The biggest surprise, for me, was the sheer look of surprise on Owen’s face. Granted he never lived in the North East and was somewhat detached from the area as a result, but surely one man can’t be so detached from reality to the point where he never realised how despised he is by Newcastle fans? Perhaps if we printed our feelings on a race card then Owen may have had a bit of a clue?
Anyway, the shock didn’t end there. A clearly rattled Owen continued to justify himself on Twitter after the match and even said that if we knew the facts then we’d behave differently. Those facts are still yet to come to light four days later.
The fact is that Owen cost the club £21 million in wages during his time at Newcastle. He was a symbol of everything that was wrong with the club as we shelled out a fortune for a player who failed miserably when we really needed him.
I personally never had an issue with his goalscoring record for us. He scored one goal every three games whilst he was fit, but it was his fitness that really annoyed me. You could tell when Owen was going to be fit by looking at the international fixture list. If England were playing then Owen would be looking to return from injury.
Another thing that sticks with me is the sense that Owen feels he wasn’t responsible for relegation. He wasn’t, not entirely, but he did play a huge part. He was our Captain and as a result he should be prepared to take more of the flak for failing to motivate his players whilst they were on the pitch. I remember when he first joined Manchester United he said that if he’d have had chances created for him then he would have scored.
The fact of the matter is that Owen did have chances created for him and he didn’t score. Of course he is only human and can miss chances, but you’d expect more from a lad who used to be regarded as one of the finest finishers that this country has produced.
There are lots of reasons why Newcastle fans resent Michael Owen. We seen him back at St James’ Park now and we’ve dished out some grief towards him. I’ve highlighted my reason for disliking the risible, horse-obsessed ******, but now I want to know your reasons.
Let it all out!
He never really stood a chance here due to injuries and you can’t really blame him for getting injured.
He deserved the reception he got on Tuesday though as when the heat was on he went totally and utterly missing and as captain I expected a lot more.
Stuart79(Quote)
To be embraced by Newcastle fans a player needs a layer of toughness to go with his skill. Owen didn’t have that hardness to him – or did not project it. As Captain, he did not do his role in motivating the talent that surrounded him. THe team that went down had more skill than Kenin Nolan’s crew, but Nolan helps get all the mileage out of this squad.
BeeGuy(Quote)
Owen couldn’t be bothered. By the time he left Liverpool he was a mercenary looking for the best pay packets. His wife cryed apparently when he joined Newcastle because she wanted him to play for a Chelsea or a Manchester United. He wasn’t bothered though as long as he got the contract he wanted.
DJG(Quote)
I said this on a thread a couple of days back, when you look at his goals per games ratio for us, it’s not bad at all. He also helped to keep us up in the season that Keegan came back, repaid a lot of the money we paid out for him that time round. Keegan got him playing in the right postion, Fat Sam had the ball hoofed up in the air and Joe Kineare or howeve you spell his name did the same. You can’t do that with a player who is so small.
Yes he had too many injuries and cost a lot in wages, but I think some of it is unjust
Simon(Quote)
Granted Owen could be blamed for being injured, but as Stuart79@1 summed up, he went missing when the club needed him, and he will always be reviled on the Tyne. Got what he deserved if you ask me, if he was surprised by the reception he got then it just goes to show his arrogance and naivety.
Canny parting shot from someone who would know the internal goings-on at the toon…….
http://www.true-faith.co.uk/tf/features.nsf/0/DD0A5EB8AA054EA08025787A0035939D?OpenDocument
Munich Mag(Quote)
I miss Owen, he was a great player.
The way he led on the pitch as our club captain was amazing and inspiring. The way he got that little extra bit of effort from the rest of the team which earned us a point here or there and staved off relegation.
The way he appeared in the press as any good captain would, giving inspiring interviews about how he wouldn’t let this great club tumble down a level, and how he and the rest of the team would do everything they could to stay up. When a world class and world famous player speaks, people usually listen.
Oh yeah, that didn’t happen. All I saw was someone who had a face like a smacked ****, and who thought he was too good for us and therefore didn’t have to put the effort in.
I love a grafter as we all do. Michael Owen was not that person. Not even for a 100 grand a week. He was obviously too busy making a brochure to find himself a new club instead of trying to help the club that payed his wages.
Scum of the highest order. The dictionary definitions of ‘GREED’ and ‘GUTLESS’ should read ‘Michael Owen’ and vice versa.
NorthernPaul(Quote)
Didn’t FFS make an insurance claim against England for Owen’s injury and get a few millions under his mattress ?…or am I on the wrong track ?
Munich Mag(Quote)
Think you are right MM, so with all of that taken to account, he didn’t cost as much as is made out. I’m not defending him and saying I wish he had stayed, but I do think we need to look at the big picture at times
Simon(Quote)
couldnt give a fook how much he cost us in transfer and wages ,its the fact that you could clearly see he wasent trying in his last games hence he couldnt give a fck aboot us
batty(Quote)
Owen was never interested when he knew he had a move to Man Utd lined up.
Stuart79(Quote)
Words cant describe how much I hate him, one of our worst captains ever – just goes to show how good of a captain Nolan is.
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
Greedy little c*nt that’s all he ever was, imagine if we’d got Rooney instead of Owen all those years back…Its still shameful to see how much money we paid both Real and Owen himself for his pathetic “services”
NewkieBrown(Quote)
Actually, it sad to see how the wee little shites career headed down the bog.
I remember watching that classic England goal against the Argies when the wee 18 year old sprog sprinted clear of all a sundry from the half way line, anhd put the ball in the net. I though “flippin heck
Munich Mag(Quote)
The bloke was a disgrace and deserved the reception he got. You have to be a special kind of to**er to get a reception like that as a former Toon captain. Doubt he gives a flying **** though 🙄
3hourswasted(Quote)
It wasn’t JUST Owen’s fault or just Duff’s fault, we had a local legend carrying the club on his back for about 3-4 seasons and then he retired to be replaced by bought in forigners who didn’t care about the success of the club. And people like Ameobi and S.Taylor who did care but wern’t good enough to do anything about it.
DJG(Quote)
Actually, it sad to see how the wee little shites career headed down the bog.
I remember watching that classic England goal against the Argies when the wee 18 year old sprog sprinted clear of all a sundry from the half way line, anhd put the ball in the net. I though “flippin heck England have something here”…..
That was the peak of his career imo…though Liverpool and Manure fans may beg to differ. Madrid fans I’m not sure about, after all he had his own momogrammed blanket for keeping him warm on the bench….
I think MO is simply misunderstood the poor lad… 😥
Munich Mag(Quote)
DJG – I’d say Shearer carried the club for much longer than that. I’d say apart from four or five seasons he was the main reason we hadn’t flirted with relegation too much before.
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy@17….spot on there mate….
Shearer the Legend papered over the cracks for lots of years mate, big time…
Munich Mag(Quote)
toonsy – Totally agree with you, but im saying it was like the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was a steady decline and too many managerial changes that should have been avoided. And it shows that people have made bad decisions long before Ashley turned up. (Usually not taking much blame for them either).
DJG(Quote)
Anyone watching QPR/Cardiff on BBC? Jay Bothroyd bloody good shot…You know its bad when you quite fancy having a championship’s attack in Bellamy/bothroyd/whittingham
NewkieBrown(Quote)
Newkie – Never knew it was on the BBC. I’ll watch that instead of Man Utd then 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
That was a cross by Taarabt mind 😀
toonsy(Quote)
Not sure toonsy, quality that.
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
Just watching Soccer Saturday and our stats are strange. We’ve only won two out of the last 12 PL games and picked up 12 points from a possible 36!
Christ it’s a good job we picked up points earlier.
Stuart79(Quote)
Tell you what, cracking game this Cardiff v QPR game
toonsy(Quote)
Great game this, good advert for the Championship.
dan4toon(Quote)
Yeah looking quality so far aint it, thought it would be one of those massive build ups leading to a boring 0-0 but fair play to both sides, looking awesome so far. Toonsy, agree about the cross, wouldn’t catch Barton being so off target
NewkieBrown(Quote)
Cardiff away was a good game last year. Surprised how nice their fans were. It must be away from home that they start acting like tossers 🙄
toonsy(Quote)
Cardiff – QPR is like a prem game tbh. Would rather watch that than Wigan vs Wolves.
DJG(Quote)
Aye Toonsy, I live in Newport when i’m not at uni which is like 20mins from Cardiff so there’s loads of Cardiff fans around. I think it might just be the away brigade trying to be all hardcore or something, but most of them are alright really-well, apart from the fact they’re welsh like…. 😛
NewkieBrown(Quote)
they deserved somthing at their place imo, I can remember that triple tackle by smith.
SpencerTheToon(Quote)
toonsy – I called one of them a sheep shagger in Legends and he wanted to smash a chair over my head. 😆
DJG(Quote)
I remember Smith taking one for the team and getting sent off.
Spencer – That’s how we got promoted last season mate. How many times did we nick points but play poorly in the first half of the season? 😉
toonsy(Quote)
DJG – 😆
I remember a few years ago I had a Villa fan wanting to do the same to me. He didn’t in the end 😉
toonsy(Quote)
A bouncer came up and went ‘Er no’. He put is straight back down. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
it
DJG(Quote)
suppose Sy, second half we were so much better.
SpencerTheToon(Quote)
This wasn’t the kind of pub to have bouncers 😉
toonsy(Quote)
Cardiff 2-1 QPR
toonsy(Quote)
Great finish by Bellamy, now theres a tw@t that I do miss 🙁
NewkieBrown(Quote)
I rather have a squad like we have now winning Nowt, but fighting for everything and putting in some memorable performances, than have a squad full of Owens and winning trophies every year. I would probably be embarrassed to say I’m a toon fan.
I think a lot of fans realized this with the relligation season and has allowed the club to build up slowly.
Hopefully we can add enough class to go with the passion to push on for some silverware soon. But I rather win nothing then have the likes of Owen disgracing the black and white again.
JerseyGeordie(Quote)
Loads of footy today. Half time Sheep vs. QPR on BBC, then off to clebb to watch wor game, then home to watch Chelsea vs. West Spam on ESPN. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
The brochure he produced still riles me
Moreno(Quote)
Moreno-Yeah, no idea how he got twenty odd pages from “Here’s what I can bring to a team-Injury prone, no spirit, huge drain on wages.” Absolute fanny that man.
NewkieBrown(Quote)
@44, bet there was a lot of pictures
Jobey07(Quote)
How many points did we have at this stage last season?
Might be a good way to judge how good QPR have been this season.
Stuart79(Quote)
http://www.statto.com/football/stats/england/league-championship/2009-2010 end of last season
batty(Quote)
Jobey 😛
Stuart- about 90 or so was it? Can’t really remember if i’m honest
NewkieBrown(Quote)
i reckon qpr are below westbrom
batty(Quote)
Am i the only one who noticed how many times Routledge has hit the first man with his crosses.
Not fecking once, Why was he so ***** in the prem after ripping the fizzy apart for us…
CC(Quote)
http://www.statto.com/football/teams/newcastle-united/2009-2010/results here stu my mate 😆
batty(Quote)
On comes the man himself
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
we were on 98 on the 20.4.10 WBA were on 89
SpencerTheToon(Quote)
We got 102 points. QPR can only get 95 if they win this game (they are losing) and their last 3 games. So we were better. 😉
DJG(Quote)
Loven and Shola upfront…
🙄
AndrewNUFC(Quote)
Krul
Simpson Williamson Coloccini Enrique
Barton Nolan Tiote Jonas
Ameobi Lovenkrands.
dan4toon(Quote)
Team news up on next article. Unchanged. Unsurprised.
toonsy(Quote)
Apart from Nolan as expected I mean
toonsy(Quote)
I wanted Ireland to start 😥
Jobey07(Quote)
Dissapointed that Lover is starting again. Clearly not good enough.
Maybe he’ll score though.
Stuart79(Quote)
I think wayne’s problem in the prem was a mixture of confidence and quality. His crosses would lack the pace to get there and were usually a bit flat and prem CBs are just quicker and more capable to deal with them. Then after a few poor crosses his confidence would wane and he would try to hit it with more power and then the ball would sail high and far. In the champ defenders are still good in the air but lack the kind of pace to get to the balls early. Also in the champ wayne doesn’t get pushed as far wide as he does in the prem.
JerseyGeordie(Quote)
‘Dissapointed that Lover is starting again. Clearly not good enough.’
You are correct wth that one Stu. Although I slagged him before Birmingham and he scored after about 2 mins.
DJG(Quote)
Taarabt again. 😯
DJG(Quote)
Great link Munich.
Taarabt is looking good, but I am still unsure if I want him to come to us. I would much rather Ireland if I had a choice.
Carroll missing through injury 😛
raffo(Quote)
These streams arent doing it for me 🙁
SpencerTheToon(Quote)
What a strike son, made me eat my fecking words
SpencerTheToon(Quote)
Michael Owen got what he deserved on Tuesday night. He milked us dry when he was here, taking £100,000 a week off us when he was injured. When he did play, he looked as if he did not care.
He contributed nothing and never wanted to sign for us. We seemed to be his second choice as he was pining for a move back to Liverpool. However, Rafa who was manager at that time did not want to pay what we eventually did for him.
Freddy Shepherd is too blame for almost bankrupting us to sign the idiot.
Gary Jackaman(Quote)