Michael Owen manages to somehow plumb even lower depths with new Newcastle United revelations | OneFootball

You have to really hand it to Michael Owen, he absolutely has no limits when it comes to what he has to say about Newcastle United.

Shameless doesn’t really scrape the surface.

As NUFC fans, we all know what happened with Michael Owen and Newcastle United, and if for whatever reason you don’t know by now…then just search online and you will understand why he is the most hated of all former Newcastle players.

For Michael Owen though, he never ever tires of telling the world just how much he didn’t want to go to Newcastle United, this is his latest spin on it…

Michael Owen speaking to BT Sport:

“When I was leaving Real Madrid, I spoke to Liverpool, they wanted to buy me back, they put in a bid of £10 million.

“So they’d sold me for £8m and put in a bid of £10m, I thought, I’m there, I’m going to go home.

“The [Real Madrid] president knocks on the door of my hotel room before a pre-season game and says listen ‘we’ve had a bid from an English team, how are you feeling? We’ve loved having you here, you’re absolutely welcome to stay, but if you want to go home, it’s your call’.

“I said no, I’d prefer to go back now, I’ve had a great experience, but I’d prefer to go back now, thinking it’s Liverpool.

“He said ‘Okay well, it’s Newcastle’ and I was like what? I was told obviously on the QT by Liverpool that they were going to put in a bid, so I just assumed it was them.

“So I was like oh no no no, no no no, I will go back to Liverpool but no no no, I’m not going…I’m not going anywhere else.

“He said well Newcastle have bid £16m, if Liverpool do that, then you can go there.

“But if not, you either stay here or go to Newcastle.

“I was like okay, I’ll stay here, I’ll stay here, obviously putting on a poker face.

“I spoke to Liverpool again, I said if you just go to £12m, I’ll play poker…I’ll hold my nerve and I’ll force them into a corner, to either keep me or go [to Liverpool]…

But Liverpool said we can only go to £10m, so then I had a big decision to make.

“We had just signed Robinho, we already had Ronaldo, Raul, Morientes.

“We had a World Cup coming up at the end of the year and I was thinking I need to play all of the time.

“I spoke to Newcastle and Newcastle agreed that if I signed for them, I can do one year and then they will sell me to Liverpool for an agreed fee of £12m. Then if I do another year, then they’ll sell me to Liverpool for £8m, and another year for £4m.

“So every year, it would be more attractive for Liverpool to buy me back.

“The mad thing is, is that  I was hopefully going to be going back for £12m, did my knee, so then Liverpool bought Torres and Suarez, and it just never happened.

“At the end of every year, I obviously tried to go back.

“But I have got to make it clear, that’s not to say I didn’t have any love for [Newcastle United].

“But when you have a love for a team…no one can blame me for that.

“Alan Shearer would have done the same for Newcastle.

“I had a great time [at Newcastle United].

“Lots of people say otherwise but four years up there. I lived up there despite what people thought, it’s a great city.

“It was brilliant but I just wanted to play for Liverpool. That was the only problem.”

The telling point for me is when Michael Owen says ‘I will go back to Liverpool but no no no, I’m not going…

He hesitates before then adding ‘…I’m not going anywhere else.’

For sure, I think he was going to say ‘…to Newcastle United’ but stopped himself just in time.

It is a total joke to think that it was all Liverpool or nothing for Michael Owen.

How ironic is it that the only fanbase to hate Michael Owen anything close to the Newcastle United fanbase, is the Liverpool fans. They absolutely despise him.

Michael Owen loves Liverpool that much, yet he was absolutely desperate to join Manchester United in 2009.

In the summer of 2005, Newcastle United were in a mess of their own making. The owners had totally lost the plot, having got rid of Sir Bobby Robson after only four games (two draws and two defeats) of the 2004/05 season and replacing him with Graeme Souness!

This disaster off the pitch then compounded on it, with the owners (Hall and Shepherd) and Souness spending serious money on some shocking signings – the likes of Boumsong, Albert (one nil down, four-one up…) Luque and worst of all, Michael Owen.

Michael Owen had to get away from Real Madrid in summer 2005 because he wasn’t going to be getting regular football, he’d only started 20 of the 38 La Liga matches in his one season there and it was going to get even worse if he stayed.

Michael Owen claims it was all about Liverpool…but honestly, if Manchester United had bid for him in summer 2005, he would 100% have went there if given the chance. As he did four years later.

I have no doubt Chelsea as well, they had just won the Premier League in May 2005, it is laughable to think Owen wouldn’t have gone to Stamford Bridge…if they’d wanted him.

Same with Arsenal as well, they’d just won the FA Cup and finished runners up to Chelsea, plus of course guaranteed Champions League football under Arsene Wenger, every season.

The truth is, Michael Owen had to leave Real Madrid (to ensure he would play football and make the England team for the 2006 World Cup) and Newcastle United were the ONLY club who wanted him, apart from Liverpool (allegedly) who were only interested in a cut price deal, take it or leave it.

Michael Owen played us all for fools at Newcastle United. The fans, the club owners, Alan Shearer, you name it, everybody who cares about NUFC.

This is where Michael Owen takes it to another level though.

Instead of just quietly laughing at us all for the fact he took so much (astronomic £110,000 a week for four years, with football inflation surely the equivalent of getting on for 300 grand, 400 grand…maybe even half a million a week these days) and gave so little back in return, Michael Owen instead chooses to keep on poking the stick into the cage, reminding us all of how he took us for a total ride and couldn’t care a less as his four years culminated in relegation and he walked away without a backward glance as Newcastle United slid into the Championship. Michael Owen joining his beloved Liverpool…sorry…Manchester United.