Newcastle get tough over Owen

[Jimbo 172]

Newcastle United are ready to step up their fight for £20 million in compensation from the Football Association over the loss of Michael Owen.

 

The striker could miss the whole of this season after damaging right-knee ligaments while playing for England against Sweden in the World Cup in June.

 

Owen has played only 11 games for Newcastle since his £17 million move from Real Madrid in August last year.

 

Although pursuing the matter with their FA counterparts, Newcastle are determined not to let the issue drop and will resort to the High Court unless there is a satisfactory outcome.

 

The FA's insurers will apparently pay half of Owen's £103,000-a-week wages for a year, but Newcastle are basing their claim, for what they regard as adequate damages, on a variety of factors. These include the impact of the injury on the 26-year-old player and the effect of his absence on his club.

 

Newcastle have been encouraged by this week's comments – reported in The Daily Telegraph yesterday –from the new G14 chairman David Dein, who supported the club's right to seek legal redress against the FA.

 

Kieron Dyer, Owen's club and England colleague, who has played only six games this year, has despaired at the hamstring problems that have plagued his career. "It has been emotionally and physically draining, but I feel I have come out the other side. I was depressed and very low."

 

Elsewhere, Martin O'Neill, the Aston Villa manager, has been promised funds by the club's new owner, Randy Lerner, for a fresh move for United's James Milner when the January transfer window opens. O'Neill failed in a £3 million bid for the England under-21 international in the summer after Glenn Roeder was unable to sign Middlesbrough's Mark Viduka.

[manc-mag 1]

I think I'm starting to smell the next big PR gaffe in the pipeline. Will definitely give Freddy the platform to shoot his mouth off about things and have us all cringeing.

 

Owen wanted to play at the end of the day and I'll bet ultimately the advice to him and staff was that he was taking some sort of risk. I'd be amazed if it was anything else.

 

Should probably settle for what we're being offered and just accept it. Owen is a crock after all and even when we spent that sort of money on him we had to anticipate we'd lose him to injury a lot of the time. It's always been that way for him.

[peasepud 59]

Kieron Dyer, Owen's club and England colleague, who has played only six games this year, has despaired at the hamstring problems that have plagued his career. "It has been emotionally and physically draining, but I feel I have come out the other side. I was depressed and very low."

 

That tickled me.

[luckyluke 2]

I think I'm starting to smell the next big PR gaffe in the pipeline. Will definitely give Freddy the platform to shoot his mouth off about things and have us all cringeing.

 

Owen wanted to play at the end of the day and I'll bet ultimately the advice to him and staff was that he was taking some sort of risk. I'd be amazed if it was anything else.

 

Should probably settle for what we're being offered and just accept it. Owen is a crock after all and even when we spent that sort of money on him we had to anticipate we'd lose him to injury a lot of the time. It's always been that way for him.

 

Yes but I would imagine the risk talked about would have been to his foot injury recurring, not of a completely new career threatening injury.

 

Owen has always been prone to injury problems but these have usually been confined to his hamstrings that keep him out for a few weeks here and there. We've been ridculously unlucky even for us for him to have his first two major injuries, both in his first season and within six months of each other.

 

We all have a pop at Fred but he's right about this one. We get him fit after a major injury for England, at the expense of playing him for us, and he comes back crocked. The FA owe us bigtime.

[ewerk 30166]

 

Owen wanted to play at the end of the day and I'll bet ultimately the advice to him and staff was that he was taking some sort of risk. I'd be amazed if it was anything else.

 

Of course he wanted to play in the World Cup and at the end of the day we couldn't have refused to let him go if he was even only semi-fit.

 

We should be given full compensation for his wages but his claim for the effect his injury has had on the club is a load of bollocks. Freddie has already said that we were adequately covered so I don't know why he is changing his tune now. Owen was an international footballer when we bought him so we bought him knowing there was a risk he would get injured playing for England and now that it has happened we shouldn't seem so surprised.

[manc-mag 1]

I think I'm starting to smell the next big PR gaffe in the pipeline. Will definitely give Freddy the platform to shoot his mouth off about things and have us all cringeing.

 

Owen wanted to play at the end of the day and I'll bet ultimately the advice to him and staff was that he was taking some sort of risk. I'd be amazed if it was anything else.

 

Should probably settle for what we're being offered and just accept it. Owen is a crock after all and even when we spent that sort of money on him we had to anticipate we'd lose him to injury a lot of the time. It's always been that way for him.

 

Yes but I would imagine the risk talked about would have been to his foot injury recurring, not of a completely new career threatening injury.

 

Owen has always been prone to injury problems but these have usually been confined to his hamstrings that keep him out for a few weeks here and there. We've been ridculously unlucky even for us for him to have his first two major injuries, both in his first season and within six months of each other.

 

We all have a pop at Fred but he's right about this one. We get him fit after a major injury for England, at the expense of playing him for us, and he comes back crocked. The FA owe us bigtime.

 

I disagree with that tbh.

 

On reflection, I think you have to say that you buy an international player so you know he's going to play internationals which carry the risk of injury. We got him fit, but we didnt get him fit for England, we got him fit for us, but there just happened to be a major international tournament in the interim, which he wanted to play in. I think players are always at their most vulnerable coming back from an injury full stop and we knew this. I think I'm right in thinking that the agreement with the FA re paying a percentage of players wages in the event of injury was in place in advance of the tournament. If we werent happy with that then I think we should have been re-negotiating the agreement in Owen's case or pulling him out completely.

 

We do it after the event and we make ourselves a test case for this sort of thing. I'm not surprised Dein backs our action as he's probably perfectly happy for us to potentially piss a lot of money up the wall in legal costs to set a precedent that might be beneficial to all but at no cost to him.

[luckyluke 2]

I think I'm starting to smell the next big PR gaffe in the pipeline. Will definitely give Freddy the platform to shoot his mouth off about things and have us all cringeing.

 

Owen wanted to play at the end of the day and I'll bet ultimately the advice to him and staff was that he was taking some sort of risk. I'd be amazed if it was anything else.

 

Should probably settle for what we're being offered and just accept it. Owen is a crock after all and even when we spent that sort of money on him we had to anticipate we'd lose him to injury a lot of the time. It's always been that way for him.

 

Yes but I would imagine the risk talked about would have been to his foot injury recurring, not of a completely new career threatening injury.

 

Owen has always been prone to injury problems but these have usually been confined to his hamstrings that keep him out for a few weeks here and there. We've been ridculously unlucky even for us for him to have his first two major injuries, both in his first season and within six months of each other.

 

We all have a pop at Fred but he's right about this one. We get him fit after a major injury for England, at the expense of playing him for us, and he comes back crocked. The FA owe us bigtime.

 

I disagree with that tbh.

 

On reflection, I think you have to say that you buy an international player so you know he's going to play internationals which carry the risk of injury. We got him fit, but we didnt get him fit for England, we got him fit for us, but there just happened to be a major international tournament in the interim, which he wanted to play in. I think players are always at their most vulnerable coming back from an injury full stop and we knew this. I think I'm right in thinking that the agreement with the FA re paying a percentage of players wages in the event of injury was in place in advance of the tournament. If we werent happy with that then I think we should have been re-negotiating the agreement in Owen's case or pulling him out completely.

 

We do it after the event and we make ourselves a test case for this sort of thing. I'm not surprised Dein backs our action as he's probably perfectly happy for us to potentially piss a lot of money up the wall in legal costs to set a precedent that might be beneficial to all but at no cost to him.

 

Owen would have been back sooner if there wasn't a World Cup around the corner. Fact-a-gogo. Agree with the rest of that though.

[Tom 14011]

Il take the £20m

[Papa Lazaru 0]

Fred's right to try and get everything he can for NUFC, thats his job and its good to see him acatually doing it now and then.

 

Clubs pay millions for the players, pay their wages, their bonuses, their insurance, their medical bills, bungs for their agents etc. and anything else you care to name and then an international side can come along take them from you, play them (whilst you still have to pay their weekly wages) crock them, give you them back fucked and you have to continue paying for them and if its long term have to pay for a replacement (and then their wages and the like).

 

Its a ludicrous situation that wouldn't be accepted in any other walk of life. Hope Fred and G14 get it sorted once and for all but i doubt it.

Edited October 6, 2006 by Papa Lazaru