We’re in denial. The transfer of Michael Owen to Manchester United ^[1] is technically something we should be commenting on. Only, it seems like we really shouldn’t. We propose forgetting that he has been on the books of a Coca Cola Championship club with an airbrushing of history that would have made Nikita Khruschchev proud. The co-architect with Sven of that 5-1 win in Munich doesn’t currently belong in our league.

We’re used to whipping up interest in the fortunes of Darius Henderson, Karl Duguid and Marcus Tudgay, not men who once graced the white of Real Madrid. Sure, I remember Stuart Pearce leading out his Nottingham Forest side for a first game of the season at Roots Hall in the early nineties, Trevor Brooking staying loyal to West Ham United in the second tier and Fabrizio Ravanelli putting promoted Reading to the sword in 2002, but Michael would have been a step too far.