Who can see Michael Owen scoring 12 goals a year?

Fabio Capello was often bemused by the English obsession with Michael Owen.

Here he was, building a team considered quite exciting, with Wayne Rooney to the fore and the even more precocious Theo Walcott adding a dash of spice, and the journalists just wanted to know whether Owen might be recalled. The Italian once drily responded to the effect that he preferred a squad made up of current players.

No doubt Stoke’s gamble on Owen will lead to enquiries being made of Roy Hodgson during the build-up to Moldova and no doubt he will be sorely tempted to reply: “Yes, along with Gary Lineker, Michael will be considered if he starts scoring regularly.” Most realists gave up on Owen in 2006, when, after both he and Sven-Goran Eriksson promised that FA medical statistics showed he was fitter than ever, he broke down and was out of the World Cup.

His appearance record since, most recently for Manchester United, explains why Brendan Rodgers ruled out a return to Liverpool, and Stoke’s move certainly smacks of desperation. Tony Pulis is, however, no fool and would hardly have risked the disillusion that gradually descended upon the 25,000 Geordies who once turned up to watch Owen at Newcastle were there not some reason to believe he might play enough matches to produce a harvest of, say, 12 goals.

We’ll see. Stoke used to be famous for reviving careers: in the 1960s and 1970s, when that exceptional football man, Tony Waddington, was in charge, many a fine player — Dennis Viollet, Roy Vernon, George Eastham, Alan Hudson — flourished at the old Victoria Ground. One even joined at the age of 46 and, if Owen turns out to be the new Stanley Matthews, we’ll be happy to eat humble pie. Even Fabio Capello might have food for thought.