Scoring an Owen goal

Once upon a time he was the golden boy of English football. A player who struck fear into the hearts of defenders with his searing pace, superb timing and uncanny ability to find the back of the net.

A decade later and Michael Owen is turning into a laughing stock.

In a little over a week his Newcastle contract ends and the striker, who has 40 international goals to his name, will be unemployed at the ripe old age of 29.

His fall from grace has not been swift, rather a steady decline. He peaked between the ages of 18 and 24 and it has been pretty much downhill for the lad since then, with injuries playing a crucial role in his demise.

If you had to pinpoint the moment when it all started to go wrong for the player you would have to look at his move to Real Madrid in 2004. Up until then he had been prolific for both club and country.

But an unsuccessful spell in Spain, where he spent most of his time either gathering splinters in his bottom or playing on the wing, was then followed by his time at St James Park, where the old injuries - and plenty of new ones - meant he never got back to his best.

Now he is out of a job, out of Fabio Capello's England team, and out of luck.

And just when he thought things couldn't get any worse (relegation must be one of the lowest moments of his career), his management team go and score what must be one of the worst publicity own goals in the modern game.

In their desperation to find him a new team, they have actually issued a 34-page brochure about him and sent it off to eight Premier League teams. Their aim: to alert the clubs to Owen's availability.

Oh dear.

This is a former European Footballer of the Year we are talking about here. A player who has graced some of the most famous stages in world football. And scored on most of them.

Does he really deserve being lowered to the level of a piece of real estate? Has his career really reached such a desperate point that the only way to sell his services as a professional footballer is to advertise them?

Do his management people really think the likes of David Moyes at Everton and Martin O' Neil at Aston Villa are not aware that Michael Owen, the Michael Owen, is available on a free transfer?

Some people have claimed that Owen's advisers are just doing what is in their client's best interest and trying to ensure he gets signed up sooner rather than later.

But to me, the process smacks of desperation, something that surely isn't going to help when it comes to negotiating a package with any potential employers.

The really sad thing about Owen's decline is that I believe there is still enough of the old player left for him to be a good, top-flight marksman.

Let's forget his record at Newcastle for a moment, where injuries limited him to roughly one game a season and then, when he was playing, he was doing so for a team in crisis.

Give him the right service and he will score goals. It's in his blood. That is something you never lose even if the pace is not what it once was. Look at Alan Shearer, for example; he kept on knocking the goals in right up to the end despite having the mobility of a rusty JCB.

I think the top four are now out of Owen's reach. I can't see United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal taking a gamble on him. But the clubs who are just outside that group would be mad not to snap him up.

Even more so now that his wage demands will be at their lowest since he was a teenager and when he has so much to prove not only to all the many doubters but also to himself.

And I am sure Owen still harbours dreams of adding to his 40 goals for England and appearing in one last World Cup. If that ambition is going to be met he has to play out of his skin over the next season to force his way back into Capello's thinking.

Despite the brochure and all the connotations that go with it, I believe a club like Everton, Aston Villa or Manchester City will come in and rescue Owen from his current situation.

He would probably be happy to take a massive pay cut if it means securing a regular place in a Premier League team. He was apparently on £120,000 a week at Newcastle. I'm sure he would be happy with a third of that now.

Whatever happens from here on I will always look back on Michael Owen's career with fondness. I will never forget that goal he scored against Argentina back in 1998. And the 39 others that followed it in an England shirt.

I would love nothing more than for him to find a good club, settle down, stay injury-free and spend the next two or three years proving everybody who has written him off wrong.

That's the way legends should bow out of the game, not as part of a bizarre marketing scheme.

Formula gone?

Congratulations to Formula One for becoming the world's offical comedy sport.

I'm sure all sporting disciplines go through the odd internal crisis from time to time when those that run them and those that take part stop seeing eye to eye.

But none of the others do it in quite as public a way as those that make up the world of Formula One. They aren't just washing their dirty laundry in public, they are getting down on their hands and knees to scrub out the ugly stains while the world watches in horrified fascination.

The dispute over budget capping reached a head this week when eight teams - including nearly all the major ones - announced they would be forming their own breakaway championship from next season.

I am fairly sure it is nothing more than a bit of blackmail, an attempt to force the hand of the sport's governing body, the FIA, and get them to back down on their budget capping threat.

But even so, does it all have to be done so publicly? If and when things are sorted out and some sort of compromise is reached, the damage to the credibility of the people that run the sport, as well as those that take part, has been immense.

If I were a major sponsor of any of the teams I would think a lot more than twice before signing any more cheques. And if I were one of the those fans who travel all over the world putting money in the pockets of the likes of Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosely, I would hesitate before booking any more race tickets.

I wouldn't like to lay the blame at the feet of either side in this dispute. I think the FIA are right to try and cut the costs of competing in Formula One while the teams are right to want to do this on their terms.

However, what I don't like is the fact that both sides feel the necessity to thrash out their differences through the media. The issue will resolve itself, I am pretty sure of that. But wouldn't it have been better if they all locked themselves in a room for as long as it took and refused to come out until some sort of agreement was reached?

That would have been the decent thing to do for the sake of the millions of fans who make the whole thing viable in the first place.

No need for fixture fuss

There has been a lot of excitement this week about the issuing of the English fixture list.

And considering we are now entering the silly season when football fans clutch at any bit of news out of sheer desperation, I can understand why people have got a little excited.

But does it really, really matter?

I mean, you have to play all the teams in your league home and away every season, so what difference does it make when those matches happen?

I actually heard someone feeling sorry for Birmingham after they drew Manchester United on the opening day of the season. "Worst possible start for them. That's a real tough one."

It is. Absolutely. But do you think it would have been any easier for them if they had played United on the third weekend? Or Boxing Day? Or the last day of the season?

I can assure you it wouldn't.

Titles are won over the course of the 38 games.

Relegation is decided over the same amount. Unlike the cup, for example, the order of the draw in the league is almost entirely irrelevant.

It just goes to show you how desperate we are to find some football related news to cling to over the summer.

sportscolumnist@timesofmalta.com