Michael Owen was a gauche 14-year-old goalscoring prodigy when he first sat in front of Alex Ferguson, who looked him the eye and asked him straight: "So, do you want to play for Manchester United." Owen reflected years later that it was his shyness that prevented him from offering a direct answer to a question which was "was so big and so simple that it threw me off balance" but that: "the truth was, I didn't want to play for Manchester United more than any club in the world."
How the course of 15 years can change things. Ferguson's account yesterday of what he admitted had been a "difficult" summer for United included the suggestion that the club had been considering a move for Owen for several months but that the former England international knew he was only third in line for a role at Old Trafford.
First the Premier League champions had a frustrating wait to learn Carlos Tevez's intentions. When he departed, Owen was asked to wait while United approached Lyons with a bid for the 21-year-old striker Karim Benzema. It was when Ferguson refused to blow £25m of "that wonderful sum of money from Real Madrid" on one of the astronomical deals which have characterised the summer transfer market, that Owen learned of his destiny.
Ferguson's calm talk – as he presented Owen, £17m Antonio Valencia and £3m Gabriel Obertan – of the inflated summer market, and his refusal to lose his head in it was a welcome antidote to the madness of the past month. "There is no need to panic. We should not panic because of one player [Cristiano Ronaldo] leaving," Ferguson said. "I don't think any of the transfers – if you look at them – are realistic. We have a very good squad and some good young players. There was no need to have a knee jerk reaction of losing him."
But if to lose Ronaldo may be regarded as misfortune, to lose Tevez along with him was carelessness and Ferguson could not entirely disguise the chaos which the Argentine's departure has caused. Contrary to the claims offered by Tevez's representatives that United failed to offer him a contract until May, Ferguson rather unconvincingly suggested that one had been offered up on the evening of one of the club's Champions League encounters with Internazionale – the first leg was in February, the second in March. "He never came back to me," Ferguson said, later suggesting that a deal between Tevez and Manchester City must therefore have been wrapped up in January. It was not.
United certainly appear to have made an error of judgement in failing to tie up Tevez's future and the net result for Ferguson was a cursed holiday, pursuing Tevez by telephone from the south of France. "I phoned him on holiday – he never came back to me," Ferguson related. "I texted him twice – he never got back. It put us in quite a quandry in terms of what we should actually do."
Owen, desperate for an elite side with whom to rebuild his career, was willing to wait around, which means that the No 7 jersey worn last season by the outgoing £80m man will be taken up by the Englishman signed for nothing on a two-year deal.
If Owen proves as successful as Henrik Larsson – the last player he signed in such a deal – Ferguson will come to view the difficulties of the summer as serendipity. Granted, the manager's tributes to his new striker yesterday related to the days, before 2004, when he was causing United damage against Liverpool. "We always had to be aware of him in the last third," Ferguson said. "You always knew that he could hurt you. I used to say to players 'don't let him stand you up' because he will be off you in a flash. He always had that knack of losing defenders in the last third."
Owen is burning with a desire to prove wrong those such as Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce and Wigan chairman Dave Whelan about his fitness had angered him. "I think the injury thing gets up my nose more than anything else and I don't believe I'm injury prone," Owen said. "Yes, I pick up an injury here and there but that is the modern day game; the rigours of the game. It's faster, stronger and quicker than ever before."
Adversity has clearly changed his feelings about United since those teenage years, too. "There are only so many top clubs in the world that you wish to play for," Owen reflected. "But in the last year or two I suppose it would have been pipe dreaming to think I would be plying my trade here."
Window shopping: How big four compare to City slickers
*TOP FOUR (AND MAN CITY'S) SPENDING SO FAR
Manchester City £29m (Most expensive signing: Santa Cruz, £17m)
Manchester United £20m (Valencia, £17m)
Chelsea £18m (Zhirkov, £18m)
Liverpool £17m (Johnson, £17m).........
Arsenal £10m (Vermaelen, Ajax, £10m).........
PREMIER LEAGUE'S BIGGEST TRANSFERS THIS SUMMER
Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moscow to Chelsea) £18m
Glen Johnson (Portsmouth to Liverpool) £17m
Roque Santa Cruz (Blackburn to Manchester City) £17m
Antonio Valencia (Wigan to MU) £17m
Gareth Barry (A Villa to Man C) £12m
*Sir Alex Ferguson's costliest Manchester United signings
Dimitar Berbatov (Spurs, 2008) £30.75m
Rio Ferdinand (Leeds, 2002) £30m
Juan Sebastian Veron (Lazio, 2001) £28.1m
Wayne Rooney (Everton, '04) £25.6m
Ruud van Nistelrooy (PSV, 2001) £19m
Michael Carrick (Spurs, 2006) £18.6m
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