Capello can't go on dismissing Owen

No-one could have anticipated that the international career of Michael Owen would ever be as bluntly and brutally interred as it was by Fabio Capello at the weekend.

"We are playing Ukraine not history," sniffed the England manager when he was asked if Owen might be drafted into the England squad after injuries to Emile Heskey, Carlton Cole and Peter Crouch.

Perhaps we should glory in the fact that in Fabio Capello we have a man who – unlike Steve McLaren and Sven Goran Eriksson – doesn’t prioritize reputation in his team selection, a man who has turned a group of fine individuals into an effective international football team and restored much-needed confidence in players shattered by their failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

However it is surely true, among any reasonable doubt, that Michael Owen deserved a more generous requiem than the one so brusquely administered by the England manager.

And as he trained alone yesterday morning, making full use of the international break to bolster his recovery from the ankle ligament damage that kept him out for six weeks, Darren Bent limped out of England’s training session.

According to some, Bent’s leg injury – with Emile Heskey, Jermain Defoe, Carlton Cole and Theo Walcott already missing from the squad – demonstrated the stupidity of Fabio Capello’s refusal to call up Michael Owen. For all the recognition of what Capello has achieved with the national team over the past 13 months, there remains a widespread disapproval of his stance over Owen.

Maybe the 29-year-old has somehow antagonised Capello. Maybe it was Owen's "you'd better ask the manager'' comment when discussing his confused role against France on March 26 last year. Maybe it was citing a "virus'' before withdrawing from England's visit to Trinidad and Tobago last summer and then being spotted at Chester races. Maybe Capello simply wants to remind everyone that he is no respecter of reputations, that form must be permanent as well as class.

The drift of Owen's career, and the hideous difficulties he has faced on Tyneside do suggest that his England days are inevitably over. Yet that requiem still needs to be sung.

Owen, as Rooney is today, was a contender to smash every scoring record for club and country and even now, after all the years clouded by injury and the sense that he will never be idolised by the same England supporters who can shut their eyes and still see him flash past Jose Chamot and Roberto Ayala against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup, he is just nine goals off the all-time mark of 49 by Sir Bobby Charlton, having played 17 games less.

In another campaign disfigured by injury, Owen has still managed to find the net 10 times for his club. Since the summer of 2005, he has only started 53 games in the Premier League for Newcastle, yet he has still scored 26 times. At Liverpool, Madrid and on Tyneside, his record remains formidable; 266 league starts, 157 goals. With England it is 89 caps, 40 goals. That is Owen’s history. It speaks for itself.

But while Capello is aware of the statistics, he has not been blinded by them.

Before the squad for Andorra and Croatia was named without him on Aug 31, Owen had played three games on the spin for Newcastle, scoring twice. For the next internationals, the October qualifiers with Kazakhstan and Belarus, Owen was again absent despite playing six games for the Toon, finding the net on three occasions. It is not hard to detect a theme developing.

Before Capello announced his squad to play Germany in November, Owen had featured three times for Newcastle. Still no call. He was ignored for the Slovakia squad and even after Bent’s withdrawal, Capello yesterday overlooked the 29-year-old, opting instead for Gabriel Agbonlahor and in doing, he refueled the great Ostracised Owen debate

'In every interview I said the door, for all the players, is open,' said the England manager.

'I chose Agbonlahor because he has played a lot of games. I respect Owen but I am focused on the game of football. I choose the best players who are in a very fantastic moment.''

Indeed Agbonlahor may have played a lot of games. But he was left out of the Under 21 squad last week after being considered an injury doubt.

And with one goal in his last 17 appearances for Villa and none since he last played for England against Spain in February, his recent performances have provided very few ‘fantastic moments’.

There will be those that argue that Owen is simply not fit, that even if a bout of food poisoning were to sweep the England hotel tonight, forcing Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch to drop out of the squad, it would not alter Capello’s perception that Owen is not playable.

Indeed he has played just 98 minutes of football since January. But Owen for all his hits and misses is a player who, if he plays games he will score goals, and this makes him worth a place in the squad at least.

Would Wayne Rooney have been overlooked in the same situation? Certainly not. And Capello had no quarms picking Ledley King despite his ongoing knee problems.

He may not be someone who fits perfectly into a system that Capello has designed to get the best out of Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, but he should certainly not be ignored. He should be in the squad for the same reason Beckham remains there. Because he is someone who can make an impact.

Only time will tell how the situation unfolds. If Owen’s goals steer Newcastle away from the drop-zone, Capello’s decision making over Owen will face the ultimate test. Whether he will pull on an England jersey again is unknown.

But if things do not go to plan tonight in the absence of Heskey, England's manager might regret taking such a stance on a player who can influence the outcome of the most important matches.

And in your most important matches, you need your most important players. Michael Owen, for all his recent problems on and off the field, remains one of them.