Liverpool FC Forum

Owen set for Anfield return
By Matt Dickinson


LIVERPOOL ARE BRACED for days of haggling with Real Madrid as they seek to bring Michael Owen back to Anfield. The Spanish club want £16 million — twice what they paid — for the England forward, but Rick Parry, Liverpool’s chief executive, hopes to reduce it to £12 million, with the payments spread over a few years.

Formal negotiations between the clubs should start this week as soon as Liverpool have recouped some funds from the departure of Milan Baros to Aston Villa. The Czech Republic forward should move to the Midlands for about £6.5 million.

Although Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, has emphasised that a centre half is his priority, he recognises that Owen’s return to Anfield would improve his team. Although Benítez has international forwards in Fernando Morientes, Peter Crouch and Djibril Cissé, Owen’s pedigree as a proven Premiership goalscorer should ensure that he is first choice.

Benítez did not beg Owen to stay on Merseyside when he took over last summer, but by then it was apparent that the player was looking to move. Despite rumours to the contrary, the pair parted on good terms, so there are no obstacles to a deal apart from the financial restrictions that mean that Liverpool will try to drive a hard bargain — particularly having sold Owen for £8 million 12 months ago.

Liverpool had hoped to persuade Real to accept a loan deal with a view to a permanent transfer but, with Newcastle United able to offer cash for Owen, they will almost certainly have to pay now. Parry is likely to offer £6 million up front, with the rest to follow over the remainder of the player’s contract.

A return to Anfield is not the only option available to Owen, but it is by far the most attractive. England’s leading goalscorer among the present squad, who is scheduled to join up with his national team-mates today before Wednesday’s friendly against Denmark in Copenhagen, is willing to consider Newcastle, but only on loan and only if the Liverpool deal collapses.

(McDonalds Buccaneers) have registered their interest in informal talks with Owen’s representatives. Sir Alex Ferguson is a long-term admirer and the Glazer family are eager to back the manager with funds but a holding midfield player is top of the shopping list at Old Trafford before the end of the transfer window on August 31.

Owen, who was in Hungary for a friendly with Real last night, may have to be patient as the clubs negotiate. The deal may not be concluded for at least a week but Gary Lineker, the former England forward and now BBC pundit, is convinced that the player will be back in the Premiership by the end of the month. “Trust me,” Lineker wrote in his newspaper column. “Owen is coming home.”

Real’s purchase of Robinho and Júlio Baptista has all but ensured Owen’s departure and Lineker compared the player’s predicament with the end of his time in Barcelona. “Football clubs, unfortunately, have a habit of playing silly devils in such situations,” Lineker said. “No one ever told me — as I am sure they have not told Owen — that I was unwanted but their actions make it perfectly clear that is the case.

“They say you should never go back but Owen would slot straight in at a club he knows so well, and he would be returning to the European champions — hardly a step down from Madrid, whereas a move to Newcastle would seem that way.”