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Michael Owen says he regrets joining Newcastle United back in 2005
Former Newcastle striker Michael Owen says he didn’t want to join the Magpies in 2005, as per his new book,
He wanted to go back to Liverpool when he left Real Madrid but the Reds didn’t match Newcastle’s offer, and the north east side offered him £120,000-a-week – a staggering figure 14 years ago – to join.
He : “They were offering me a hundred and twenty grand a week. At the beginning of 2005/06, Florentino Pérez, said: ‘Newcastle has made a bid in the region of £16 million.’ “But I want to go to Liverpool,” I told him. ‘That’s not possible unless they match Newcastle’s offer,’ he said.
“Liverpool couldn’t match Newcastle’s offer. From a career perspective, a move to the North East was a downward step. As unpalatable as that opinion might be to Newcastle fans, that’s more or less what I felt.”
TBR’s View – Owen doesn’t cover himself in glory here
Owen also goes on to hit out at Newcastle fans for the way they reacted to an injury he sustained at Watford, as well as calling them ‘deluded’ for how big they think their club is.
It’s just a lazy stereotype from a player who didn’t cover himself in glory at Newcastle and isn’t doing anything to make himself any more popular now.
Owen was happy to take a staggering wage from the Magpies despite not wanting to play for them – no set of fans is going to be impressed by that – and this latest outburst, arguably a thinly-veiled attempt to flog his book, won’t help.