When Michael Owen signed for Newcastle four years ago he
believed he was joining a club going places.
"You only have to look at the club, the support they have and
the players currently here to realise it is a very big club, and an
even bigger club waiting to happen," he said at the time.
History proves he was wrong to think that way.
Four years on and the Magpies are preparing for life in the
second tier of English football following a disastrous season when
not even club greats Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer could save them
from the drop.
Perhaps most humiliating of all though was that the club's
favourite son, Shearer, should suffer the indignity of leading them
to relegation after he was unable to turn around their fortunes
during an eight-game spell in charge.
Following that car crash of a campaign it must be with some
relief, albeit ruefully tinged, that Owen should find himself not
only leaving the St James' Park, but joining a club of Manchester
United's stature.
If he was misguided in thinking Newcastle were on the brink of
something big, then certainly such a statement about the Red Devils
could not be confused as hyperbole.
Where Newcastle have not won a major trophy in 54 years, the Red
Devils are the three-time reigning Premier League champions - a
feat that has moved them level with Liverpool's record of 18 league
titles.
They have also reached the final of the Champions League in the
past two seasons, lifting Europe's most prestigious trophy in
2008.
During his injury nightmare at Newcastle, Owen could not have
dreamed he could again join a club to rank alongside his previous
employers Liverpool and Real Madrid.
Indeed, he would have been the most optimistic of thinkers to
have imagined Sir Alex Ferguson would come knocking when his
Magpies contract expired on July 1.
Only Hull and Stoke had shown any interest and an
injury-blighted career in the north-east had seen him fall down the
pecking order in England coach Fabio Capello's plans.
It is, therefore, without question a gamble that Manchester
United should seek to sign Owen, despite him being available on a
free transfer.
Certainly when he joined Newcastle, then chairman Freddy
Shepherd took something of a risk in investing a club record
£17million - and around £20million more in wages over the length of
his four-year deal - to bring England's top marksman back to the
Premier League from Real Madrid.
After all, the £15million the Magpies had spent on
strike-partner Alan Shearer nine years earlier had been handsomely
repaid in the hard currency of goals.
If Owen did the same, Shepherd reasoned, it would be money well
spent, while the former Liverpool man would also be in the right
place at the right time to prove his ability to lead his country's
bid for World Cup glory in Germany during the summer of 2006.
The record books show that the now 29-year-old found the back of
the net at a creditable rate during his time in the north-east.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, that amounted to 30 goals in just
79 appearances, a statistic which says as much about the fitness
nightmare he has endured on Tyneside as it does about his enduring
potency.
It took him just two games to open his account when he struck in
a 3-0 win at Blackburn with Shearer also on the scoresheet, and a
winner at home to Manchester City a week later had the Toon Army
purring.
Niggling injuries then interrupted his progress, but a double in
a 3-0 win at West Brom at the end of October and a hat-trick in a
4-2 victory at West Ham in December fully justified the faith
invested in him.
But within a fortnight, his season was effectively over and
although he may not have realised it at the time, his career was
about to hit the buffers.
A collision with international team-mate Paul Robinson in a 2-0
defeat at Tottenham left Owen with a fractured metatarsal which was
to sideline him until the end of April, and he would later admit
his desperation to return in time for the World Cup finals
contributed in part to the knee injury which would effectively rule
him out of the 2006-07 campaign.
England's group stage clash with Sweden was just minutes old
when Owen caught his studs in the turf and collapsed in agony, with
tests later revealing a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament as well
as cartilage damage, which ruled him out until the end of April
2007.
Indeed, it was not until the following year that Owen, who had
seen the man who signed him, Graeme Souness, his successor Glenn
Roeder and Sam Allardyce all depart since his arrival on Tyneside,
put together an extended run of games.
He started the final 20 matches of the 2007-08 campaign and
scored 10 goals, a major contribution to the revival instigated by
new boss Kevin Keegan.
Keegan immediately set about the task of trying to persuade
owner Mike Ashley, who had inherited the former Liverpool striker
when he bought the club in May 2007, to tie him up on an extended
deal, although it was under Joe Kinnear that the offer was finally
made in the wake of yet another managerial departure.
With hindsight, Owen was perhaps well advised to put his future
on hold until the end of the campaign as the developing chaos
behind the scenes came to a head.
In the end, his impending departure was football's worst-kept
secret as the disintegration of a club which he had joined hoping
to win trophies gathered pace and sent it hurtling through the new
Premier League trapdoor.
Owen's move to Newcastle ultimately failed to live up to
expectations with his major injuries, through the fault of no-one,
severely limiting his impact to leave the Magpies counting the
cost, both figurative and literal, of his stay.
Manchester United will hope the next step in his career will
prove far more successful for all involved.
