10 Newcastle Players Who Really Weren't Worth The Hassle

4. Michael Owen

Subject of a summer-long transfer wrangle between former club Liverpool and Newcastle, the England international finally put pen to paper on a four year contract for a fee of £17 million. With Owen expected to strike up a deadly partnership alongside Geordie hero Alan Shearer, a new dawn was apparently on the horizon for the Toon side. Alas, the excitement and furore surrounding Owen's arrival in the summer of 2005 does not in any way mirror the impact that he had on the club. Following a bright start to his Geordie career, he ruled himself out for the season with a broken metarsal, sustained in a clash with international compatriot Paul Robinson in December 2005. The club slowly nursed him back to health, just in time for the former Galactico to pack his bags for the World Cup, where he picked up an anterior cruciate ligament injury. With an inkling that Owen was using Newcastle merely as a platform for his international conquests, the Toon hierarchy were furious with the injury sustained in Germany, which would rule the striker out of action for the next year. As a result, a three way dispute between FIFA, the FA and the club commenced, leading to a £10 million compensation package awarded to the North-East side. Newcastle had been threatening to sue the FA for £20 million, citing the possible long-term effects to Owen's fitness, his salary whilst injured, and the money needed to buy a replacement. Despite angrily rejecting reports that Owen could leave for a cut-price £10 million, a Youtube video emerged of Newcastle owner Freddy Shepherd declaring that he would 'carry Owen back to Liverpool'. His time on Tyneside was dogged by injuries, speculation that he would exercise supposed get-out clauses and a dispute between club and country. His lack of leadership during the side's ignominious slide through the relegation trapdoor has been castigated by certain sections of the Tyneside faithful, and once he left on a free transfer in the immediate aftermath of the Villa Park fiasco, it brought an end to four years of stress and disappointment.