Rooney towering over Owen

The hype may still outweigh the heroics, but Wayne Rooney has swiftly emerged as a key influence on England's fortunes here at Euro 2004 where, thanks to powerful performances in his side's opening two games, he has stolen a fickle nation's heart away from Michael Owen, the team's top scorer whose place in the starting line-up is suddenly being called into question.

A striker of quite dazzling potential, Rooney has been quick to deliver at his first major tournament with the youngster showing an ability to both toil and thrill in equal measure in the games against France and Switzerland. In the wake of Thursday night's win over the Swiss, in which the striker scored twice, once with the unwitting help of goalkeeper Jorg Stiel, Sven-Goran Eriksson yesterday hailed him as the best young player with whom he had ever worked.

"I have had many young talents in the past, players like Rui Costa, Roberto Baggio and Paulo Sousa, but Wayne Rooney is something else," said the England coach. "And the fact is that at 18 he should become even better in the future."

Back at Everton the player's success here must be viewed with distinctly mixed emotions. The club's chief executive, Trevor Birch, has stated publicly that he is willing to travel to Portugal in order to sort out a new five-year contract with the teenager that would make him the best paid player in the club's history. With Manchester United and Chelsea lurking, however, that rather underwhelming prospect doesn't seem to have been enough even to prise the boy wonder away from his PlayStation.

In the absence of talks, Everton officials have been reduced to slapping a huge price on their most precious asset. Yesterday the club were letting it be known that they would seek £45 million from any prospective purchaser, fractionally more than the world-record fee Real Madrid paid for Zinedine Zidane a couple of years ago.

For all his talent, the valuation is scarcely a realistic assessment of the teenager's worth, although that may not be enough to deter Chelsea. And the tactic may actually end up backfiring if the player, captivated by the thought of largely cutting his employers out of the deal, decides to sit out the two years remaining on his current deal before moving on, an eventuality that would leave Everton entitled to "compensation" amounting to only a fraction of his real market value.

Another slightly ironic consequence of Rooney's rampaging form, if it continues for the rest of England's involvement, may be to make Rafael Benitez's task of persuading Michael Owen to commit his long-term future to Liverpool fractionally less difficult.

Owen's end-of-season form at Anfield was strong and he finished the campaign with 19 goals from 38 appearances. Having sprung to international prominence himself at France 98, also as an 18-year-old, and performed well in Japan four years later, the Liverpool striker has looked an ineffective and slightly peripheral figure in England's first two games here.

Part of the problem is Rooney's style of play with the younger man's willingness to drop deep into midfielder to look for the ball leaving Owen somewhat isolated on occasions while the teenager, though a good passer of the ball, provides his more established team-mates with few of the sort of opportunities to pounce or poach that Emile Heskey tends to generate around the area when the pair play together.

Rooney's form, however, has assured him of his place while Owen, his fine cross for England's first goal on Thursday aside, has managed just one shot in two games and suddenly looks vulnerable, particularly to Darius Vassell, who did particularly well after coming on against the Swiss.

Eriksson, as it happens, has other concerns after Thursday's game. The team's decidedly uncertain start and the midfield's largely indifferent performance over the 90 minutes, during which it was the Swiss who had more possession, as well as John Terry's rusty performance have provided Eriksson with food for thought ahead of Monday's game against a much improved Croatia.

The English must at least draw with them in order to progress.