Michael Owen

The 30-year-old began his career at Liverpool and scored 158 goals from 297 appearances in all competitions while at Anfield but was sold to Spanish giants Real Madrid in 2004 when seemingly still at the peak of his career.

The Chester-born hit-man managed to bag 13 goals in 35 league appearances for the Bernabeu giants, despite coming off the bench in a number of games and only having the last 30 minutes or so in which to make his mark.

Despite becoming a fans’ favourite with the Spaniards he joined Newcastle after just one term in Madrid and spent four injury-plagued seasons at St James’ Park, scoring 30 goals in 79 appearances in all competitions for the Magpies.

With Newcastle slipping into the Championship for the 2009-2010 campaign, Owen was snapped up by Sir Alex Ferguson but scored just three Premier League goals in 19 appearances – many from the bench – for the Red Devils last season.

Owen has only started six top-flight matches since arriving at Old Trafford and has scored just one goal from four appearances in the current campaign.

He has now been ruled out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury and appears way down the United strikers pecking order, with Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Javier Hernandez and Federico Macheda all seemingly ahead of him in Ferguson’s thoughts (United 9/2 to win Premier League).

Owen’s current United deal runs out next summer and it is open to question as to whether or not he will be offered new terms and the former England international admits he would love to stay at the club while hinting that he would rather hang up his boots than move to a lesser club.

“I would honestly love to stay but you will have to ask the manager about the long term,” he told the Sun. “I could score at this level for many years and would love it to be at a top club like United.

“Whether I would want to be dropping down to a poorer Premier League team, I don’t know. Yes I could score goals but I would probably get less opportunities and less enjoyment. I just don’t feel my game is suited to a team that is really struggling. I won’t drop down leagues.”

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Blackpool

The Seasiders’ faithful may be walking in a top-flight wonderland but the same cannot be said for Oyston who has taken a swipe at agents.

He told the Independent: “I expected the landscape to be different. I expected the way people behaved to be different and I have been very disappointed in the way some agents have conducted themselves.

“My offer to step down is still there.

“I have told the board that, and I am very serious because I am not sure I have got the right approach for this division and the more I talk to other Premier League clubs the more I realise I am a lone voice.

“There was some accord with the things I said in the Championship but there does not appear to be any in this division.”

If he does get his wish then boss Ian Holloway will have to deal with somebody else as he looks to sign the players he feels he still must add to his squad.

Blackpool picked up three early points in their first-ever Premier League game after beating Wigan 4-0 at the DW Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Many pundits did not give Holloway’s men a chance of staying up before the big kick-off but they laid down a marker, although there is still a long way to go this season.

The former Bristol Rovers, QPR, Plymouth and Leicester manager has waited patiently for his chance in the top flight and he is not about to go back down without a fight (125/1 – Top 6 Finish).

Holloway’s faith in former Aston Villa hitman Marlon Harewood was instantly rewarded against Latics by two goals, with fellow new boys Craig Cathcart, Elliot Grandin and Ludovic Sylvestre all playing their part as well.

“We’ve just been catapulted into this and I have to say it’s just mad,” Holloway told The Sun.

“It’s like being in Big Brother.

“I need a few more players but they’re all so expensive – it’s a shock.

“But hopefully my chairman will now be more confident in who I’m telling him to bring in after that performance.”

Whether or not that chairman is Karl Oyston remains to be seen.

Blackpool are odds-on (1/3) to drop straight back down into the Championship at the end of the season.

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Liverpool

Hodgson may have signed Joe Cole and convinced Steven Gerrard to stay but his attempts to talk Torres around appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

The new Reds boss has been talking to Torres ever since taking charge but it looks as though the player’s mind is already made up and he wants to quit Anfield.

The most frustrating thing for Hodgson is the fact Torres’ problems stem from matters that have gone on in the past and there is nothing more he can do to convince him to stay.

Hodgson would not divulge too much and say whether Torres is angry with the American owners, former boss Rafa Benitez or any other Liverpool official, but he is obviously unhappy with the club and that could spell the end of his time at Liverpool.

“Unfortunately, I cannot do much more,” Hodgson revealed. “His beef is with the club and not me.

“Fernando’s situation has nothing to do with me, he made that perfectly clear over the phone during the World Cup and when I met him face-to-face.

“He knows what I would like to do with the club. He knows how much I value him. But his issues are with what has gone on in the past rather than the future.

“If he has problems with the club for things in the past, it is difficult for me to dismiss that.”

Hodgson’s comments are sure to alert Manchester City and Chelsea who are both interested in the striker and have the cash needed to prize him away from Anfield.

Torres is 11/2 to top the Premier League goalscoring charts next season but there is every chance he could be banging in the goals for either City or Chelsea.

Hodgson will still hold out some hope of keeping the player, who is under contract, but if Torres has made his mind up then there will be little the club can do.

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Inter Milan

Reigning champions Barca were forced to take to the road for the San Siro showdown on Sunday afternoon due to air travel restrictions in force across Europe caused by the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano.

However Mourinho feels the Spanish Primera League giants will not be too affected for the game given that they enjoyed an overnight stop in the French resort of Cannes en-route to Italy.

He said: “I don’t think it will matter. It is their body, their mind that has to respond.

“If it happened to me, I would try to transform a problem into motivation, something to enjoy, to have the squad together due to a difficulty.

“It doesn’t seem like a drama to me.”

Mourinho also acknowleged that Barca’s Argentinian international Lionel Messi (Messi 8/11 Anytime Goalscorer) deserves ’special attention’, but ruled out man-marking the player, who has scored 40 goals for his club in all competitions this season.

“Above all let’s see how they play because I don’t know,” Mourinho added. “None of us know. He could play right, left, centre. We don’t know.

“What we know is that he is an important player and football, for me, is not about marking man to man. It’s not for me.

“It is not one against Messi and 10 v 10, it will be 11 v 11, although he deserves special attention.”

Barca managed to draw at Inter in Group F earlier in the competition before winning the return match 2-0 at the Nou Camp and Mourinho admitted they were ‘far superior’ in that game. However he does not feel that will have any bearing on their semi-final (Inter 19/10, Inter 11/8, draw 23/10 90 Minutes) meeting.

“In the [second] game in the group, Barca showed that they are far superior. They won easily, deserved to win and in that game we were not capable of responding to them,” he said.

“But that was November, many months ago. They have followed their path, we have followed ours and it seems like we are a lot better than we were in November.

“I accept that they are favourites – this does not offend me – but I think it’s 50/50.”

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