MON confirms Owen interest

Aston Villa manager Martin O´Neill (MON) today confirmed that Aston Villa are interested in Michael Owen. "We have seen a DVD sent by his agent and he looks interesting" stated MON

"We are now looking at more european based players and he caught our eye as he previously played for Real Madrid" said MON

"I have asked my assistant John Robertson to check into whether he has enough interrnational caps to get a work permit for the PL. His agent claims he once scored a hat trick against Germany in a world cup qualifier and I´ve asked John to find out if that is true or not" said MON

West Ham who are selling the player are believed to be asking £10 million for the striker. MON is said to not be put off by the price.

"A couple of years ago they told me they had a striker called Marlon Harewood and they would be willing to sell him for £20 million however we bargained them down to £4.5 million" retorts MON

Responding to claims that his knowledge of international football is limited MON claimed that he watched the whole of the second half of the CL final between Man Utd and Barcelona and whilst on holiday in 1998 he made a point of watching the whole of the 1998 World Cup Final between France and Brazil. However when asked who won that game he replied "I can´t remember - it was a long time ago , I think it was Germany"