MICHAEL OWEN says he doesn’t speak to Alan Shearer after claiming he “made a massive mistake” criticising him over his work ethic for Newcastle.
Owen played under Shearer during Newcastle‘s ill-fated 2008-09 Premier League season, which saw them relegated.
The Magpies went down after a 1-0 loss to Aston Villa, despite only needing a point to survive.
Shearer wanted to start Owen to give his side the best chances of getting the result they needed, but the ex-England man told him he wasn’t fit enough after recently returning from injury.
Owen would go on to play the last 25 minutes of the game before Newcastle were sent down to the Championship.
And years later, Shearer claimed Owen “could have done more” to help the club stay up.
He said it “didn’t really matter” if Owen suffered an injury because it was the end of the season anyway.
Owen has since shed light on their feud and said the pair, who were England team-mates and featured for Newcastle in the 2005-06 season, will always be respectful towards each other.
But he claimed they “don’t have conversations” and said he still disagrees with the comments.
The Ballon d’Or winner told Midnite: “Whenever I see Shearer I shake his hand, and he shakes my hand.
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“We don’t have conversations and to be honest, we just agree to disagree. Deep down I actually really like him, but he made a massive mistake saying what he said.”
Owen claimed in his 2019 book Michael Owen Reboot: My Life, My Time that he felt Shearer was “seething with him” for being reluctant to play.
He wrote: “As I left his office that day, he made an insinuation that led me to believe he thought I had half an eye on my next contract.
“I’m not stupid – we both knew I was out of contract in a few weeks. It wasn’t until three months later I discovered that Alan Shearer was apparently seething with me.”
About a year later, Shearer told 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.
“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 had also aimed a dig at Shearer by claiming he “failed” at Newcastle, with his record of one win in eight “hardly God-like”.
He played just 79 times in four seasons for Newcastle after an injury hit spell, scoring 30 times, before joining Manchester United.
Shearer, meanwhile, is a legend on Tyneside despite the relegation after netting 206 goals in 405 games.
