We didn't deserve to lose - Neville
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Michael Owen has been given the boot by Fabio Capello, the England manager, but he still hopes to return to international football. Photograph: Tom Jenkins
Michael Owen knows the question is coming. It always does. "England, England, England," he says, with sadness and affection, as if talking of a far-off place. The intelligence that has always burned behind his diplomatic exterior confronts its biggest test when the conversation turns to Fabio Capello's policy of excluding the country's fourth-highest scorer from the England squad.
With the World Cup less than six months away time is not so much running out as dashing by like a train as Owen, with his 40 international goals and 89 caps, formulates a method for dealing with the disappointment of being overlooked since March 2008, when he made his only appearance for Capello. The battle in him is between acceptance and hope.
"England's bigger than Michael Owen anyway. But I make sure I'm in a mind-set that if I did have to pack my bags to go to South Africa I'd be right with it," he says. "I've watched all the games. I know what the manager is looking for, even though I'm not there listening. For example, I ask Wayne [Rooney, his Manchester United team-mate], 'What does he expect when you've not got the ball?' So I have to stay in with it without thinking I'm part of it, because I'm not.
"I'd love to go and I'd love to play for my country and go to a World Cup again. I've got to accept I'm not in the current squad and just think, 'If I get it, it's a bonus and I'll give it everything.' But it's hard to do when you've been thinking a different way all your life."
Owen's defining characteristic is resilience. The hardness that helped make him the teenage star of England's 1998 World Cup side was apparent in his move last summer from Newcastle to Manchester United, which prompted cries of betrayal in Liverpool and caused some United fans to ask why Sir Alex Ferguson was importing an Anfield legend. This toxic blend of tribal indignation would have driven many players into a trench. Described as "a killer" and "cold" by Sven-Goran Eriksson, Owen was protected by a talent for equanimity. These are hard times for him, if you measure his life in game time, but he became so sure, so long ago, of his ability to put balls in nets that nothing can persuade him his time at the top is closing.
The England conundrum is hard for him to articulate, as it would be for any discarded household name. To make a strong case for his own inclusion would sound like agitation. To keep quiet might suggest resignation. "If you have any setback in your life, like not being in the England squad was for me – any setback, like losing a family member – everyone handles it in different ways," he starts out. "When I first wasn't included I was numb. I'd been the main England striker for years and years. It was really disappointing, upsetting. For the next few days you're trying to get your head round it. Then it's, 'OK – I'm not playing well, I need to find some form, I'm playing in a struggling team at Newcastle,' or whatever it is.
"And then you're not in the next squad. And you're numb, and you do the inquiring in your head again, then you're not in the third squad, and you gradually come to the point where you say, 'OK, I'm not in the squad for whatever reason.' I've handled that in my own way. If you thought about it too long you might think, 'Right, I'm a crap player because I can't get in the England squad' – but I'm confident in my own ability. If that wasn't the case you might as well pack it in now. If you think too much, you start doubting yourself, doubting your quality, so you have to train yourself in a certain way. It's hard for me to say [I should be in the squad] without jeopardising that, or being disrespectful to any other player, and the list goes on."
Plainly a painful adjustment is under way. As with England, so, to a lesser degree, with United, where Owen, now 30, inherited Cristiano Ronaldo's No7 shirt but has served mainly as back-up for Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov and has even seen the 22-year-old rookie Mame Biram Diouf sent on as a replacement ahead of him, at Birmingham City. Owen has scored seven times in 26 appearances (with nine starts) and has overcome the Stretford End's suspicions with a late winning goal in a Manchester derby and a Champions League hat-trick at Wolfsburg.
That flourish in Germany fortifies the view he has of himself. For the third goal he outran a defender almost from the halfway line and finished like the pup he was at Liverpool. "Sprinting half the length of the pitch: to me that proved what I knew anyway. I'm still quick enough, though not blistering like I used to be. I'm still fit enough, because that was in the 90th minute. People were saying, 'He shouldn't be playing for England because he's not playing for United.' Well, that pitch was like a bog. I played 90 minutes on a bog and in the 90th minute I've still got the stamina and speed to do that. The one doubt – though not in my mind – was injuries. Thankfully, no one talks about that now."
After that grand night in Europe he returned to the United bench. "I was under no illusions that I was going to be in the first-choice pairing," he says. "Nothing's changed in that way. But I've been involved in more squads than anyone in the building. I've come on in a lot of games. I've started a few. Yeah, I want to play a bit more but I've never once considered asking the manager, 'Can I play in this game?' or telling him I think I should play more, because I knew what I was buying into. I'm totally comfortable with it."
So now we get round to the changes in him as a player and the loss of the firefly pace that brought 118 league goals in 216 appearances for Liverpool. In his most detailed self-analysis yet he explains that all top players "evolve" and says: "Nobody's going to tell me Ryan Giggs isn't a different player to the one he was when he was lightning quick and beating everyone on the outside, crossing balls. Paul Scholes used to score dozens of goals every year. What does he do now? He sits in the centre and sprays the ball in all directions and doesn't give it away for the whole game. He's not the same player. Alan Shearer wasn't the same player. The list goes on. I've added bits but I've had things taken away as well.
"I was talking to Rio Ferdinand the other day and he said that when I first got into the England squad I ran past a couple of defenders and all the lads stopped training and said, 'Did you see that?'
"I was proper, proper fast at one point, and obviously I'm not now, so I've lost certain things, but when I was that fast I didn't need to do certain other things in a game. It was such a potent weapon. I was in the team to threaten in behind, to get the ball and run at players. But when I started losing that I had to find other ways to scare defenders. And that's how your game evolves. I'm much better now at timing the run and picking the moment and being able to spot something develop. When I was young it was make a diagonal run there, there and there, and out of the six runs only one or two would be good ones – or good enough for me to be found – but I'd be quick enough to run past the player anyway. I'd say my runs are more thought-out now."
Less haste, more cunning is his message, and he says this is true across United's Carrington training ground: "Ryan Giggs now, the way his body sways in and out, he can almost twist defenders inside out. His pace wouldn't be what it was 10 years ago, exactly like me. But who would have thought when he burst on the scene as a 17–year–old that 20 years later he would probably be one of the top three players you want on the ball, playing a decisive pass?"
Rooney remains the biggest block to Owen claiming a starting place with club and country (that, plus Capello's apparent prejudice). Ferguson has said he regards a Rooney-Owen partnership as duplication. The older of the pair takes up that theme: "The manager's mentioned it to me and talked about the combinations that are available to him and he's also been in the press and said he wants Wayne playing further forward and getting goals, and that's what he's been doing this season.
"A few years ago when I was playing for England with Wayne he used to drop in [to a more withdrawn position] and enjoyed that role. But people evolve and Wayne is a better all-round player. If you can get his services nearer to goal he's going to get a lot. He can still drop in and create chances for others but now he's nicked my place with England and Man Utd, so that's not so great." He stops laughing: "I automatically thought we could play together because we're different types, but the manager wants him to play in that position more and Wayne's been fantastic at it. One of us would have to adapt our game if we played together. The manager has played us together, but he thinks maybe other combinations are better, or that it might take a bit out of my game or Wayne's game if one of us had to take an unfamiliar role."
The master-apprentice bond between the fellow boyhood Everton fans is authentic: "If you ask for favourite memories, I say Gary Lineker in the 1990 World Cup and Wayne says Michael Owen in 98. From Lineker to Shearer to me to Wayne: we've been the main strikers. He likes listening to my opinion at half-time in games, for example. After the manager says his piece, Wayne for some reason will walk over and we'll talk. If he has a problem I'll give my opinion. It's a team game, but compared to a goalkeeper or a right-back a striker is doing totally different things. Not everyone understands how it feels."
With his racing yard in Cheshire employing 40 staff ("it's my main passion outside of football, but I'll never want to train"), his life after playing is already charted. But he still wants his old prominence. He goads his team-mates with the boast that winning the Premier League and Champions League would render his trophy collection superior to theirs. "I say to the lads, 'I've won a lot of the smaller ones as well, like the Uefa Cup', which they'll never win because they're always in the Champions League. I say, 'If we win another league it'll just be another one for you, but I'll have the clean sweep.'"
You look for a crack in the faith he has in his ability to shine at a fourth World Cup with England. And still none is visible.
Michael Owen is wearing the new white, black and gold Umbro Speciali boots this season. The boots he will wear for Manchester United this weekend were designed by competition winner Tom Fournier whose design was chosen by Owen from 6,000 entries. For more information, and to purchase a pair, visit www.prodirectsoccer.com
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Gary Neville has stoked the fire ahead of the Carling Cup semi-final second leg by claiming Manchester United deserved at least a draw at City.
United were beaten 2-1 by their neighbours in a dramatic first leg at Eastlands last week, with Neville hitting the headlines without even making it onto the pitch.
His pre-match comments apparently fired up former Old Trafford favourite Carlos Tevez, whose double gave the Blues their narrow advantage.
And then on the night itself Neville's apparent one-fingered gesture in response to a Tevez goal celebration further lit the blue touchpaper.
Now, ahead of Wednesday night's Old Trafford return, Neville told The Sun: "We certainly deserved at least a draw for our performance at City.
"For the first 40 minutes and the last half-hour we were the stronger team."
The controversial turning point in the game came late in the first half when United defender Rafael was adjudged to have fouled Craig Bellamy, giving City their crucial equaliser from the penalty spot.
Neville said: "The replays proved the decision was wrong and everyone could see it."
Now Manchester is at fever pitch ahead of Wednesday's second leg, but while some people fear trouble in and around the ground Neville expects a healthy rivalry.
He said: "The atmosphere last Tuesday was very good. All Manchester derbies have a great atmosphere and Wednesday will be no different at our ground.
"It'll be a great environment to play football in."