Alan Shearer has come out today and said it’s still possible for Newcastle to stay in the Premier League, but that’s his job, after all.
Michael Owen – hey I just missed another chance!
The truth is we are doing nothing to help ourselves and threw away a golden opportunity last night to do something to help ourselves – like actually win a game.
Alan said after the terrible and frustrating defeat of his team:
“I’m disappointed we haven’t take three points – for 65 minutes we forced the game without any success in front of goal,”
“I can’t fault the effort or commitment – I asked for them to start from the first minute and they did that.” “We created enough chances to win the game, that was pleasing. But it was ironic, the three players I wanted up there all got one chance but they didn’t score from them.”
“I don’t know whether that’s going to be a good point or a bad point. What I can guarantee is that there will be a lot of twists and turns before the end – we have to stick in there and keep fighting, and we will. Four games in football is a hell of a long time.”
“We’re relying on other people. Results went for us, apart from Blackburn. It’s going to be a tense end of season but we’ve got to make sure we’re still in there fighting by the last game of the season.”
We have to say one of the things we’ve been disappointed in over the last several games is that the players have not been as inspired as they often played when Joe Kinnear was at the club. Joe seemed to have the knack of getting the players to play above themselves, like when they came from behind with 10 men against Man City and almost won that game.
Alan has to tow the party line of course, which to be we can still stay up, which is very true, but also very unlikely.
Alan was asked if he thinks the lads can stay up, and he continued:
“Absolutely I have seen enough to suggest we’ve got a chance,” “You won’t get anywhere without effort and commitment and we showed plenty of that.”
“Probably the last ten minutes we were dead on our feet but if one of our chances had gone in we’d have been picked up again.”
“We’ll all be looking at those chances thinking ‘If one of them goes in’ but that’s the difference, isn’t it?”
Owen’s miss, when released well by Viduka in the 63rd minute, was the big miss of the game, and you would expect a top striker to put a chance like that home, but he didn’t, and now hasn’t scored in his lat 9 games, and has but one goal this year.
And the big guns of Michael Owen and Oba Martins both had good chances to score in the second half, but missed both their chances, and once again the £110K/week captain failed to produce the goods when it mattered.
Unfortunately Michael could turn out at the end of the season to be the worst transfer deal ever for any Premier League club, as his goals have cost Newcastle over £1.5M each over the last four seasons.
And he could even trump that by seeing his team relegated and failing to produce the goals to save the club, when it mattered. We are angry more at the players than anything else, as it looks like this bunch of pampered and overpaid stars just don’t have the guts when it matters – that’s what upsets us the most.
They can change our minds by going out on Sunday and beating Liverpool, and then maybe we’ll believe in them again.
A pending disaster indeed for Michael Owen, but even more so for Newcastle United, a once very proud football club.
Comments welcome.
52 comments so far
nufcc
Apr 28, 2009 at 4:42 PM
Comment #41what i dont understand is how can u pick out michael owen and say he is not fighting for the cause or is not good enough. For me martins is as useless is any player on the team. He runs around like a headless chicken and it makes you guys think that he is fighting for the cause. Martins is the most selfish player we have on our team. i dont know about you guys but i felt that he kinda got in owens way of that chance. Martins does not even have half the qualities or personality of owen. He does not have any pressure on him while owen gets picked on after every little thing that happens. Also martins chance was by faaaaarrr the easier ask any footballer.
Rodzilla
Apr 28, 2009 at 6:07 PM
Comment #42That Owen picture makes him look like a sex pest
JJJ
Apr 28, 2009 at 6:20 PM
Comment #43Batty my friend
Owen IS the biggest transfer flop in the history of Newcastle United…
I was devasted when we signed him and I have been proved right.
He has ALWAYS been overated, but now he he is just a useless player who wouldnt make a top four sides bench…
Why would he do any better at Tottenham…
Keane is far better, as is Bent, Defoe, Pavelchenko – all better players.
At Everton Yakubu, and even Johnson who they sold are better players.
At Villa, Young, Carew, Agbonglahor, Heskey, all better players.
I struggle to see a top team that would want Owen (maybe Everton) but noone else…
Thank goodness his contract is up otherwise his wages would have made the club gone bust in the Championship.
reillers
Apr 28, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Comment #44I’ve never had any time for Owen, he always thought that he’s 100 times better then he is and will get the shock of his life when no one on the top half of the table will want him in the summer.
He always felt he was too good for this club, always, like he was doing us some sort of favour.
And he’s just so overrated and he’s a joke.
I could have put away some of the chances he had on Monday, I mean what does he get paid for if it isn’t that.
He’s overrated, overpaid and it’s an insult to the club that he’s captain.
I mean the club had to get on their knees to get him to stay and award him with a ridiculous salary that he doesn’t earn, and the captaincy that he didn’t deserve. All for him to stay, but what did we buy an over rated has been, a big name who hasn’t found the back of the net consistantly for a long long time, and the clubs still defending him, what a joke.
He’s supposed to lead by example, he spent the majority of the match ghosting around the place and then firing our only good chance wide.
I mean we don’t need him. But he gets all the plaudits. He could do nothing for 89 minutes and then he’d get a goal set up for him, because he never scores unless it’s off someone elses hard work, and he’d score and he’d run around the pitch celebrating like an idiot, like the 20 odd year olds with the bad haircuts. And he’d get all the headlines in the morning.
Despite him being shite and lazy and arrogant and bad.
Never had I any time of day for him but it’s gotten beyond a joke at this stage.
beardsleyschin
Apr 28, 2009 at 7:06 PM
Comment #45Well said nufcc, couldnt agree more.
Its a fkin witch hunt against owen, what about the chances viduka missed or martins missed, nobody goes on about them, and injuries wise viduka is far worse than owen!! Owen didnt score yesterday, and he missed the one chance he had so it was obvious this was coming. An objective fan would see that his clever back heel created a great chance for viduka and he worked hard all game. Im not saying he played well because noone really did, but its always owen who gets the stick. I’m starting to think that so called fans like jjj want owen to fail so they can give him stick…….after 60 mins in the game yesterday jjj had already wrote about 10 MO hate threads….thing is he doesnt even go to SJP but he thinks hes the best judge from watching on the tv. . . ignorant fks. Reply all you want fkface, i’ll not be reading it u nonse.
Nick D
Apr 28, 2009 at 7:32 PM
Comment #46ranger for owen, barton for butt, jonas for duff, krul for harper
JJJ
Apr 28, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Comment #47“Martins is the most selfish player we have on our team. i dont know about you guys but i felt that he kinda got in owens way of that chance. Martins does not even have half the qualities or personality of owen. He does not have any pressure on him while owen gets picked on after every little thing that happens. Also martins chance was by faaaaarrr the easier ask any footballer.”
Quite honestly you cant blame Martins for Owen missing a sitter, and I have a strong feeling Oba would have finished that one with it being on his stronger foot.
But yes I do agree Oba’s chance was the easiest.
Beardsleyschin – no I dont want Owen to fail… I would love him to be the great player everyone makes him out to be… the the fact is he is useless and he is going to fail wether I want him to or not…
I am wrong in calling him names and slating him though… because I do believe he tries…. but he just isnt good enough. So he will fail… I suppose thats not his fault. He doesnt pick himself.
JJJ
Apr 28, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Comment #48And four years of watching him on tv gives a person quite a good idea… Just cant keep fit.
For instance, Crouch I believe is very underated… and he missed a sitter but I still think he had a good game. He is always a threat. Good with the ball at his feet, great in the air due to his height and holds the ball up well… He offers so much. So does Viduka… Just a pity he cant keep fit. But he always looks the part when he plays.
I think Martins had a very poor game himself yesterday, but he has far more better games than Owen.
I think Lovenkrans would be a far far greater threat in that three prong attack than Owen.
And most of the time when Oba is “selfish” he has no choice because when he breaks the defensive line he has noone to pass to because Owen is too slow to keep up.
But you arnt reading this…hey. haha.
JJJ
Apr 28, 2009 at 8:55 PM
Comment #49Nick D, I actually think Duff adds something to the team. he played well yesterday. And amazingly so did Nicky Butt.
Butt actually does ok until he decides he is the team playmaker and then things just go badly wrong.
Jonas has to pass the ball a bit more so he is less predictable with his dribbling.
Rodzilla
Apr 28, 2009 at 10:15 PM
Comment #50lads, I think the main problem is the consistency of individual player performance . Most of our players seem to have ‘good days’, but sadly they all seem to have them on separate days. That’s why we’re in the bottom 3.
We get flashes of brilliance from most of them (even Titus had them!), but unfortunately 90% of the time 90% of the squad play sh1te.
Incognito
Apr 29, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Comment #51This constant focus on Owen is getting ridiculous.
Ok he didn’t score, but let’s look at an event from another player totally ignored: Harper allowing the ball to float past his face towards goal – only to be saved by the post. Let’s also acknowledge the fact the shots he DID save nearly pushed him over the line. Let’s take into account how lucky we were Collocini didn’t concede a very debatable penalty. Or that Alan Smith didn’t even get booked for obliterating someone without touching the ball.
But of course, it’s fashionable to slag off Owen so we’ll ignore that the outcome could have been a lot worse than it was.
JJJ
Apr 29, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Comment #52Incognito
I agree, Harper for me has been very poor since his arrival and hasnt looked confident saving anything – he is nevous coming off his line… he concedes corners when he should be holding the ball etc…
Smith I actually thought didnt do to badly…
The fact is we have a very poor squad very low on confidence.
The only World class player he had was Shay Given and we sold him.
We have an very good right back in Beye, a very good centre back in Bassong. That is it!!!
Other decent players are Oba and Viduka.
Barton is good but always injured, Nacho is good but inexperienced and injured.
We have decent squad players like Lovenkrans, Guthrie, Taylor, Enrique, Duff, Jonas.
But thenplayers playing the bulk of our games this season:
Butt, Smith, Ameobi, Owen, Geremi, Harper etc. Are championship quality players on premiership wages and thus we will in all likely hood end up in the championship.
It hasnt helped having a championship quality manager for most of the season either.