OWEN WILL STAY, INSISTS SHEARER
Alan Shearer has backed former Newcastle and England team-mate
Michael Owen to remain on Tyneside next season. The 27-year-old's
future is the subject of speculation amid reports he could leave St
James' Park for as little as £9million this summer because of a
clause agreed when he made his £17million move from Real Madrid in
August 2005.
However, Shearer is confident Owen will stay. Asked if he thought
the striker would be a Newcastle player at the start of next
season, Shearer told BBC1's Inside Sport programme: "Yes. He wants
to get back playing and scoring goals for Newcastle. "Michael is
probably slightly frustrated because he has a contract with
Newcastle and he feels if every time he has to come out and say
something about speculation, he would be in the newspapers every
day trying to deny things. "It's a different story if Manchester
United are linked with Tottenham's Dimitar Berbatov and Liverpool
are linked with players - and you don't see those players coming
out and saying, ''yes, that's true' or, 'that's not true'."
Owen played just his 14th game for the Magpies in yesterday's 1-1
Barclays Premiership draw at Watford, ending the season with three
successive starts after 10 months on the sidelines recovering from
the knee injury he suffered at last summer's World Cup finals.
Shearer said: "I don't think anyone felt as much guilt as he did
when he went down injured that day."
Meanwhile, Shearer admitted Sam Allardyce will have to sort out the
dressing room if he is appointed manager. Talks were continuing
today with the club hoping to unveil the former Bolton boss as
Glenn Roeder's replacement later this week. Shearer said: "It's a
huge job and there have been so many managers - I think I went
through five or six in the 10 years I was there.
"There are a lot of personalities there that need sorting out. I
think a lot of players have gone stale. "Sam is an expert at
getting the best out of players. I hope dearly he goes up there and
wins a trophy. It is such a huge club and they are starved of
success. "One thing we can guarantee is he will get money to spend.
I think it's defenders we need more than anything.
"The criticism that has always been aimed at Newcastle is the
number of goals they concede, so I would imagine defenders are his
top priority."
