“You learn to understand the reaction but if you do step back, you think it is strange or unfair.
“When you are being relegated, nobody is interested in listening to you. But I knew it was all to do with me not scoring.
“If you don’t score and you don’t win, you are wrong to have a helicopter and fly home each week to see your kids. You are wrong to have a business outside of football. You are wrong to plan for the future.
“If the goals had been going in I would have been a great lad, popping home to see my three kids and be a family man on a Tuesday after training. I would have been thoughtful and innocent little things would not be misrepresented.”
Well as far as I’m concerned Owen’s missing the point. His lack of scoring might have been due to the fact that he wasn’t getting the service from a poor midfield but what about his disinterested attitude? Or the fact that as Captain he said little about any responsibility he felt for us being relegated and just cleared off as fast he could to play Champions League football while leaving us to rot in the Championship. (more…)
Owen - Can't stop smiling now.As you all probably know, Michael Owen passed his medical and signed for Manchester United yesterday in a surprising swoop by puce faced supremo, Alex Ferguson. After a season in Toon hell, rejection by Don Fabio, and sly putdowns from the likes of Dave Whelan, and not forgetting of course much scorn for an alleged poor attitude in times of need from a significant proportion of the NUFC fanbase; the pint sized assassin must have thought “back of the net!” when he heard a recognisable Govan brogue on the end of his receiver. The result is apparently a two year, performance related deal at Old Trafford.
Ferguson said on signing the hitman; “Michael is a world-class forward with a proven goalscoring record at the highest level”.
After a very busy day completing the formalities of signing for the North West titan, Owen describes what happened in an exclusive interview with MUTV’s Mandy Henry. Here’s the transcript.
How does it feel to have signed for Manchester United?
“It feels great. I never even had it in my wildest dreams really but then I got the call from the manager to come and meet him. It was a shock but I’m obviously really happy and things have moved quickly since then.”(more…)
Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man's world. While we await the dawn of a new era, some of our former staff will be looking to carve out a new career elsewhere. We’ve had more than our fair share of expensive disappointments over the years but they don’t come much bigger than The Damaged Duo.
Arriving with great expectations, between them they have caused more gnashing of teeth than many who have gone before or those who will follow them onto that hallowed turf.
I leave you with an all-too-infrequent sight of the pair celebrating a goal. One of a handful of fleeting glimpses and empty promises of what could and should have been a great partnership. Both have undoubtedly had their injury problems which have plagued Newcastle careers which should have seen them projected to hero status. Owen for his undoubted goalscoring ability and overall professionalism earlier in his career and Viduka simply because of his genius, when he decides to turn it on. (more…)
Mark Viduka's pre-season training regime if he stays? And so another week begins and what do we have to show for it? No updates on the sale of the club and a rotten new strip.
Quite what possessed the designers to come up with yellow and white (or is it cream?) stripes is beyond me. As a wise supporter has already pointed out today, yellow has been a feature of our history for a long time now.
However, none of the previous efforts was quite as sickly as the current offering. Somewhere between an ice-cream parlour canopy and a bottle of perfume, it manages to look worse on than off. (more…)
Pimp my club & and my out of contract player Are we entering uncharted territory? Is this the future? Can anyone tell me when they last saw an internationally renowned and respected footballer being sullied by such crass advertisement intent on securing his footballing future? Well the evidence is there for all to see in it’s uncomfortable and undignified entirety. And it would appear Michael Owen has endorsed it. Now it seems Newcastle United itself is going to be pimped out in print. (more…)
