its nothing short of pathetic and embarassing, Owen clearly interpreted the boos as being for him, hence his rather muted goal celebration.

 

One bloke up along my row, stomped off after 75 minutes saying it was shite and he was going for a pint. Dont come back in a hurry and that applies to the rest of the cringe inducing booers.

 

Ex-fucking-actly.

[brummie]

Do I feel Newcastle are a little hard done by in the Owen situation? Yes.

Do I think Owen could sort it by being a little more vocal in acknowledging his debt to his employers? Yes

Would I feel comfortable if he were a Villa player returning from injury to play two games for England? No.

Do I think you're getting a shit return for your investment? Yes

Do I think it will ever improve? Probably not.

 

Would I want Villa to sign him? Yes.

 

Therein lies the conundrum.