You Twit, Michael! Toon blast £1.3m-per goal Owen after 'poor team' jibe

Newcastle chairman Derek Llambias has slammed former Toon striker Michael Owen after the current Manchester United forward intimated that the North East side were a 'poor team.'

Llambias responded angrily to the one time England international's comments by saying the striker should have been less vocal following his star-studded treatment by the Geordie outfit.

Just a small club: Owen hit out at former club Newcastle

'Michael is the most expensive signing Newcastle has ever made and I’m disappointed with his comments,' the Newcastle chairman told the Daily Express.



'Under Kevin Keegan’s management he was offered a one-year extension at £140,000 a week which he did not take. He was already on £133,000 a week.

'Quite honestly, what did Newcastle United get out of it? His time here cost £40-odd million, about £1.3m per goal.'

Doubling up: Llambias (right) and former owner Freddy Shepherd criticised Owen

Owen made the blast shortly after agreeing a new one-year deal to continue at Old Trafford via his Twitter account.



Speaking via the social networking site, he said: 'Prefer playing less often in a top team than every game in a poor team. Been there and didn’t enjoy it.'

Down and out: Owen failed to justify his £16m price tag during his stay at Newcastle

Former Newcastle co-owner Shepherd who signed Owen in 2005 for a record £16million also hit out at the England striker who scored 26 league goals during an injury-plagued four-year stay on Tyneside.



Shepherd revealed: 'We might have been a poor team, but we made him a rich man.

'It works out at around £500,000 for every game in a Newcastle shirt. Poor? Well, he wasn’t poorer for it.