What a ***t Owen is!

I distinctly remember Owen, stripped and ready to come on as a sub in the Villa game, leaning against the bench looking bored and disinterested - not warming up, not stretching, not looking ready to fight for the team. I'm sorry but if he genuinely gave a **** about saving our club from relegation and not just collecting his pay packet every week, he would not have been doing that. Disgusting.

Also, he quite blatently put England ahead of Newcastle (the team who paid his astronomical wages) which is unacceptable in my eyes - He only started playing well and regularly when he needed to be selwected for England, and rushed himself back from injusry to play for England, only to get injusred so he couldn't play for us.

Having said that, there was a handful of games under Keegan where he looked pretty good. Doesn't make up for the big bucks he took out of the club over the years though.

No one can tell me I've misunderstood him - I'll make my own mind up thanks.

 

"no reason to put in any effort"?!?!? ... err, hows about 110K a week? That seems a good enough reason to me. Money grabbing twat.

 

Maybe he wasn't stretching as he'd already warmed up? Hence why he was stripped off

 

Exactly, also the fans were always behind him and he **** on them despite being injured most of the time (through no fault of his own). Still could have tried. I can remember against Portsmouth at home Martins running with the ball for about 30 yards and the only who was anywhere near him when required was Duff, Owen and Viduka just couldn't be bothered.

 

In the world of football that's not a reason. I agree it should be, but it's not.

When he first signed for the club, he put in a ton of effort, and played very well, then he got injured in January and for some reason he started getting a lot of abuse from alleged 'fans' of the club. That abuse continued throughout his time a the club, regardless of the fact that he generally played well. What's the point in putting in any effort for a bunch of people who've already decided they hate you?

For the fact that he took so much money from the club, you have to blame Freddy Shephard. He's the one who was handing out fat contracts to anyone who wanted one. If he offered you £110k a week or whatever you're not gonna say 'Nah thanks, I'll play for £20k'. The only money he 'grabbed' was the money he was entitled to.

That's the biggest lie you'll ever read.

 

Pride? Self-respect? To prove doubters wrong? Be the bigger person?

 

Michael Owen has been injury prone the moment he walked out on a football pitch. It was mainly his hamstrings when younger. I could go and haul his career stats for you but I can't be arsed. Needless to say I'd imagine his league appearances in a season throughout his career have been more regularly in the 20's rather than 30's. There is no disputing we bought an injury prone player to be honest.

I'm not accusing you personally of getting on at Owen though. There were a lot of uneducated idiots who were constantly bleating on about what he was earning, saying he cared more about his horses (god forbid you have a life outside of football eh). Many sat beside me in the ground would be constantly on his case. I'd be walking back listening to bullshit about him not running here there and everywhere. You know basically change the way he has played the game which has made him a superstar. Yeah its that easy! Sorry he did try for me, but as a striker when the service isn't there and the other team have the ball cause your team is ****, you can look pretty isolated.

As for saying sorry I'm sure I read this somewhere not that long ago. He basically said he was sorry he had not been able to perform at his best, and the fans derserved better. When I have more time I'll do a bit of a searching. I'm sure if you asked him now man to man, he'd say he was disappointed with how it worked out between us, he is sorry he was unable to do more to change things and he wishes the fans all the best. But its hard to when most of just too plain stupid to look at things logically. I imagien you get to the point where you think "What is the point here?" Does he need to say sorry for us getting relegated and speak for all the players? I can why some think he should as captain but I don't think the players were to blame in the main. Two successive ****ty regimes were. Why should he take the flak for Ashley and Freddie being complete and utter imbeciles?

As for not liking players after they leave, sorry but I have nothing against Nolan, Barton, Enrique, Carroll. I read little snipes on these boards all the time about all 4. It justs saddens me that we're unwilling to accept that players coming and going is just part of football. I think those that do are entitled to their opinions but as I say its pathetic in my book. The four mentioned as examples all put in shifts for the club and stuck with us when they could have easily left for PL football. I think they did owe us a little but it was not really the players fault the club was so badly run. The environment in which to perform was poor. The fact they got us back up and consolidated us in the division deserves great credit. if they then leave because the club want to sell, they have good offers and in some cases were taking a step up the ladder, I have no problem with them at all. To be honest I don't hate many players who leave the club. I accept that is part of football. I wouldn't hide my dislike for Bassong and Martins who were disrespectful towards the club prior to leaving, but even then I doubt I'd boo them.

 

As I say all the time each to their own. I don't think anyone is saying you've misunderstood him. He probably did put England ahead of Newcastle. Most footballers would. Shearer would have during his career at times, its called being patriotic. Its still important to a lot of people. You're obviously not and that is fair enough but it doesn't make it wrong for those who are. England is still the pinnacle for most. Particularly when its not even your hometown club. The wages keep being brought up. Whether he is getting paid 10k or 110k is irrelevant. FS gave him that wage. How much you earn has nothing to do with effort. you should put the same effort in regardless of what you earn for me. Maybe you misunderstood his body language against Villa? Maybe at that particular time he did look disinterested when you look at him? Maybe he'd already warmed up I can't remember? The point is, is that really the basis to form an opinion of someone? I don't think it is. I saw him look interested plenty of times and he looked positively lively under KK when someone who understood football was in charge.

 

Fair point about KK - and true, I don't know what was going through his mind at the Villa game but I think it was representative of his attitude throughout the final season.

I think the point about the astronomical wage is a matter of respect. True he didn't force anyone to pay him that, but I think there should be some moral humanity within us all that would mean if someone was paying us more than we probably deserve, we'd try our hardest to earn it. Put a shift in, accept a bit of **** because, ultimately, the compensation to put up with all that is ample. It's just human decency. Newcastle fans saw that he was collecting his wage every week without (seemingly) putting in the same effort as some of the other lads earning much less than him. Of course people are going to be critical of that behaviour. Same with Viduka - bunch of mercenaries we had at the club!

 

Don't get me wrong the likes of Viduka, Martins were complete and utter mercenaries. They really didn't give a **** as far as I could see but I just didn't see it with Owen. I just saw a guy who didn't have many strings to his bow (though under KK he did show a side of his game I didn't know was there). He became very isolated and was lost without the team around him he needed. He'd been at world class teams where his deficiencies could be ignored for his goals. Now he was in a **** team and his deficiencies were being exposed for all to see. I think my only criticism would be that he let the abuse and lack of form affect his mindset. Hence his big pal AS felt the need to take him out of the firing line. I thought a guy of his stature could maybe have ignored the flak more. But Shearer aside, the majority of strikers make very bad captains because they blow so hot and cold. Its in the job unfortunately and you need to be bigger than that as a captain. Like most keepers made bad captains cause they tend to be a bit mental! I can't hate him for being a typical striker. He never did have many strings for me, he was pretty one dimensional as a footballer. He was just world class at what he was good at!

 

I think the basis of the hatred of Owen is that we adopted him as our talisman, etc, when he was never interested in being that. He effectively said from day one that he was here for the paycheque and because he didn't have much choice.

It's a bit like falling madly in love with a woman who tells you she's only marrying you to get a visa, and then hating her because she never really loved you back.

 

****ing bitch.

 

Nah, sorry can't believe some Toon supporters are defending Owen. He was ****ing despicable during our relegation season and has disrespected the club since leaving, the man is a ****.

 

On occassions like this when both sides have good points, usually Clarence Acuna comes and posts some inspired genius that makes everything clear as day. Needing that right now.

 

Why did he have to go to Blackburn, inconsiderate bastard

 

Kid Canary, when did Newcastle fans hate Owen before he left? I always quite liked the guy, and so did the thousands that turned up to see him when he signed. I think as a club we were pretty good to Owen.

 

There'd been a considerable amount of abuse hurled at him from a few months after he signed.

 

This

 

This.

 

RedCanary, you describe Owen a decent guy; just watch the end of this video.

[video=youtube;WqOxNspUPyE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqOxNspUPyE[/video]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqOxNspUPyE