Michael Owen has relived his club-record transfer to Newcastle United and detailed his secret arrangement to keep the door open for a return to Liverpool. The former England international insists no-one should 'blame' him for his desire to move back to Anfield, and argues Alan Shearer would have 'done the same' if the roles had been reversed.
Owen spent a single season with Real Madrid before the Magpies brought him back to the Premier League in a £16m deal in 2005. The 25-year-old did not hide his desire to return to Liverpool, and injuries would prevent the Toon Army from seeing the best of the striker during his four-year stint at St James' Park.
Owen left as a free agent for Manchester United following Newcastle's relegation in 2009 under manager Alan Shearer, and the former team-mates have infamously fallen out in the years since. Owen has opened up on the 'feud' and feels he has been made a scapegoat after the Magpies' all-time goalscorer was unable to prevent his boyhood club slipping out of the Premier League.
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Owen's autobiography, 'Michael Owen: Reboot - My Life, My Time’, prompted a social media back-and-forth in 2019 following the book's release. Reflecting on his move to Tyneside on BT Sport's 'What I Wore', the now 42-year-old discussed his transfer agreement with Newcastle should Liverpool revive their interest, while insisting he still had a 'great time' in black-and-white despite the reports and rumours to the contrary.
Owen told BT Sport: "So I did a year at Real Madrid, and I obviously wanted to go back to Liverpool. Graeme Souness was the manager, and he kept phoning me every couple of weeks. I was like I've only been here a month and the Newcastle manager is phoning me saying whenever you come back, come here, and I had great respect for Graeme Souness.
"In hindsight, if I just said to Graeme I've got massive respect for you but I don't think I'll ever come, I want to go back to Liverpool...because I was polite and had so much respect for him, I didn't ever want to cut him off. I was just sort of too nice and too respectful, because when it came to it when I was leaving Real Madrid, I spoke to Liverpool as they wanted me back, they put in a bid of £10 million.
"So they'd sold me for £8m, and put in a bid of £10m and I thought I'm there, I'm going to go home. The [Real Madrid] president knocks on the door of my hotel room before a pre-season game and says 'we've had a bid from an English team, how are you feeling? We've loved having you here, you're absolutely welcome to stay but if you want to go home, it's your call'.
"I said I'd prefer to go back now, I've had a great experience but I'd prefer to go back thinking it's Liverpool. He said okay, well it's Newcastle and I was like what? I was told obviously on the QT by Liverpool that they were going to put in a bid so I just assumed it was them.
"I was like no, I'll go back to Liverpool but I'm not going anywhere else. He said Newcastle have bid £16m, if Liverpool do that then you can go there. But if not, you either stay here or go to Newcastle. I was like okay, I'll stay here, obviously putting on a poker face.
"I spoke to Liverpool again and said if you just go to £12m, I'll hold my nerve and force them into a corner. But Liverpool said we can only go to £10m, so then I had a big decision to make. We had just signed Robinho, we already had Ronaldo, Raul and [Fernando] Morientes.
"We had a World Cup coming up at the end of the year, and I need to play all of the time. I spoke to Newcastle, and Newcastle agreed that if I signed for them, I could do one year and they would then sell me to Liverpool for an agreed fee of £12m. Then if I do another year, then they'll sell me to Liverpool for £8m, and another year for £4m.
"So every year, it would be more attractive for Liverpool to buy me back. The mad thing was I was hopefully going to be going back for £12m, did my knee, so then Liverpool bought [Fernando] Torres and [Luis] Suarez, and it just never happened.
"At the end of every year, I obviously tried to go back. But I've got make it clear, that's not to say I didn't have any love for [Newcastle], but when you have a love for a team...no one can blame me for that. Alan Shearer would have done the same for Newcastle.
"I had a great time - lots of people say otherwise, but four years up there. I lived up there despite what people thought, it's a great city. It was brilliant, but I just wanted to play for Liverpool. That was the only problem."
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