Michael Owen gives up on playing for England

Michael Owen has given up hope of being selected for England by Fabio Capello.

The 31-year-old striker, a peripheral figure for Manchester United, has not featured for the Three Lions since playing in a friendly against France in March 2008.

He was quoted in The Guardian as saying: "I was disappointed for the first squad I missed, a little bit less for the next one and after about three or four times, I didn't really expect to see my name.

"For the first couple of squads I looked at the players [named] and looked at what I had done. For the last dozen squads, I haven't looked. I don't even think about [being picked] now. Honestly.

"It's sad, really. If I keep getting up for something, then [find out] I am not in, I am just kidding myself."

At the peak of his powers, Owen, who has 40 international goals to his name, was widely expected to overtake the England record of 49 held by Sir Bobby Charlton, but it is an ambition the former Liverpool striker has abandoned.

Owen said: "I am not going to kid myself. Every time I saw him I was 'closing on your record, Sir Bobby'.

"Now I just see him for who he is: a great man."

Massimiliano Allegri labels Jose Mourinho 'pathetic' and insecure'

AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri has labelled Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho "pathetic" and "insecure".

Allegri, who led Milan in his first season in charge to their first scudetto since 2004, was asked to give his opinion on rival coaches on TV show Le Iene.

When questioned about former Inter Milan boss Mourinho, he said: "Every now and then he (Mourinho) is pathetic.

"He continuously repeats the same things and it becomes banal.

"I think he is very talented but his arrogance hides insecurity."

In two years at Inter, Mourinho won the Champions League and successive Serie A titles before moving to Madrid.

The Portuguese was recently given a five-match ban by UEFA for implying Barcelona are given special treatment when the Catalan club beat Madrid in the Champions League this season.

Allegri is the latest in a long line of fellow coaches to give Mourinho a less than glowing reference.

Guus Hiddink recently called on him to apologise for his behaviour surrounding the Barca tie, while the Portuguese has had a long-running feud with Rafa Benitez and former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri.

Xabi Alonso explains Liverpool depature

Former Liverpool midfielder Xabi Alonso has admitted he felt compelled to leave Anfield two years ago after losing the backing of manager Rafael Benitez.

The Spain international's departure to Real Madrid in the summer of 2009 came as no real surprise as he had been on the verge of leaving the previous year.

That was prompted by Benitez's failed attempts to sign Gareth Barry from Aston Villa, which convinced Alonso he had to move on.

"At the end of that (2008) season, speaking to Rafa, he told me the situation and that he wanted to sign other players and I could be one of the replacements," said the Real midfielder.

"If an offer would have come, probably I would have been sold.

"That's when I told myself that the situation had changed - from being a very important player to being one of those who can be sold to get funds to sign other players.

"I accepted it because I am a professional but you have to realise what your situation is.

"At the end nothing happened because there was no agreement and we started my last season in Liverpool."

In fairness to the Reds' then manager Benitez, Alonso had just endured probably his poorest season since joining from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2004.

But conversely, seemingly spurred on by events, the Spaniard's final campaign was also probably his best - it was certainly true for Liverpool who ran Manchester United very close in the title race with a record points haul.

"I didn't feel I had a point to prove. I knew what I was capable of giving to the team and what I had given for the four years," he told LFCTV.

"In the last one the team was really good. We were very competitive and it was a disappointment not to win the league.

"I was really happy with the team and my team-mates and felt that we could do great things.

"I was happy on that side but within a club you have to see the big picture and another season would have been too much for me.

"It was very difficult to take that decision (to leave) but it was probably for the best for me because if I had stayed another season it would have been uncomfortable for me."

Giggs furore threatens to harm United's final plans

Ferguson fury at press conference as signing of £17m keeper De Gea confirmed

The Ryan Giggs injunction controversy yesterday threatened to undermine Manchester United's preparations for Saturday's Champions League final, as the player was withdrawn from training and a masked gang attacked photographers' cars outside his house.

Giggs last night played in Gary Neville's testimonial match against Juventus at Old Trafford but his absence from Carrington yesterday morning only inflamed the controversy, with Sir Alex Ferguson taking so badly to a question about the 37-year-old's value against Barcelona that he told his press secretary that the inquisitor would be banned from Friday's pre-match press conference at Wembley. "We'll get him. We'll ban him on Friday," Ferguson said.

The United manager last night confirmed the £17m signing of Atletico Madrid goalkeeper David de Gea, which may be concluded early next week. "We identified him quite a while back as one we should go for," Ferguson said. "He's a young goalkeeper; very quick, good composure, presence and an outstanding replacement for [Edwin] van der Sar. We were looking for the same type of qualities as Edwin, because the one great quality Edwin always had was his composure and organisational ability."

But the Giggs issue is more difficult to control. United accept that Ferguson cannot ban any journalist from Friday's press conference and the manager's clear displeasure was followed six hours later by a gang arriving in a Ford Transit van to throw eggs and flour at journalists and vandalise six cars. A press statement on the incident, which was issued without the club's advance knowledge by Greater Manchester Police, included the name of Giggs' street.

Giggs is at the centre of a row regarding injunctions

Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes all played half an hour of Neville's testimonial last night, with David Beckham also pulling on a United shirt for the first time since 2003. United lost the game 2-1.

Ferguson's response to the events of the past 72 hours suggests he feels they could destabilise United's preparations if he allows them to. The Giggs press conference question – about the value of having a player of such experience available for the final – was put by the Associated Press's Rob Harris, an experienced journalist known in the press corps for his willingness to raise the difficult issues, and was the third of the day at Carrington.

Manchester United's Ryan Giggs warms up ahead of Gary Neville's testimonial match against Juventus last night

"All the players are important, every one of them," Ferguson replied, then asked his press secretary, Karen Shotbolt, for the identity of the questioner, in an aside which was caught by the microphones. After establishing from her that this journalist would be seeking attendance on Friday, Ferguson replied he would be banned.

Giggs has shown no superficial signs of the strain surrounding his legal battle with reality TV star Imogen Thomas in recent weeks. He was convivial with those journalists he recognised at Manchester Airport en route to United's semi-final match in Schalke on 26 April and was the only player willing to stop to talk at any length to the daily press reporters, after United's second-leg win took them to Wembley.

But United, who fielded Anderson and Rafael da Silva for the last 25 minutes of Neville's testimonial, know that distractions could be fatal. Captain Nemanja Vidic acknowledged yesterday that a key part of their task would be the psychological one – of not allowing Barcelona to get under their skin with gamesmanship.

"We have to focus and concentrate and then it won't be a big deal to handle the things that we know will come," said Vidic in a discussion of the controversy surrounding the Catalans' semi-final first leg against Real Madrid. "Obviously their players have a different mentality to us but it won't be a problem to deal with these things. They may do things and argue more than they should do but it won't affect us. The referee for the game will probably be the best referee around. I think he can cope with that."

Chelsea target five signings in summer spree

Chelsea may have no manager but they are ploughing ahead with a serious overhaul of the playing staff, with up to five players leaving and five more coming in.

Didier Drogba is not one of the players that Chelsea are looking to move on, despite interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Galatasaray. In fact, Chelsea are considering offering the 33-year-old an extension to his current contract, which has one year left to run. Instead, Chelsea are open to offers for Nicolas Anelka, who also has one year to run on his current deal.

The club will also allow Yuri Zhirkov, Jose Bosingwa, Paulo Ferreira and Henrique Hilario to leave over the summer. They would also listen to offers for some of their younger players including Jack Cork and Gaël Kakuta. Fabio Borini has already joined Parma, but Patrick van Aanholt has signed a new four-year deal.

Last summer, five senior players were allowed to leave and only two were brought in. Chelsea, who have earmarked several young players as new recruits, will not make the same mistake again.

Their main transfer targets include the Brazilian striker Neymar, 19, from Santos, who they tried to sign a year ago but their offer of £17.5m was turned down; Racing Genk's 19-year-old Belgian left-winger Kevin de Bruyne; the highly rated 18-year-old Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku at Anderlecht; and Netherlands right-back Gregory van der Wiel of Ajax, who is 23. They will also target a reliable second-choice goalkeeper as back-up for Petr Cech, and a return move for Asmir Begovic at Stoke City is not being ruled out.

Chelsea's transfer policy is being led by chief executive Ron Gourlay, who sacked Carlo Ancelotti on Sunday afternoon just minutes after Chelsea lost 1-0 to Everton.

Ancelotti is still putting the finishing touches to his compensation package of around £5m, having successfully insisted that Chelsea do not insert a clause into the agreement that would prevent him from working for another Premier League club immediately. Chelsea had tried to insert the clause, as Ancelotti had one year left to run on the three-year deal he signed in 2009, but the Italian said that he would rather take a smaller compensation figure.

Barça play it safe by flying to London two days early

Caution is rarely a factor on the pitch for Barcelona but off it the club are not prepared to leave anything to chance as they flew by private jet to Stansted last night two days ahead of schedule to avoid any potential disruption caused by the Icelandic ash cloud. They will train today and tomorrow at Arsenal in the build-up to Saturday's Champions League final.

Last year the Spanish champions were forced to travel by coach to Milan to face Internazionale in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final by earlier disruption to flights from an Icelandic volcano. They lost the game 3-1 and were unable to overturn the deficit in the second leg. The Barça coach, Pep Guardiola, is determined there should be no such complications ahead of Saturday after the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano. "We are looking to reduce the risk for the team to zero," a club spokesman said.

Barcelona beat Arsenal in the last-16 earlier this season, amid some controversy in the second leg over Robin van Persie's red card, but relations between the two clubs have remained good. A Barcelona spokesman said: "Arsenal were kind enough to let us use their facilities on Wednesday and Thursday. We contacted them as soon as we knew that we had to travel early and their response was positive. It highlights the respect between the two clubs and we are obviously grateful to them."

David Villa, meanwhile, is among a number of Barcelona's players who believe that Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Spain has made United a better side. "Cristiano Ronaldo's departure has liberated them," said Villa. Ronaldo signed for Real Madrid for £80m in 2009, but has been unable to prevent Barça retaining the La Liga title.

Dani Alves, Barça's Brazilian full-back, claims that United have a better balance without the Portuguese. "This Manchester United team is much more unpredictable without Cristiano Ronaldo," he said. "They have formed a more balanced group and they are stronger than they were two years ago."

Andres Iniesta also believes United have improved since the two met in the Champions League final in Rome in 2009. "They have grown as a team," said the midfielder. "They are dominating in England and now they are fighting for the Champions League. They are always competitive."

Michael Owen: Doubling up as Villa to help United plan for Barça attack

The veteran tells Ian Herbert he can live with being a bit part at Old Trafford in a week when he had to pretend to be the opposition

A decade ago, he was stepping up to collect the Ballon d'Or which marked him out as the best footballer in Europe but as Manchester United attempt to become the best team in Europe he has had to content himself with the role of body double. When Sir Alex Ferguson's coaching staff started calling on the reserves to create a shadow Barcelona team for the first XI to play against in the past few weeks, Michael Owen found himself being David Villa.

Though Owen arrived at Old Trafford two years ago intent on proving that the talents which made him the scourge of European defences in 2001 still burned, his anxieties this week include the uncertainty of even making the United bench against the Catalan side on Saturday evening. The odds are weighted marginally against it. Little did he imagine on that winner's platform in Zurich 10 years ago that his first Premier League medal, finally attained in the season when the 18-title record of his Anfield alma mater was overhauled, would come after a campaign in which he started one league fixture and four matches overall.

There is a sense around Old Trafford that Owen may just stay for one more year with a manager who continues to be struck by his work-rate in training. There has been "one chat" about the future with Ferguson, Owen says. "I don't want to speak to the manager prior to a Champions League final, he's got much bigger things on his plate. Straight after the match – then we'll talk."

The equanimity with which the 31-year-old bears frustrations more befitting of a 35-year-old striker comes from an inner notion that Saturday evening at Wembley might just allow him to inscribe his name in history like the Saturday night in Munich which delivered that hat-trick against the Germans 10 years ago. "I will be imagining it," he says of that hypothetical notion. "I might not even have a place on the bench but I always have my own thoughts going into the game. And if you don't think something can happen then you have no chance of it happening. I will have private moments when I drift away and think about different things that could happen..."

The same goes for England. This is the man who became England's youngest captain since the sainted Bobby Moore, 40 years before, when Sven Goran Eriksson knocked on his door in April 2002 and asked him if he wanted to lead the side out against Paraguay at Anfield. ("Just a little bit," Owen told him.) In the bleak years after Euro 2004, he and Emile Heskey were the one effective forward partnership England fielded and it was they who swept aside the Russians at Wembley in September 2007. Fabio Capello, not averse to the occasional indecision with his captains, does not extend the rule to his strikers though, and even Championship players such as Cardiff City's Jay Bothroyd have been deemed a better choice this season.

The private agonies have included seeing Sir Bobby Charlton around the place at Old Trafford – initially a reminder, Owen admits, of how his once inexorable progress towards Charlton's record 49 England goals, was so abruptly cut off, with him nine goals adrift. "Every time I saw him, I thought: 'I'm closing on your record Sir Bobby.'" Owen says. "Now I just see him for who he is; the great man he is. I've not given up on England but I've given up trying to understand. It's come to an abrupt stop under this manager. I was disappointed for the first squad I missed; a little bit less for the next one and after about three or four times, I didn't really expect to see my name. For the last dozen squads, I haven't looked at the squad.

"It's sad really. It is. But if you split up with someone, there's not much point thinking 'will we get back get together?' You just upset yourself. If I keep getting up for something, then not getting it, I am just kidding myself."

The weeks spent in the vain hope of a chance from the United bench – with Javier Hernandez's presence creating one major impediment and Danny Welbeck's return from Sunderland threatening another next season – are less easy to rationalise. "Once in a while I get asked to play and expected to play really well, there and then," Owen says. "If you don't, you get a lot of criticism. People think 'he got his chance'. It is hard to prepare, prepare, prepare and all of a sudden play and produce – harder than you'd expect. I have to prepare physically as if I'm playing – eat the right foods, possibly energy foods, which are waiting to be burned inside my body, rest at certain times – and then all of a sudden I've not played but [prepared] as if I will. The next day I have to train three times as hard. I get into a poor cycle; mentally I am up and down. That's all been quite challenging for mind and body."

However, Owen knows the prospect of playing against what is rated as the world's greatest club side is better than having packed up and left for the summer. The fascinations of the past few weeks have included observing Ferguson in the red heat of the home straight of a Premier League title. "He's got far more to him than a fear factor to make you play well," Owen observes. "But he does have the side to him that you want to perform because a lot of people would be fearful of the telling-off. The older I get the more I look for different things. When I was a kid I just listened to what the manager said and go out and try to do it. As I've got older, I've got more inquisitive. Why is he saying that, trying to motivate a certain player like that? The older I get the more I understand and can resonate with him more."

It means that he can just about bear the request to be David Villa. And just who has been Lionel Messi's body double? Owen grins and walks away. Even the outsiders are insiders in Ferguson's ranks.

Playing the Villa: How the two strikers measure up

Michael Owen/David Villa

258 Career goals 303

40 International goals 46

19 Most goals in a league season 28

0.46 League goal/game ratio 0.46

1 FA Cup, 1 Uefa Cup Championship, 1 Premier League title, 1 Ballon d'Or Honours 1 World Cup, 1 European Championship, 1 La Liga title, 2 Copas del Rey