Michael Owen: ‘Model’ professional.

Posted on June 15th, 2009 | 89 Comments |

Owen for sale.
Owen for sale.
How many articles about our club’s current plight will begin with “just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse”? Well, it seems on evidence, that most people involved with the club are trying their best to provide ammunition in order to justify the trend. The most recent being Mr Michael Owen, or at least his agency. The same Michael Owen who we signed amidst much hype that he would eventually fill the boots of Big Al. The same Michael Owen, who for many reasons, has failed dismally to live up to his form before and during his spell at Madrid. He has also failed miserably to justify a £17m price-tag and ridiculous wages.

Of course, it’s probably unfair to blame Owen for signing on the dotted line. He should never have been offered the deal he initially was. Even if he’d been a success it would have been some price to pay. As it is, the fact he hasn’t played enough or performed enough, just makes the financial damage even more farcical.

So, to conclude on the period of time for which Owen was contractually ours, he was a bit of a disappointment to say the least. Now in fairness, I always thought he was an honest and decent professional. Though this last season I had my doubts due to some inept and apparently lack lustre displays. I put that down to the situation and the support he had on and off the field. Basically because I thought the kid had class. Now I’m not so sure…..

It would appear that his agency has felt in the current circumstances that he may need some help in finding new employers.

According to the Sunday Mirror –

“As one of the world’s leading sports agencies, Wasserman regularly utilise comprehensive documentation and audio-visual material to illustrate the benefits of our clients.

“Although there has been interest from abroad, Michael has told us that he would prefer to stay in the Premier League.

“In the week after the season ended, we prepared a document showing all the information an interested club would require and this was circulated to a select group.

“We also included a medical report and answers to frequently asked questions as well as a review of his commercial benefits and international name awareness.”

Seriously though, how far can we possibly fall? So far that our owner allows us to publicise our sale on the website in the manner they did and allow bids via email? So far that a makem manages to get nationwide coverage of his hoax bid? And so far that somehow a former/current international centre-forward still under thirty believes he needs to be whored in some catalogue to attract interest. Why on earth does he feel the need to help us break new grounds of crassness? Are things that desperate for him? Is the exposure so bad and the guilty association so damaging that they’ve had to put him up as a standalone pin-up and distanced from the mess that is NUFC?

Apparently so.

How many of us must have wronged in a former life to deserve this?

NUFCBlog Author: bowburnmag bowburnmag has written 234 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

89 Responses

  2. Steve 48

    Agree – talk about desperation!

    Any potential buyers beware – read the small print..

  3. i would prefer it the rich people interested did not read the small print. they would not touch us with a barge pole if they did.

  4. Initially I though this was a great coup for us, but cast your collective minds back to Jim [SH]White on SkySports News, making a song and dance about his arrival, when c20k of us mugs turned out to watch his unveiling – turned out to be an April fool to us all, and again in front of the cameras – seems like they love to see us fail. No wonder we’re all angry as hell. What have we done to deserve this? Courted success? Where’s the shame in that – we work hard all week and pay the cash and have been let down for the past 5 years let’s be honest. For me this was the soured icing on the cake.

    We’ve all ready MO’s stats, c£1.3m per goal ratio, and asked that he repeatedly pledge his allegiance to NUFC, and to be fair he did, but let’s be honest it was all window dressing and he never really meant a word of it – all he’s ever interested is three things:

    1. Checking bank balance

    2. England – getting into the team, in my opion not fit to clean their boots nowadays

    3. His glue factory

    Good riddance but it’s sad when you have to flaunt yourself in a brochure of this nature; what it tells any potential buyer is that you’re buying the name and image as it’s clear to all to see the skills are no longer there; a product of again poor management and leadership. Pig’s ear, silk purse.

    /Rant over

  6. It was always about the money with Owen. Dont let the door hit you on the way out.

  7. ESAMIM

    ‘i would prefer it the rich people interested did not read the small print. they would not touch us with a barge pole if they did.’

    I was refering to the MO sales brochure rather than NUFC.

  9. What is telling is that he *has* to hawk himself via some kind of multimedia package. I don’t expect to see him in a NUFC shirt in his highlight package as there are none. If he was still any good then he wouldn’t need some fancy show reel to highlight his strengths. Owen is finished as a player, he just doesn’t realise it yet.

  10. Micky Toon

    Id re-phrase your last line:

    Owen is finished as a man, he just doesn’t realise the world has woken up to it yet.

    He has shown at Newcastle he is happy to bleed clubs dry for zero commitment tot he cause.

  11. WRITE ABOUT NEWCASTLE

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    They currently have no Newcastle Offside writer and the web-site contacted me and maybe one of our readers would like to do it – I think we need as many fan web-sites as possible right now.

    It’s not a paid position, but they have a fantastic community and it’s a wonderful opportunity for the right lad or lass to get involved.

    Details about writing for The Offside can be found here.

    Give it a go it can be quite rewarding, especially if you read all the news on Newcastle in any case.
    <<<<<< here you are worky get your self a job m8

  12. Anyone seen Newsnow aren’t picking up Eds articles – wonder is its because he keeps repeating the same type of article to get hits?

    Oh yes – and I have just read Owens prospectus – it states that he is almost back to full fitness, just needs to find a spine.

  13. stardust he has said he is revamping his blog m8 and has started buy throwing that piture of mike in the bin lol

  14. batty says:
    June 15, 2009 at 12:46 pm

    “<<<<<< here you are worky get your self a job m8" Thanks batty! I noticed that, but I have too many jobs on the go at the moment! Stardust, ohhh aye! yer reet! Maybe it's a technical fault? Or they've penalised him for the excessive advertising?

  15. Batty

    He didn’t need to throw it in the bin. He should have just posted it to Stardust to stick on his bedroom cealing!

  16. Stardust

    The moving eye you have along side your post is very disconcerting!!

  17. Stuart79 says:
    June 15, 2009 at 1:16 pm

    “Batty

    He didn’t need to throw it in the bin. He should have just posted it to Stardust to stick on his bedroom cealing!”

    Stuart, batty’s got a picture of Fat Freddy on his ceiling! :-)

  18. Deb – “The moving eye you have along side your post is very disconcerting!!”

    LOL – I love it – think its funny.

    Oh Yes and Worky – Eds copied the theme of your banner too lol. Even a few of his articles last week were tweaked and mirrored a bit of our style.

    Ed if your reading – thank you – imitation is the most sincere form of flattery LOL

  19. I struggling with the lack of info – trying to sit calmly awaiting developments.

    Lets hope this week brings some better news.

  20. geordie deb says:
    June 15, 2009 at 10:42 am

    “If only

    http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/06/should-newcastle-supporters-ride-to-the-rescue-by-joining-forces-to-buy-the-club-themselves.html

    NUFC Bahrain
    It would be a great scenario but will never happen.”

    Well in Germany it happens through legislation that teams must be at least 51% fan owned. In Spain and other places it happens because the clubs were founded on those principles and stayed that way.

    It’s much harder to turn back the clock once the club has become big in private hands, and there’s no legislation, like there is in Germany.

    How are you today, Deb?

  21. I must be one of the few Toon fans who doesn’t lay any *particular* blame at Owen’s feet.

    Now before you all throw eggs at me and withdraw the plans you undoubtedly had to buy me a large birthday present, I’m not saying his performances this season were anything better than mediocre on a good day and dreadful on a bad day.

    However, the whole team was dreadful and Owen was sorely deprived of service from our listless midfield.

    He was our top scorer, so from that point of view all our other strikers deserve even more scorn.

    What I’m saying is I don’t know how useless – individually – he is and how much of it is down to the team he was playing in.

    When he moves somewhere else we might find out but I’m suggesting that maybe he’s been made a bit of a scapegoat.

  22. Stardust

    Why do you keep having little digs at Ed’s blog?

    Ed does the blog because he likes it. With the digs all the time you are coming across as though you are doing it to compete with Ed and hoping that everybody stops going on his blog.

    You might not have a lot of class Stardust but surely you can have some dignity?

  23. Hugh de Payen says:
    June 15, 2009 at 1:42 pm

    “I must be one of the few Toon fans who doesn’t lay any *particular* blame at Owen’s feet.”

    I don’t lay TOO much blame at his feet, Hugh, and I think the vendetta towards the players is somewhat misdirected. I don’t think that they exactly covered themselves in glory, of course. But I do think that they’re taking the rap for five managerial changes, which will always make a team look confused and lacking in purpose in such a competitive league as the Premiership.

  24. I’m not BLAMING Owen for anything. It’s like the rest of the team, they aren’t really to BLAME for us being relegated as there was nothing they could do to prevent it. They aren’t good enough for the premier league. Owen’s game was all about his pace. He doesn’t have that any more and he’s failed to adapt his game accordingly. Shearer was in a similar situation when he broke his leg, but he was clever enough to realise he couldn’t run as fast any more, so he adapted.
    However, I think even Shearer would have struggled in this team.

  25. Stuart79 (Post 22) You have taken the words right out of my mouth. I was about to ask the same question.

    Stardust, Ed has done nothing to you to deserve that.

  26. Hugh

    I am not blaming either. What I was not happy with is he was club Captain, since late December he showed no commitment to the cause, he simply tried to stay injury free for his next contract in my opinion.

    It is his lack of leadership and selfishness I did not like.

    But I agree that he would be a far better player with good creatives around him – undoubtedly.

  27. Stuart – my comments are matter of fact – no more or less. I’d appreciate it if we simply blanked each other.

  28. My article was really borne out of frustration with the bad publicity and not intended to criticise Owen for what he was unable to deliver on the pitch.

    I agree with Hugh, MT and workey regards Owen and some other players.

    I think we’ll lament ‘what could have been’, i.e. a really beautiful relationship, if Owen hadn’t been injured so much and had received decent service.

  30. Mags – to deserve what, I had simply made observations of fact since our start, that wasnt disingenuous.

    I did not post my observations on Eds – but here, where we started it – surely thats in line with etiquette – or blogiquette whatever its called?

  31. Stardust – gotta be honest, I concur re the Ed’s blog comments. We should perhaps be more respectful? I still enjoy his blog and wouldn’t criticise anything other than the repetitive nature of the threads occasionally (which I still appreciate is par for the course with the clip of our club).

  32. ‘Well in Germany it happens through legislation that teams must be at least 51% fan owned. In Spain and other places it happens because the clubs were founded on those principles and stayed that way.

    It’s much harder to turn back the clock once the club has become big in private hands, and there’s no legislation, like there is in Germany.

    How are you today, Deb?’

    Fine thanks Workey. Keep alternating between doing some work and visiting here to see what’s happening.

  33. BBM – If that was criticising – I would hate to see a broadside lol.

    Observation and humour does not equal criticism! Ed was really the forefather of this blog, why would I criticise him?

    Bizarre.

  34. “workeyticket says:
    June 15, 2009 at 2:05 pm (Edit)
    Stardust, Stuart, put your handbags down and shake hands!”

    Has hell frozen over Worky?

  35. Deb,

    I’m still laughing at that brochure at the top. It must have been done by reporters taking the “mickey”. Especially the shots of him holding his head in his hands, and the one of him lying on the floor, injured.

    LOL.

  36. workeyticket says:
    June 15, 2009 at 2:05 pm (Edit)
    Stardust, Stuart, put your handbags down and shake hands!”<<<< na threaten smash his face in agen stardy

  37. Fair do’s Stardust, you know me, just trying to keep the peace. I just think it could easily be misinterpreted. As it was by several accounts. That’s all I had to say about it anyway!!

    Workey – surely that brochure is a NOTW mock-up? If not, then it is even more embarrassing than I first thought….

  38. worky eds back on newsnow m8 so you grassing him didnt work lol and long live freddy

  39. Stardust-

    Why would I want to blank you? It wouldn’t be half as much fun now would it?

    Although my dog has more dignity than you and it would be easier to get him to admit when he is wrong.

  42. bowburnmag says:
    June 15, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    “Workey – surely that brochure is a NOTW mock-up?”

    That’s what I was saying to Deb as soon as I saw it, Bowburn.

  43. workey – it has to be. Even then it’s very funny but it’d be unforgivable if it’s not.

  44. ‘Deb,

    I’m still laughing at that brochure at the top. It must have been done by reporters taking the “mickey”. Especially the shots of him holding his head in his hands, and the one of him lying on the floor, injured.

    LOL.’

    Workey, if you were a professional producing this abomination why would you have the following images of him on the front cover:
    1. clearly missing a shot(negative) instead of scoring (positive)
    2. Lying on the ground injured (negative)instead of running around looking fit (positive)
    3. Enjoying a day at the races (negative) instead of doing charity work etc on behalf of the club (positive)

    yes let’s remember they were trying to ‘sell’ the concept of a Michael Owen still in the prime of his football career who is not injury prone etc hmmm don’t think they’ve pitched this quite right!

  45. Re the Michael Owen brochure – it must have been a toon fan getting his own back on the little waster… who is going to own up???

  46. I can’t believe we’ve even entered a discussion about whether or not it’s a mock-up!!! Perhaps that’s my fault!! I didn’t even look at or consider the actual shots. Just the concept itself made me want to laugh my nuts off.

  47. Stuart79 says:
    June 15, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    Although my dog has more dignity than you and it would be easier to get him to admit when he is wrong.

    ====

    My dog has no dignity at all. He’s a sheepdog and he’s petrified of sheep (that’s true BTW).

    Sorry, I was just adding another to the numerous overlapping conversations that are going on in this thread.

  48. Deb, have you ever seen Mickey’s video advertising Dubai?

    My friend was knows someone who worked for him once. She said he was an arrogant prat who treated ‘little people’ with contempt.

  50. ‘Deb, have you ever seen Mickey’s video advertising Dubai?

    My friend was knows someone who worked for him once. She said he was an arrogant prat who treated ‘little people’ with contempt’

    Workey that figures. I can’t believe that he would agree to a 34 page brochure being developed to sell his skills and abilities unless he has a certain level of arrogance. Doesn’t he realise it would open him up to ridicule and appear a trifle over the top? No I haven’t seen his video selling Dubai – but with Dubai going into freefall at the moment he’s not having much luck is he?

  52. ‘Deb,

    Prepare to have a good laugh at wor Mickey’s presentational skills!’

    OMG that was horrendous. Was it for real??
    I could only tolerate 3 minutes of it before his voice nearly made me comatose with boredom. What are these people thinking of hiring him to do this sort of stuff?

  53. geordie deb says:
    June 15, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    “OMG that was horrendous. Was it for real??”

    Yup, it for real. It’s as bad as that phony brochure, so you can never be too sure!

    There are some truly horrendous things going on behind the scenes in places like Dubai. I hate to see all these celebrities and sportsmen pushing the place; or people saying that they would love them to take over wor club for that matter.

  54. ‘Yup, it for real. It’s as bad as that phony brochure, so you can never be too sure!

    There are some truly horrendous things going on behind the scenes in places like Dubai. I hate to see all these celebrities and sportsmen pushing the place; or people saying that they would love them to take over wor club for that matter.’

    I’ve been to the Middle East several times with work and while, it’s lovely, the people are friendly, many aspects are very westernised etc, I agree some of the human rights stuff is appalling.

  55. Just because a place hasn’t been bastardised, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Are people in the West so great?

  56. geordie deb says:
    June 15, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    “I’ve been to the Middle East several times with work and while, it’s lovely, the people are friendly, many aspects are very westernised etc,”

    They have a very well culvated image for “westerners”, and the ones who go over there to work are treated well.

    The barbarism, the forced / child labour, human trafficking, the non-western migrant workers locked up in awful and unsanitary camps etc is kept well out of way. Seeing a £110,000 per week footballer advertising the fruits of slavery and human exploitation really sticks in my craw.

    Oops! Bit of politics there. I’ll stop now.

  57. H’way! We said no religion or politics and 52 has been as good as gold so far!

  58. 52times says:
    June 15, 2009 at 4:33 pm

    “Are people in the West so great?”

    No, definitely not. Many people in the Emirates are very nice too. But their rulers, the kind who buy our football clubs are for the most part, totally vile. They behave like we did hundreds of years ago with slavery and the like.

  60. The long and short of it is that MO is an arrogant t*sser who obviously believes his own PR and has an overinflated opinion of his skills and abilities.

  61. geordie deb says:
    June 15, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    “The long and short of it is that MO is an arrogant t*sser who obviously believes his own PR and has an overinflated opinion of his skills and abilities.”

    Deb, well that’s certainly what I’ve heard about him from a reliable source. I divven’t knaa if he’s “finished” yet though. Even when in form, he could look invisible for nearly a whole game apart from the few moments when he was scoring. That’s the kind of player he is.

    When the goals stop coming, even for a short period, he looks like a complete “passenger”. When we look at it, his goal drought hasn’t really lasted for that long. It was more the injuries and our severe desperation for goals that has driven our backlash against him.

  63. ‘An old piece from Brian Reade in The Mirror in defence of the little waster.’

    Workey

    I don’t know what it is that causes us to have so much indifference/hostility towards him. Is it because we were duped into believing our record signing would help us achieve some success again through his goal scoring ability and he didn’t, is it because he never wanted to live in the North East and the symbolic helicopter rides back and forward to the North West each day remind us he was only passing through until he was in a position to find someting else and he wasn’t wholly commited to our cause, was it the rushing back to play for England following injury while being reluctant to do the same for the club paying him £110k per week, was it the lack of leadership abilities, his head going down during key matches, his lack of busting a gut when those around him were, was it the fact he s*dded off when we were relegated and as the club captain has never bothered commenting on it. I’m really not sure what it is that makes me feel hostile to MO…..

  64. Owen is done and I’m quite glad, likely will never make it back into the England squad and probably won’t play CL football again.

  67. I think we’ll lose money on a few more players before the clear out’s over too.

    We need a plan. And for that we need a manager and indeed an owner.

  69. Deb,

    There are some truly horrendous things going on behind the scenes in places like Dubai. I hate to see all these celebrities and sportsmen pushing the place; or people saying that they would love them to take over wor club for that matter.’

    Agreed 100%
    But that’s how footballers, Formula 1 stars etc get free holiday homes !

  71. sky sports news shearer could be new manager within the week lambrase sed he talking to the new potential owners aboot it

  72. batty – if true that’s great news. But do we really trust what comes out of his arse, sorry I mean mouth.

  74. i do not understand what he means about the data room. can anyone explain?

  75. ESAMIM – It’s a secure venue or medium in which the suitors get to have a close-up of the club’s sensitive docusments, i.e. financials etc.

    More often it’s online these days but it could be a traditional ‘deal room’.

  76. cheers bowburn. hopefully we are getting somewhere then if we are talking about looking at the clubs finances.

  77. and skysportsnews just said seymour pierce have set up the ‘data room’ online but it has not been opened yet

  79. I thought the most positive sign was Llambias admitted that Shearers appointment was no longer their decision – meaning the sale is very close.

  80. Just asked on Ed’s blog, wasn’t there a deadline by which buyers needed to prove they had the money to buy us? If so, what was it?

  81. Hopefully, Stardust.

    What does everyone think about being linked with Skjelbred again? It’s not like we have any decent midfielders ready for first team action anyway, and seeing as he supports Newcastle I really would like us to buy him. But I have to wonder, is my heart ruling my head here? I’ve seen him play but only a few times and I think the fact that he’s a Toon fan is swaying my judgement.

  83. 52 – never seen him play so I’m just going off reports and opinions but I’d agree I like this image I’m being fed. Mobile, creative, combative apparently. Yes, we’ll have some of that please.

  84. Also if FFS rumoured bid is way below the asking price, and he hasnt confirmed he has 100m to the club – he wont be allowed access to the accounts!

    I would be really happy to see him locked out.

  85. Partizan on Eds blog said he had spoken with Carew and another I cant recall – they said he was more clever than their whole midfield put together.

  86. He is still a good midfielder 52times. I would like us to sign him. The chronicle said he would want 8k a week. Good young player, low wages, loves the club. Sign him up! :D we need more players like him.

  88. just what i read in the paper 52times. i dont know what wages he would ask for if we did bid for him.

  89. Yeah I seen it too. I wonder how much he gets in Norway, I would think it’d be around 8k.