Brian Reade, from Saturday's Mirror.
The first thing to say about Michael Owen is that whatever he does with his life is up to him.
When you've won every trophy except the Champions League at three of the world's biggest clubs, been European Footballer of The Year and you're a multi-millionaire with a lucrative life in another sport, it's up to you if you're content grabbing headlines for Carling Cup goals against lower league opposition.
The second thing to say is what a waste that such a driven professional is happy to be fifth or sixth choice striker at Manchester Unted when he is only 31 and still has something to offer.
How sad that instead of raging against the dying light of his career, one of the greatest goalscorers of recent times is happy to sit back and put positive spin on his role as a bit-part player in a drama that doesn't need him.
He may technically have a better goals-per-minute ratio than the other United strikers but that's because most of his goals have come in the Carlng Cup. He may truly prefer "playing less often in a top team than every game in a poor one" but next weekend marks a year since he last started a Premier League game.
He may argue there are lots of great strikers at United so you have to be patient. But the truth is Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez are first choice, Danny Wellbeck and Federico Macheda are young and still learning, and Dimitar Berbatov is on huge money and happy to wait for one final lucrative move to a big club.
But Owen is going nowhere. Struggling to make the bench and not even loved by many of his own fans who see him as a Scouser fallen on hard times. (One even tweeted to him after the 3-0 win at Leeds: "Good 1-0 win tonight. Your goals don't count.")
The most baffling aspect of Owen accepting such mediocrity is that he has unlimited self-belief. He will genuinely feel that, apart from Rooney, there is no other English striker more capable of scoring at next summer's Euros.
So why doesn't he get out of his comfort zone and try to prove it? Why doesn't he make two phone-calls: one to David Moyes asking if he'll take him in January on the same £35,000-a-week he's on at United, the other to Alex Ferguson asking to be released from a one-year contract he should never have signed.
Everton, who Owen's dad played for and he supported as a boy, are crying out for a proven striker they don't have to pay a fee for. Unlike his miserable time at Newcastle, Moyes will have Everton challenging for Europe, playing decent football to feet. And Owen won't have to move an inch from his stables.
As for burning bridges with Liverpool fans, they no longer exist because he took a flame-thrower to them when he moved to Old Trafford.
Rather than kidding himself he's shoving his critics words back down their throats by trotting out meaningless stats and scoring meaningless goals, wouldn't it be better if Owen showed he can still do it where it matters, in the Premier League, on a regular basis?
If he still has pride, ambition and the belief he's good enough for one more tournament with England, he can't wait until the summer. He has to move in January. Owen has always loved gambling and, football-wise. he's approaching the last roll of the dice. He should take it.
Because to accept playing fifth fiddle at 31, when you believe you're still capable of scoring goals at the highest level, is an insult to everything he has achieved.
Read more:
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-reade/Brian-Reade-column-Michael-Owen-should-quit-Manchester-United-for-Everton-to-rescue-England-hopes-article803017.html#ixzz1YzIpjOI3