Refreshed Owen out to make his mark

Michael Owen is 21. That fact needed checking yesterday and it quietly surprised in the way a familiar picture on the wall at home can suddenly take on a different look when moved or seen from a fresh angle.

Watching and listening to him talk at England's headquarters at Burnham Beeches on Wednesday, the question of Owen's age was tripping through the mind. Here he was, just 21, talking like a man, never mind a footballer, who has experienced already most of what is to be thrown.

We know Owen's story well. Aged 18 he became a truly global superstar with his famous slalom against Argentina in St Etienne. After that came ups and downs, fortune and fame, injuries and goals. He now has 30 caps and four winner's medals from Liverpool's last seven months of gathering cups. It is more than most players achieve in a career.

"I wouldn't change a thing that has happened to me," he began, an understandable view, but he moved swiftly onto the future. As swiftly as was possible. "It was one of the best moments of my life so far (Argentina goal) but after it happened I just didn't want people to talk about it all the time."

All week long it has been a debate as to who will partner him in attack tomorrow, as opposed to whether he will play at all. That, as Owen acknowledged, is a marked change from the last England-Germany encounter when Owen went into the match having his first touch and ability to hold the ball up questioned by the man who was picking the team.

"I wasn't exactly flavour of the month then, was I?" Owen asked rhetorically. "Like any other striker I go through patches. But I'm feeling very good at the moment." The evidence of that is there in the seven goals already this season a line of fine form that Owen picked up from the end of last season when he scored seven in his last four league games plus two in the FA Cup Final. He was reluctant to mention the phrase "turning point" but Owen identified two definite factors in his current success: "Almost" three weeks off in June after continuous summer activity for five years; and inclusion in Sven Goran Eriksson's first team for the friendly against Spain at Villa Park in February.

Owen played for the whole 90 minutes that night and, while he didn't score, the faith shown by Eriksson was noted. "I don't know if that was a turning point but I haven't looked back since. I've played in all the remaining games for club and country and had a successful time."

Mention of Emile Heskey brought the subject back to partnerships. With Liverpool team-mate Robbie Fowler in contention, and Andy Cole, Owen did his best to tiptoe through the issue but appeared to plump for Heskey.

"I have no doubts Emile can cause problems. There aren't many who can stop him. He's willing to learn, he's very young and he's different to me, he makes different runs. He lets me play through my strengths and he certainly hasn't let anyone down at Liverpool." Nor, of course, has Owen, though there is a strange silence over his present contractual situation. At the end of last season he was involved in negotiations over an extension but all has gone quiet. Anfield awaits. So does England. As it ever has and will be for Michael Owen.