Owen: Shearer blaming me for his failure as Newcastle manager
Michael Owen believes Alan Shearer is blaming him for his own failure as Newcastle manager as the pair's public spat continues.
The Magpies legend criticised his former team-mate on Twitter this week after the former revealed in an interview that he regretted joining the club from Real Madrid in 2005.
Owen spent four years with Newcastle and made 79 appearances before he left to join Manchester United after the Tyneside outfit were relegated from the Premier League while Shearer was in charge as caretaker manager.
After responding to Shearer's jibe by suggesting he was not as loyal to Newcastle as he would have many believe, Owen believes his fellow ex-England star is still struggling to come to terms with his managerial shortcomings.
Owen told ESPN: "If Alan Shearer has come to the conclusion that I didn't fancy playing in the last game against Aston Villa because I was worried about getting injured and subsequently worried about my next move then, if that's what's in his head and that's how he's overcome his disappointment of not being a success as Newcastle manager, then that's fine in a way,"
"It's almost like a grieving period and sometimes you've got to blame someone else.
"I've done it loads of times in my life. Do you think I've come off a pitch and said 'I've been rubbish today, it's all my fault?' No way. You'll never be a footballer if you're like that.
"You think 'well the right-back can't pass for toffee, the midfielder is not creative enough, my strike partner is not seeing my run', whatever you think.
"Very rarely if you're right at the top of the game do you blame yourself.
"As I say, it's a compliment to Alan Shearer. He's had to find some way of not blaming himself, I guess, for what happened with Newcastle.
"But I find it hard that he's come to the decision to blame me for it when I was hardly fit in the period he took over, and then I actually put my body on the line in the last game when really I was a week or two away from being fit from a groin injury.
"So I get it, I don't agree with it. I don't think that he will ever change his mind, change his view, so I almost think that bit is pointless."
Owen admitted that he has considered resolving his differences with Shearer since they went their separate ways after that disastrous 2008-09 campaign, but he believes any attempt would be in vain.
"I've often thought of it. A few years ago, I knew I was going to be in the same room doing TV with him and I thought about speaking to him then," he added.
"But he's a strong personality and so am I. I'm not going to change his mind.
"To be honest, I'm pretty surprised it hasn't come out before because we haven't spoken for a long period of time now, sadly.
"We were big mates prior to him taking charge of Newcastle but that was the turning point really and since then we haven't been big mates, let's say."
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