warm welcome 2474

That doesn't make sense. Obviously staying at RM doesn't guarentee that he will sign for LFC, but if he was determined enough to sign for us, and he had the strength of his convictions, I choose to believe that Real Madrid would have taken the money in the same way that we took the money from Villa for Baros, even though there was a better deal on the table for us. Owen (maybe) doesn't have the strength of his convictions, and decided to take the guarentee of first team football that Newcastle are offering instead. Still his choice, though. And ergo his fault. Whether it is understandable given the World Cup is open to debate, who's fault it is clearly isn't.

And I am well aware of the public funding RM have, but if that was a bottomless put they wouldn't sell anyone, yet they clearly do sell players like Owen and Morientes to raise money to make other purchases. They aren't in the business of paying players to sit on their benches out of spite, and I can't think of any examples of this that you could refer to to back up your point. LFC are in a different position, but the comparison is still valid. It would irritate RM no doubt if Owen had said no to Newcastle, and their £17m pay day. But I don't think (as you seem to) that they would let Owen rot in the reserves as a result. They would get what they could for him rather than allow Owen to sit on the bench taking his £4m a year in wages. It was Owen's reluctance to do that in this World Cup year that tipped the balance in Newcastles favour in Owens mind. Don't you understand that?

Paul