Michael Owen: "I think there is a lot of rubbish that goes on in football with players kissing their badge the whole time, doing this and doing that to appease the fans.
"The bottom line is we are all human. When I signed for Real Madrid I didn't love the club, I thought it was a great club to play for and a good career move.
"It has been said I don't have an affection for Newcastle. It is also an accusation thrown at foreign players when they come over - that they don't know what a derby is and so on.
"To a certain extent it's true, they haven't come for the sunshine have they? They've come because it's a good career move and that is the same for me.
"I was an Everton fan when I was a kid and only wanted to play for Everton until I was about 12, but when you play football for a number of years you fall in love with another team. I wasn't a Newcastle supporter as a kid and there is no point pretending otherwise.
"But the more you are at a club, the more you know the area, the staff, the supporters and everything about it.
"You develop an affection for the club and certainly, when I retire, there are two clubs whose results I will look out for and that's Liverpool and Newcastle."It is only when you play for Newcastle and live up here that you realise what a special club it is.
"The two clubs I've played for before, Liverpool and Real Madrid, both had a lot of history and expectations that went with it. But with this being a one-club city, everyone wants you to do well and they are either behind you, or they feel letdown by what they have seen.
"You can either shrink under the pressure of it or you can use it to your advantage.
"Over the years, even in the four I've been here, you've seen both edges of that sword.
"It has been too much for some people who have come up here with big reputations, but the flipside is, if you get it right and you do well, then the supporters will support you.
"When they are like that, when you have earned that sort of support, God knows where it can take you.
"We've always been flitting around three or four places off the bottom, but it's only since we lost to Manchester United and results went against us that we have found ourselves in real trouble.
"We have to realise we are responsible for getting results above anything else. That responsibility filters through to the players, from the fans, the staff at the club.
"Everyone's backs are against the wall now and nobody wants to see Newcastle United not playing in the Premier League next season.
"I definitely think it has been a fractious season, even by Newcastle's standards.