Michael Owen lays into Newcastle over contract saga in 2009

23 March 2013 16:17

Michael Owen has accused former club Newcastle of lying about offering him a new deal in 2009.

The 33-year-old former England international announced on Monday that he will retire from football at the end of the season. The striker spoke about his career on BBC's Football Focus on Saturday, where, amongst other things, he spoke about his four injury-hit years with Newcastle.

The fact Owen left to join Manchester United on a free transfer after the Magpies were relegated still rankles with many supporters, but the striker took to Twitter to defend himself. "Newcastle fans, following my Football Focus interview, plenty of you tweeting me saying you don't blame me for getting injured but for leaving when we got relegated," he tweeted.

"Despite the club saying they did, they didn't ever offer me a new contract despite them putting it in the press that they did.

"How could they when they had just been relegated? It would have been financial suicide.

"I've seen it a million times, a club will blatantly lie to their fans to take the moral high ground leaving the player with no leg to stand on.

"I've taken the stick for years which is fine but you really don't know half of it. All will be revealed one day."

Source: PA