Maybe he sould take a cut to prove that he is interested in the club and football and not just drawing a huge wage to support his race horse stud farm and training facilty And his gambling habit!!!!

Greedy scouse tosser!!!!!

We would do as well with Oba andViduka upfont with a cheeky bid of £10,000,000 for Darren Bent!!!

Any way all this is just conjecture and guess work from the gutter press!!!!

This is the problem. Arsenal, for example, can have a wage cap (even if I think it’s a bit higher than 80k) because they have loads of other attractive things to offer — runs for the league title, FA Cup possibilities, CL football, the “bright lights of London,” etc. Everton has developed a good squad under this system, and it could be a very good idea for bringing IN new players. But to cut the captain’s wages in order to retroactively fit him into the system seems harsh. Essentially, Owen bears the financial brunt of the team’s lack of success — where are the wage cuts for the rest of the squad: Martins, Viduka, Barton, Butt, Geremi, Smith, Duff, Milner, Beye, Faye, Taylor, Enrique, Harper, Given, et al. ? Is it just or fair to punish the best player and the team captain in this manner? Just because of the timing of his contract?

What does it say, for example, if Owen is cut by 20-30k per week to 80k, whilst Martins’ pay is raised to his recently rumoured 90k per week (again, that’s paper talk, but surely THAT paper talk is as valid as THIS paper talk) — or perhaps the “cap” of 80k? While Viduka is on 70k, and Smith is on 65k?

What it says is the club doesn’t consider him their best player, remarkably superior to most of his colleagues around him. The fact is, Owen IS a class above much of what is at Newcastle. And aside from Arsenal, the most successful teams do pay high wages. I’m not opposed to a general cap of wages — just retroactively enforcing it in a way that could alienate and force out Owen, thus failing to achieve Keegan’s “most important signing of the summer.” So that leaves Newcastle shy of one top-scorer, captain, and finest player, and with a less-than-happy manager. Good business, that.

If he was able to play the whole season you would think at least he would be worth double this total and some.

We have to remember his form towards the back end of the season is more reflective of his ability as he was coming back from a serious injury. ACL injuries are not that easy to come back from.

Pay him 115k a week, he deserves it, he is the captain as well so surely his responsibilities a sa captain off the field need to be remunerated.

pay him whatever he wants and keep him.

funny that this should all start in the mail, the one paper that continually has been writing stuff that is wrong about nufc.

how they got all this info so quickly after the meeting is baffling, unlesss of course like i said it is all disinformation.

i have this strange picture of keegan/wise/mort and ashley all in some sort of military war room disussing there plans to outfox the written press.

imo it just doesnt add up one bit, 16m bid for modric, big wage offer that is better than what spurs offerred, then talk of only 20m transfer kitty and owen getting a wage cut.

also the sunday sun back page seems to be a cut and paste from the mail story by a writer who ive never seen write for the sunday mail b4 without ading anything new.

Consider Even if we manage to put together a deal for Owen, this will cause unrest in the changing room almost like that at Manchester united and Wes brown. Higher wages for Owen would mean others who consider themselves stars would also want elevated wages. It is better for the club to get a manager who can work with mediocrity, and be rid of our super super stars e.g. Owen and Martins. Keegan as I have said repeatedly and as has been suggested by even Keegan loyalists, that KK needs world class players to make his “swash buckling” attacking football. These are the conditions under which Keegan thrives, heck a monkey would thrive under those conditions.

Pity, but if we are looking to get into
Europe then we need to attract top players and top players command top wages. It is not a Math equation. You get Dennis wise to scout for talent what experience does he have? Is he capable of attracting young hot shoes who do not command top wages and how long will they stay with us when their talent becomes manifest? We would not be able to offer them wages comparable to the top four teams nor European football. So what we are going to become is simply a breeding ground for talent to then sell off. I suspect this is what Ashley is trying to do a Wenger. Get Anelka for 2mill and Sell for 15 mill

Perhaps??? If true I place emphasis on this, they are only speculation