Sorry but on further consideration Owen wouldn’t be on my “most despised list of mercenaries who bled the Club dry” list. No, he would be on my shortlist of “most despised list of mercenaries who bled the Club dry”. Just thought I’d make that clear.
Agree unfortunately its misplaced anger from our fans with Owen. The fans make loads of excuses about effort, England being his only focus, so on and so forth. The reality is in my opinion it was the accumulation of a startling fall from grace whereby we went from top 6 material every season, to a husk of a club falling through the trap door. I never saw any lack of effort from Owen, I never saw him feign injury and try to get out of playing. He did ok for us. His form dipped when Sam Allardyce arrived as him and Martins weren't really suited to 60 yd bombs. He looked very good under Keegan in the deeper role. He certainly wanted to be fit and play for his country, I had no problem with that. Again when he hurt himself in the World Cup the fans were up in arms with usual I don't give a **** about England malarkey. He does so the fans get to **** as far as I'm concerned. Then you have Shepherd and his idea of loyalty. The club was a mess to be honest, an absolute shambles. The fans were moaning how often he was injured, seemingly believing bizarrely he was doing it on purpose. We knew this when we bought him however and its why Real Madrid wanted to offload him. That is not his fault. It was Shepherd and his ****ing ego trip. He blew a massive amount of our budget on a guy who had been constantly injured for 3 years. The issue was us wasting our money. The chairman and the fans then wanted to cry about it so needed a scapegoat. The hatred comes from from bitterness, nothing else. Bitter that the club they love was being run by a loathsome fat **** who had no respect for it or its fans. He sold Owen down the river too to protect his own neck. He loved to play Billy Big Bollocks and present himself as doing his best for his people. He was a ****, end of story. As for Carr he tried his very best and was far from a mercenary. He wasn't the best by any stretch but did ok.
I only half agree on Owen. I think he tried his best, was decent and unlucky...for a while. When it became clear we were only going to be mid table also-rans at best, he quickly downed tools and undoubtedly feigned injury towards the end. He is also a knob for making the club believe we had a chance to keep him, and robbing us the chance to sell him for a fee. All that said, as a player, he was above average. Doesn't belong on a list with the likes of Celestine Babayaro.
I think people can accuse him of downing tools. That is a judgement. You can't accuse him of feigning injury. Well you can, but its seems very far fetched and imaginary. There would have to be evidence and there isn't any. His managers (Souness, Allardyce, Pearson, Roeder, Keegan, Hughton, Kinnear, Shearer - jesus that's ridiculous) would all have called him out on it and yet there was nothing.
Fs can't remember Pearson,have Roeder's autograph though and a mate of mine met him in Dublin and he got it for me,I wasn't even there!Did Owen not build a nice stables while employed by Newcastle and injured and seen at the races on match day?
A number are now reporting the other side of merseyside are about to test our resolve with a 30m bid. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/6441666/everton-marco-silva-jamaal-lascelles-newcastle/
I wouldn’t take 30mill unless he makes it clear he wants to go. Think he epitomises the spirit that got us 10th place and is the club captain. Sit down with him tell him you are going to build a team round him and see what he says. For me keeping him would be a far bigger statement of intent than putting up 40-60mill for new players.
