Sky Sports News - Owen's agent touting him round the "big four" ?

[Guest thenorthumbrian]

I was watching Sky Sports news which stated that Owen's agent has said that he has enquired if the "big four" would be interested in taking Owen, and has been knocked back by all of them.

So Owen has his agent touting him around other clubs ? Obviously Owen would have known about this.

I think that this sums up Owen's lack of commitment to Newcastle.

I want Owen to stay, he is obviously our best chance of consistent goalscoring when fit.

But I only want him to stay if he is 100% committed, and not just until something better comes along.

 

[Guest NIToon]

Maybe the wrong attitude to have but even with a Michael Owen lacking commitment, he is always going to give you goals.  I'd take a lack of commitment and twenty goals any season.

[Skirge]

I am sure it has to be a Champions League club to bid for him to enable the get out clause to come into effect, so unless he wants a move abroad again he is stuck!!

[toptoon]

I'd ideally like Owen to want to stay and score lots of goals for us next season, obviously. I hope the press are making mountains out of molehills, but as others have said Owen's silence is deafening. Although I feel he will end up staying.

 

But if he does want away and this £9m realese clause is as true as it looks, its out of our hands anyway.The more i think about it the more it pisses me off and the more i think we should sell him. 

[Guest johnson293]

Despite reports of a 'positive' and 'encouraging' chat with Allardyce, it seems to be becoming more obvious that Owen wants away, but he probably has two or three clubs in mind - I doubt he'll go to any CL qualified club, just for the sake of it.

 

My worry is that he will wait until just before the transfer window closes, and then goes - potentially leaving us £9m or £11m (depending what you believe) richer, but also minus a player in a key position until January.

 

Lets hope Sam can get some sort of answer out of him, or at least set a deadline beyond which Owen cannot leave this window.

 

Its all very well the top 4 not beign interested now, but if they fail to land any of their targets, he may become a very real target, back end of August!!!

[Benwell Lad]

It's this type of behaviour that makes you want to have nothing to do with the professional game at the top level nowadays, be it through buying season tickets, new shirts or television subscriptions.

 

Your money is ultimately going to uncommited mercenary players and even worse their parasite agents, who don't give a toss about either the clubs or fans they make patronising comments to when it's necessary.

 

Football authorities need to really address the situation where these here today - gone tomorrow gangsters rape the game we love, while the people at grassroots who make it all possible struggle to survive from day to day.

 

[KaKa]

This is going to go on forever isn't it ...

 

I think we honestly need to move Owen on.

 

It is such a distraction and it always makes the club look bad. Youk now the whole Owen wants out of Newcastle because they are a mess thing the media always runs with.

[Guest NUFCnutter]

His agent isn't going to publicly tout him without his knoweldge is he? I would love to see Michael Owen stay, but I just can't see it happening. He is obviously not comfortable here and if that is the case, and he looked really disinterested at the Watford game, then maybe its best he goes and we get someone who does want to be here scoring goals.

[Guest Sniffer]

Manure still looks the best fit to me if he goes anywhere. They definitely need another striker.

[Raconteur]

I can't believe anyone is honestly surprised that his agent is touting him around - wasn't the leaking of the release clause a fairly significant clue?

 

[Yorkie]

It surprises me the amount of people who still believe that there is actually a clause.

 

Shepherd's daft, but he's a businessman, and i honestly see absolutely no way that he would pay £17m for Michael Owen, and then include a clause that states he can later leave for half of that. It simply wouldn't happen!

 

Owen probably wants away sometime in the future, although i don't think he is so inhuman to bugger off now. I honestly reckon that he'll use this season as a stepping stone, at the very least.

[Guest alex]

Shepherd didn't even deny the clause last time he spoke about it.

[Guest Sniffer]

There's a hell of a lot of smoke if there is no fire.

[Guest alex]

The Times mention the clause all the time and have done for ages and he has a column with the same newspaper so I don't think it's beyond the realms of possibility that it exists. I reckon the 'big four' will have a little look at how he does for England this summer before making any bids though.

[STM]

It surprises me the amount of people who still believe that there is actually a clause.

 

Shepherd's daft, but he's a businessman, and i honestly see absolutely no way that he would pay £17m for Michael Owen, and then include a clause that states he can later leave for half of that. It simply wouldn't happen!

 

Owen probably wants away sometime in the future, although i don't think he is so inhuman to bugger off now. I honestly reckon that he'll use this season as a stepping stone, at the very least.

 

I agree with this. They denied it at the time.

[Guest Toon83]

If Michael Owen does leave then his reputation will be sullied for the rest of his career.

 

Just look at the welcome he recieved when he signed, 20,000 gerodies turn out to see him walk around the pitch in the black and white.

 

then all of the support he has recieved throughout his injury taking him to specialists to fix his troublesome injury problems, and not to mention the £102,000 he picks up every week for playing golf and spending his time on the treatment table.

 

If he goes he will simply not be welcome at St James' Park and his lack of loyalty may actually put off the top four, and maybe other big teams in europe.

 

If these stories are true, and if i were Big Sam, then i would simply tell Owen to be on his bike, and i dont think any of the Newcastle fans would begrudge Sam for saying so.

 

We dont need players here who will cause uncertainty in the locker room over their future, his future has been the big topic ever since Big Sam took over and we dont need this kind of attention, atleast not under Allardyce

 

We need to be thinking about taking the club forward not hanging around for 'Mercenary' Michael to decide his future

[Guest Sniffer]

Do you think Owen really would give a toss? Other than games for a new club, he'd never come back to the Toon again. Just like I'll probably never go to Liverpool other than to see a match. Why would I?

[Slugsy]

I'll be surprised if he gets a move, from all accounts he is the highest paid English player in the league, not sure he will get that level of pay anywhere else at the moment, apart from maybe Chelsea.

[Guest johnson293]

It surprises me the amount of people who still believe that there is actually a clause.

 

Shepherd's daft, but he's a businessman, and i honestly see absolutely no way that he would pay £17m for Michael Owen, and then include a clause that states he can later leave for half of that. It simply wouldn't happen!

 

Owen probably wants away sometime in the future, although i don't think he is so inhuman to bugger off now. I honestly reckon that he'll use this season as a stepping stone, at the very least.

 

I agree with this. They denied it at the time.

 

The only clause that was ever denied was one that stated Owen could leave after one year. Shepherd himself denied that one, but also admitted that the his contract contained clauses, going on to say 'which players dont? (have clauses in their contracts) using Shearer as an example (at the time).

 

Like many though, I would hope Owen himself has a degree of loyalty left in him for the two years of injury we (Club and fans) have supported him through - and agree that a move now could do some damage to his character and image.

[Guest Bramble OG]

if owen leaving has the same effect it had on Liverpool he can leave now

[KaKa]

It surprises me the amount of people who still believe that there is actually a clause.

 

Shepherd's daft, but he's a businessman, and i honestly see absolutely no way that he would pay £17m for Michael Owen, and then include a clause that states he can later leave for half of that. It simply wouldn't happen!

 

Owen probably wants away sometime in the future, although i don't think he is so inhuman to bugger off now. I honestly reckon that he'll use this season as a stepping stone, at the very least.

 

It actually surprises me more that there is someone out there who STILL believes there is no clause!!!

 

I have a little feeling that the club might actually be looking to get rid, but can't generate any interest from the top four, who are the only teams Owen wants to go to.

[Robster]

Sam needs to be very careful how he approaches this.

If its true that Owen is being touted around but he ends up being rejected by everyone then eventually, he is going to have to take his place in the Newcastle team again come the start of next season.

 

This will be very bad for team/squad morale and coupled with the fact that he isnt going to be getting the adulation from the crowd that he should, it could all end up having a very negative effect one the club.

 

The only option is to just let him go. As disappointing as it will be to lose a player of his calibre, he appears to be so selfish, he isnt going to be part of what we hope is Sam's new "Team" ethic

[NG32]

I cant be @rsed with him anymore, flogg him and tie his agent to the train tracks.

[STM]

I really don't care fo the coutcome, i just want it sorted ASAP.

[Cronky]

The test will come after the international games, when other clubs will have had the chance to look at Owen's fitness. There's no reason for them to put in an offer now. They may as well wait.