MICHAEL Owen has triggered the start of what Newcastle United hope will be a summer exodus of the club’s big earners by confirming that he will quit St James’s Park when his contract expires.
After four mixed years on Tyneside the highest paid player in the club’s history will depart at the end of the month – with United hoping he will be followed by up to ten others to help ease the crippling wage bill that threatens to undermine next season’s Championship campaign.
Fellow big earners Cláudio Caçapa and Mark Viduka will follow Owen off the United wage bill at the end of the month, and United believe that they will be joined by the likes of Kevin Nolan, Fabricio Coloccini and Obafemi Martins.
Although reports over the weekend that Wolves were close to signing Nolan were without foundation, the former Bolton midfielder is a target for Hull.
The Tigers also want Owen who, in a move that will surprise few, drew a line under his spell at Newcastle yesterday.
The former Real Madrid striker insisted there were no regrets and no acrimony about a spell that has seen him plummet from England’s first-choice striker to a player who wasn’t even a United regular during last season’s doomed survival bid.
Although it was often suggested otherwise, Owen says he was happy at Newcastle and would likely have signed a new contract if Alan Shearer had kept the club up and been confirmed as manager.
Indeed, a brochure distributed to Premier League clubs a fortnight ago claimed that Owen had been close to signing a contract extension shortly before Kevin Keegan walked out last year.
But relegation effectively ended that debate – and Owen is now looking to drum up interest in his talents at home and abroad. He said: "I’m still obviously
contracted to Newcastle. I’ve still got weeks, a month or whatever left, I’m not sure, so that’s where I am at the minute.
"I don’t think I’m going to be re-signing at Newcastle. I don’t think they are going to offer me a contract and I would prefer to play in the Premier League or a top division somewhere else.