The future of England international striker Michael Owen is getting increasingly convoluted as Newcastle United manager Joe Kinnear seems to be confident that Owen shall sign a new contract with the club whereas reports suggest otherwise.
It was earlier reported by the British tabloid The Sun that Newcastle have offered a 80,000 pound per week contract to Owen, whose current contract with the Geordies expires at the end of the season. His new contact terms imply that Owen shall be taking a 25,000 pounds per week paycut.
It is being widely said that Michael Owen shall reject the new offer snd shall move in January. A number of clubs, including Owen’s former side Liverpool, Manhester City and Wigan Athletic, have been linked with the player but Newcastle manager Joe Kinnear has declared that Owen has sent out a positive note
He explained the whole situation to The Sun:
“I’m not going to say Michael will sign, but I think he will. When I said ‘when are you going to make a decision?’ he said ‘in the next couple of days’. I’m much more optimistic about keeping him.
“I’d say that it’s now 60-40 in favour that he signs. This time last week it was probably 30-70 against. He told me with Kevin Keegan he’d only been offered 12 months.
“I didn’t really see any value in that so I just said ‘what if we can tie you up for the rest of your career, would you be happy with that?’ and he said ‘yes’.
“I spoke to Mike Ashley and said we should give him a three-year plus one deal and he said: ‘OK, if you think that is the best way to go about it, then do it.
“There isn’t a deadline, but when I asked Michael when would he make a decision, he said it would be within the next couple of days.”
Seems like in the next couple of days we shall know whether Michael Owen is jumping ship or not. Let’s hope he makes the right decision for himself and for Newcastle.
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