18 February 2023 , 07:00
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Some would argue that it is a crying shame that two of the finest goal-scorers English footballers have ever produced fail to get on, but there are strong reasons as to why.
Michael Owen and Alan Shearer have enjoyed incredibly contrasting careers. The former has tasted the success that comes with playing for some of the biggest clubs on the planet, with Owen boasting the likes of Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester United on his CV.
On the other hand, Shearer is famed for his fierce loyalty and devotion to one club. Sure, he won a Premier League with Blackburn, but almost everyone's memory of the top flight's highest scorer comes while he is donning the black and white of boyhood club Newcastle.
Therefore, when the pair crossed paths for a brief period of time at St. James Park, both while Shearer was a player and manager, things didn't exactly go to plan.
Things got off to a rocky start for Owen, as it has since emerged he never even wanted to join Newcastle in 2005 anyway. Having spent a season in Real Madrid, he was keen to return to England and more specifically, Liverpool.
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Anfield is where he first broke into senior football and somewhere Owen regarded as home, he once claimed that his plan was to follow the example of Ian Rush by leaving for one season to ply his trade abroad before returning to Merseyside.
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“Liverpool was in my blood and I wanted to go back to Liverpool,” Owen said during an interview with Sky Sports. “Me and Rafa Benitez met, tried to make it work but basically Newcastle came in with a big offer and turned Real Madrid’s head with £16m.
"They only paid £8m for me, 12 months earlier. Liverpool, quite understandably, didn’t want to pay double."
So, having had his heart set on a return to Liverpool only to see the Reds' offer Gazumped by Newcastle, Owen had little choice but to get on board with the idea of playing for the Magpies.
His comments on how the move felt make for interesting reading with the state of his relationship with Shearer today, as Owen claimed: "Once I decided Newcastle I got a real buzz back in my stomach, knowing I’d be playing in front of a passionate set of fans back in the Premier League.
"And I was playing alongside Alan Shearer. You wouldn’t be human if that didn’t give you a real lift and a real buzz.”
It was clear there was a level of respect there and even at one stage a "very good" friendship according to Owen, so how did the pair of former England internationals fall out so badly?
Well, plenty of the feud stems from comments written in Owen's book, Michael Owen: Reboot - My Life, My Time.
The former Liverpool ace opened up on how he briefly lived with Shearer after his transfer to Newcastle and that "In my eyes, he was not only a strike partner on the pitch from a playing perspective; he was also a good mate.
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Alan Shearer and Michael Owen were team-mates at Newcastle UnitedAt no time did I get the impression that he saw things any differently. To put it simply, there has been a lot of lies, bulls*** and general misinformation surrounding the end of my time at Newcastle."
Things truly soured when Shearer was drafted in as Newcastle's interim manager having hung up his boots as a player. It seems as if his new status as Owen's boss complicated things and inflicted damage beyond repair.
The Magpies were in a dire situation at this point and were destined for relegation to the Championship. Despite Shearer's best efforts over the course of his eight games in charge, Newcastle were sent down to the Championship for the first time in 16 years.
To add insult to injury, all Newcastle needed on the final day was a single point against Aston Villa to survive. However, the Tyneside outfit lost 1-0 due to an own goal from Damien Duff and were duly sent packing.
With an inquest underway as to how a club of Newcastle's stature found themselves in such a dire position, a few individuals were called out - Owen included. The forward was accused of having his head turned by other proposals which in turn inspired a drop in both quality and effort from the former Ballon d'Or winner.
Sure enough, former Newcastle physio Paul Ferris claimed in 2017 that Owen had missed the defeat by Aston Villa as he "didn’t want to risk his groin because he was out of contract in the summer".
Shearer late addressed this and admitted he felt let down by his former house-mate, telling the Match of the Day Podcast: "I felt he could have done more at Newcastle in my time when I was the manager.
"I know he was at the latter stages of his career and wasn't at his best but I just thought he could have done a little bit more in terms of where we were and what was going to happen to the football club.
Alan Shearer's relationship with Michael Owen suffered when he became interim manager of Newcastle (AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)
Alan Shearer has since admitted he felt let down by Michael Owen's effort towards the tail-end of his time at Newcastle"My argument was that if he was to get an injury, it's the end of the season, Newcastle are on their knees, about to be relegated, so it didn't really matter if you went out and pulled a hamstring or groin."
Owen did not let these comments pass by without a reply of his own, as he suggested that Shearer failed in his task to keep Newcastle up and instead of taking responsibility he opted to blame him for the club's shortcomings.
Things came to a head when Shearer took to social media to post a clip of Owen admitting that he couldn't wait to retire while at Newcastle, alongside a quote tweet of his own that read: "Yes Michael, we thought that also, whilst on £120k a week…"
In one last blow in what has been a bitter verbal joust spanning over multiple years, Owen called into question Shearer's loyalty to Newcastle by replying with the kind of comment that was sure to get under the Geordie legend's skin.
"Not sure you are as loyal to Newcastle as you make out mate, he wrote. "I distinctly remember you being inches away from signing for Liverpool after Sir Bobby Robson put you on the bench. You tried everything to get out."
To this day, the pair aren't on speaking terms and can't even be in the same room as one another, with their only communication coming in the form of Twitter spats.