Apart from the unnecessary eye-wateringly expensive proposal that actually saw Newcastle sign the sometime England striker, there were two major proposals made concerning Owen in his Newcastle career, and both were equally indecent. First off, after it was revealed that Owen might have a £9-10million release clause in his contract for a big club, Freddy Shepherd was asked whether he would sell Owen by a group of Liverpool fans. The chairmans response - that he would carry Owen back to Liverpool himself - said everything about the disaster that was his Newcastle career to date. Unfortunately, the Liverpool had no power to actually pay the fee. And then of course theres the real sell your soul to the devil deal that Newcastle tried to agree with him. Despite all of his injuries, Newcastle were somehow convinced to offer him a new contract worth £140k a week to stop him leaving on a free. Had that been the case, Newcastle would have been utterly screwed in the Championship, and thankfully he turned it down.
