General NUFC stuff

[Paully]

 

Furthermore Souness wanted Anelka instead who would have been a much better signing.

 

 

Indeed, I knew I had heard Souness state this!

 

 

 

Newcastle spent vast sums on transfers during Souness' tenure - including the signing of Michael Owen from Real Madrid - but the Scot refuted the suggestion he was fully backed by then-chairman Shepherd.

 

"I would argue that point because at the end of the day my first choice was (Nicolas) Anelka and (Luis) Boa Morte.

 

"I was told, when I spoke to the people in Turkey, when Anelka was for sale at that time, that he could be bought. But I was told he wasn't for sale and couldn't be bought.

 

"So instead of us spending the £12million there, we bought Albert Luque for £10million and Michael Owen for £16million."

 

Asked whether those were his decisions, Souness said: "No. I was told Albert Luque would cost £2million."

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-507987/Souness-Id-return-Newcastle-heartbeat.html#ixzz4YAjk4sU5

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[Guest]

I remember a quote from Souness ages ago where he said he put Owen's name top of a list of players he wanted and Shepherd nearly 'fell off his chair'.

[Guest]

Also think the Rooney bid was genuine, just never likely once Man U got involved. If it was fake then Sir Bobby & Shearer were in on it because they both came out and mentioned it in their interviews after a Norwich midweek game.

[Yorkie]

The Rooney bid was absolutely legit. I've never heard anything to the contrary tbh.

 

Souness' section of Tunnel Of Love is a good read, by the by.

[WarrenBartonCentrePartin]

I remember a quote from Souness ages ago where he said he put Owen's name top of a list of players he wanted and Shepherd nearly 'fell off his chair'.

 

Didn't he go on BBC Newcastle and say it as well - about six months beforehand?

[The College Dropout]

Of course it was serious. Every bid for a big striker under Shephard was serious. I'm still excited we got Paddy Kluivert in. Was past his best but on his day the quality was sublime.

[Paully]

Ha ha!

 

[Guest reefatoon]

The Rooney bid was absolutely legit. I've never heard anything to the contrary tbh.

 

Souness' section of Tunnel Of Love is a good read, by the by.

 

Exactly right, why the fuck would the Rooney bid be fake?  Conspiracies all over the shop with some people.

[tgarve]

The Rooney bid was absolutely legit. I've never heard anything to the contrary tbh.

 

Souness' section of Tunnel Of Love is a good read, by the by.

 

Exactly right, why the fuck would the Rooney bid be fake?  Conspiracies all over the shop with some people.

 

HTTTastic

[Stifler]

The Rooney bid was real and it was aimed at making us challenge for the title and a long term replacement for Shearer.

 

Shepard made a bid for Owen because we had fallen down the table and Souness had an arguement with Bellamy and we needed someone to fire us up the league and back to competing. Shepard went out of his way to get a big name in for big money to make a statement after we missed out on Rooney a year beforehand. The only persons 'I want' attitude Shepard got caught up in was his own. Shepard tried to buy us success at a time before rich men started buying clubs, thing is he spent big on mostly on shit players. Rooney would have been his first right players, and he lost out on him, Owen would have been his first right player had he not got injured and lost interest. Shepard is trying to re-write history as he only spent big once and he only did it down to fan pressure, when in all honesty he spent big most of the time but spent it on the wrong players. Owen was just the biggest name and most ambiguous.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

The Rooney bid was real in that we made an offer of £23.5m if I remember rightly to Everton, but the bid itself wasn't done in an attempt to get the the player to Newcastle. It was done to force Man Utd into bidding for him which was the agent's preferred choice for their client and for brand Rooney. Sir Bobby wasn't happy about how we were going about certain deals being the Honorable man that he is and that's one of the reason's he was sacked. Shephed and his brother and their son were heavily involved in some dodgy deals.

[TRon]

What I've never understood about the Owen signing is, why if Liverpool's bid was £8m, did we feel we needed to bid £17m? IIRC it was to blow them out of the water, but we could have done that with a £10m bid seeing as Rafa didn't want him anyway.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

The Rooney bid was real and it was aimed at making us challenge for the title and a long term replacement for Shearer.

 

Shepard made a bid for Owen because we had fallen down the table and Souness had an arguement with Bellamy and we needed someone to fire us up the league and back to competing. Shepard went out of his way to get a big name in for big money to make a statement after we missed out on Rooney a year beforehand. The only persons 'I want' attitude Shepard got caught up in was his own. Shepard tried to buy us success at a time before rich men started buying clubs, thing is he spent big on mostly on s*** players. Rooney would have been his first right players, and he lost out on him, Owen would have been his first right player had he not got injured and lost interest. Shepard is trying to re-write history as he only spent big once and he only did it down to fan pressure, when in all honesty he spent big most of the time but spent it on the wrong players. Owen was just the biggest name and most ambiguous.

 

Its a myth he spent big, he didn't. Our average spend wasn't even top 6 from memory. He kept his powder dry a lot more than he would have everyone believe....

 

Owen was bought to placate fans, as an ego massage for FS in an attempt to say hey look I'm the big shot and we are big players when in reality we were anything but. Our club lost a lot more than Sir Bobby when we sacked him, we lost our class and dignity as a club and haven't really recovered since.

 

It was shameful watching Sir Bobby come out from Benton with Sky crassly asking him about his sacking. Bobby was genuinely upset, trembling and tears in his eyes.

 

That was a very dark day that and a very dark era which is almost as bad as the Ashley era in that because we actually were contenders for a time, we actually were a class club, a club that tried to do something and we fucked it all up, or rather the powers that were did. GREED got to them all, that and power.

 

Sadly it is the story of our club from the beginning, ran and owned by utter twats who cared more about money, power and their ego to the detriment of the club and team and ultimately us lot, the mugs who buy into it all.

[Guest reefatoon]

The Rooney bid was real in that we made an offer of £23.5m if I remember rightly to Everton, but the bid itself wasn't done in an attempt to get the the player to Newcastle. It was done to force Man Utd into bidding for him which was the agent's preferred choice for their client and for brand Rooney. Sir Bobby wasn't happy about how we were going about certain deals being the Honorable man that he is and that's one of the reason's he was sacked. Shephed and his brother and their son were heavily involved in some dodgy deals.

 

Garbage.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

What I've never understood about the Owen signing is, why if Liverpool's bid was £8m, did we feel we needed to bid £17m? IIRC it was to blow them out of the water, but we could have done that with a £10m bid seeing as Rafa didn't want him anyway.

 

We did the same with Luque, we didn't do any due diligence on what he was earning and just offered a silly pie in the sky figure which he duly fucking snapped some hands off for....

 

With FS it was an ego thing. Him and DH tried to do the same with Juventus regarding Baggio and they were laughed away. Real Madrid couldn't believe their luck!

[Guest Howaythetoon]

The Rooney bid was real in that we made an offer of £23.5m if I remember rightly to Everton, but the bid itself wasn't done in an attempt to get the the player to Newcastle. It was done to force Man Utd into bidding for him which was the agent's preferred choice for their client and for brand Rooney. Sir Bobby wasn't happy about how we were going about certain deals being the Honorable man that he is and that's one of the reason's he was sacked. Shephed and his brother and their son were heavily involved in some dodgy deals.

 

Garbage.

 

Believe what you want, you don't have to believe what I'm saying at all. I know for a fact we had no intention of really trying to sign Rooney, though. Why didn't we match Man Utd's bid? Rooney himself wasn't adverse to going to us as he's since said, obviously he wanted to go to Man Utd, but Shearer was his idol at the time and he was only 18 so the mega ultimate move to Man Utd or some other such club could have waited. 

[TRon]

The Rooney bid was real and it was aimed at making us challenge for the title and a long term replacement for Shearer.

 

Shepard made a bid for Owen because we had fallen down the table and Souness had an arguement with Bellamy and we needed someone to fire us up the league and back to competing. Shepard went out of his way to get a big name in for big money to make a statement after we missed out on Rooney a year beforehand. The only persons 'I want' attitude Shepard got caught up in was his own. Shepard tried to buy us success at a time before rich men started buying clubs, thing is he spent big on mostly on s*** players. Rooney would have been his first right players, and he lost out on him, Owen would have been his first right player had he not got injured and lost interest. Shepard is trying to re-write history as he only spent big once and he only did it down to fan pressure, when in all honesty he spent big most of the time but spent it on the wrong players. Owen was just the biggest name and most ambiguous.

 

Its a myth he spent big, he didn't. Our average spend wasn't even top 6 from memory. He kept his powder dry a lot more than he would have everyone believe....

 

 

 

This is what I said earlier. He made a lot of big noise signings, but they tended to be one offs subsidised by putting cheaper players in less noticeable areas. That's why we had people like Dabizas and O'Brien playing in the same team as Shearer.

 

Our only era of genuine big spending was during Keegan's first spell when John Hall was chairman. As soon as we went public we started trying to balance the books.

[TRon]

What I've never understood about the Owen signing is, why if Liverpool's bid was £8m, did we feel we needed to bid £17m? IIRC it was to blow them out of the water, but we could have done that with a £10m bid seeing as Rafa didn't want him anyway.

 

We did the same with Luque, we didn't do any due diligence on what he was earning and just offered a silly pie in the sky figure which he duly fucking snapped some hands off for....

 

With FS it was an ego thing. Him and DH tried to do the same with Juventus regarding Baggio and they were laughed away. Real Madrid couldn't believe their luck!

 

Nah, I think a lot of deals under Shepherd were crooked as fuck. Luque, Owen, Boumsong....someone must have made a killing on those under the table.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

The Rooney bid was real and it was aimed at making us challenge for the title and a long term replacement for Shearer.

 

Shepard made a bid for Owen because we had fallen down the table and Souness had an arguement with Bellamy and we needed someone to fire us up the league and back to competing. Shepard went out of his way to get a big name in for big money to make a statement after we missed out on Rooney a year beforehand. The only persons 'I want' attitude Shepard got caught up in was his own. Shepard tried to buy us success at a time before rich men started buying clubs, thing is he spent big on mostly on s*** players. Rooney would have been his first right players, and he lost out on him, Owen would have been his first right player had he not got injured and lost interest. Shepard is trying to re-write history as he only spent big once and he only did it down to fan pressure, when in all honesty he spent big most of the time but spent it on the wrong players. Owen was just the biggest name and most ambiguous.

 

Its a myth he spent big, he didn't. Our average spend wasn't even top 6 from memory. He kept his powder dry a lot more than he would have everyone believe....

 

 

 

This is what I said earlier. He made a lot of big noise signings, but they tended to be one offs subsidised by putting cheaper players in less noticeable areas. That's why we had people like Dabizas and O'Brien playing in the same team as Shearer.

 

Our only era of genuine big spending was during Keegan's first spell when John Hall was chairman. As soon as we went public we started trying to balance the books.

 

Exactly. One of the reasons we ended up with Carr at RB was because FS didn't want to spend 6m or so on a Greek/Portugal full-back he had never heard of. Butt arrived because Carrick would walk to Newcastle for nowt to play for his hometown team.

 

Sir Bobby wanted Beattie at one point and liked the look of Dean Ashton (who we all know turned out to be better than Toress (but nee Collins John like!)). But FS wanted Kluivert because he cost 1.5m and was a big name.

 

Freddy Shepherd liked to portray himself as a big player, a big spender, when in reality he was just a fat chancer who by the end decided to use the club to make him and his family members some poppy in their old age.

[madras]

The Rooney bid was real in that we made an offer of £23.5m if I remember rightly to Everton, but the bid itself wasn't done in an attempt to get the the player to Newcastle. It was done to force Man Utd into bidding for him which was the agent's preferred choice for their client and for brand Rooney. Sir Bobby wasn't happy about how we were going about certain deals being the Honorable man that he is and that's one of the reason's he was sacked. Shephed and his brother and their son were heavily involved in some dodgy deals.

 

Garbage.

 

Believe what you want, you don't have to believe what I'm saying at all. I know for a fact we had no intention of really trying to sign Rooney, though. Why didn't we match Man Utd's bid? Rooney himself wasn't adverse to going to us as he's since said, obviously he wanted to go to Man Utd, but Shearer was his idol at the time and he was only 18 so the mega ultimate move to Man Utd or some other such club could have waited. 

Why didn't we equal Man Utd's bid ? Because once they were in the frame he wouldn't come here even if we outbid them. He was desperate to get away from Everton and would've come here if Man Utd hadn't come but they did. I t did force Man Utd to come out but it wasn't by design.

 

You'd think if it was a set up it would've been done a good bit earlier in the window.

[Guest reefatoon]

It's a crazy notion man. The Newcastle and Everton boards all jumping up and high fiving because Man Utd fell for their devious plan. Fucking cuckoo land.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

The Rooney bid was real in that we made an offer of £23.5m if I remember rightly to Everton, but the bid itself wasn't done in an attempt to get the the player to Newcastle. It was done to force Man Utd into bidding for him which was the agent's preferred choice for their client and for brand Rooney. Sir Bobby wasn't happy about how we were going about certain deals being the Honorable man that he is and that's one of the reason's he was sacked. Shephed and his brother and their son were heavily involved in some dodgy deals.

 

Garbage.

 

Believe what you want, you don't have to believe what I'm saying at all. I know for a fact we had no intention of really trying to sign Rooney, though. Why didn't we match Man Utd's bid? Rooney himself wasn't adverse to going to us as he's since said, obviously he wanted to go to Man Utd, but Shearer was his idol at the time and he was only 18 so the mega ultimate move to Man Utd or some other such club could have waited. 

Why didn't we equal Man Utd's bid ? Because once they were in the frame he wouldn't come here even if we outbid them. He was desperate to get away from Everton and would've come here if Man Utd hadn't come but they did. I t did force Man Utd to come out but it wasn't by design.

 

You'd think if it was a set up it would've been done a good bit earlier in the window.

 

Why didn't we bid much earlier in the window if we really were interested?

 

Anyway, I'm not here to convince people it was a fake bid and I don't care what people believe about it to be honest. Believe, don't believe. I believe it wasn't genuine personally.

 

Oh and discussing Freddy Shepherd in 2017... 

[madras]

The Rooney bid was real in that we made an offer of £23.5m if I remember rightly to Everton, but the bid itself wasn't done in an attempt to get the the player to Newcastle. It was done to force Man Utd into bidding for him which was the agent's preferred choice for their client and for brand Rooney. Sir Bobby wasn't happy about how we were going about certain deals being the Honorable man that he is and that's one of the reason's he was sacked. Shephed and his brother and their son were heavily involved in some dodgy deals.

 

Garbage.

 

Believe what you want, you don't have to believe what I'm saying at all. I know for a fact we had no intention of really trying to sign Rooney, though. Why didn't we match Man Utd's bid? Rooney himself wasn't adverse to going to us as he's since said, obviously he wanted to go to Man Utd, but Shearer was his idol at the time and he was only 18 so the mega ultimate move to Man Utd or some other such club could have waited. 

Why didn't we equal Man Utd's bid ? Because once they were in the frame he wouldn't come here even if we outbid them. He was desperate to get away from Everton and would've come here if Man Utd hadn't come but they did. I t did force Man Utd to come out but it wasn't by design.

 

You'd think if it was a set up it would've been done a good bit earlier in the window.

 

Why didn't we bid much earlier in the window if we really were interested?

 

Anyway, I'm not here to convince people it was a fake bid and I don't care what people believe about it to be honest. Believe, don't believe. I believe it wasn't genuine personally.

 

Oh and discussing Freddy Shepherd in 2017... 

Hoping Man Utd spent themselves out, which they announced they had.

 

Oh and now you "believe it was fake" just a few posts after "knowing for a fact". 

[Guest]

Rooney said: 'Sir Bobby Robson was a football man to the core and someone who once tried to sign me for Newcastle.

 

I only played against his teams on a few occasions. But as the England captain and a keen historian of the England team, I am aware of his impact as manager and as the most successful national team manager since Sir Alf Ramsey."

[Ketsbaia]

Rooney said: 'Sir Bobby Robson was a football man to the core and someone who once tried to sign me for Newcastle.

 

I only played against his teams on a few occasions. But as the England captain and a keen historian of the England team, I am aware of his impact as manager and as the most successful national team manager since Sir Alf Ramsey."

 

Aye, sure he is