Owen's Hope is Diamond-shaped

The decision that Sven-Goran Eriksson has to make over whether or not to include Michael Owen in his starting line-up against Wales next Saturday is one of the trickiest he has faced in his time as coach of the England team. Not least this is because Eriksson must know that by leaving Owen out now, after a miserable start to his new career with Real Madrid following his £8m move from Liverpool during the summer, would deal a massive blow to the player's self-esteem.

Owen's public admission that he fears for his future unless he can play a more prominent role for his new club sounded almost like a direct message to Eriksson. He did not quite go down on his knees to plead for consideration but the subtext to his candid realisation that his move to Real had so far brought him little more than frustration was one of "my chances at club level are almost non-existent but don't forget my 27 goals in 63 appearances and don't forget you have gone on record saying that I am the best striker England has. So don't drop me now."

Many respected figures, probably Eriksson included, were suggesting last season that Owen's form had dipped with that of Liverpool and that he needed regular football at the highest level - especially in the Champions League. So, when Real came knocking at his door, Owen was undoubtedly flattered to be offered a role among the galácticos and saw it, at the age of 24, as the ideal opportunity to kick-start a career that had failed to live up to the startling promise and precocious achievement of his teenage years.

But the fact is that Owen, along with those who advise him, appears to have miscalculated. Before last night's match against Deportivo La Coruña, when he started for only the second time but was replaced after 51 minutes, he had spent more time on the pitch for England this season than for his club side. Now a subsequent lack of match practice may make him a doubtful starter for the Wales match.

"Michael is clever and proud," his former manager Gérard Houllier said yesterday, while urging Owen to remain patient as he waits for a regular place in the Real team. And Houllier's replacement as Liverpool manager, Rafael Benítez, said Owen had to continue working hard to establish himself, while hinting he might be prepared to take him back to Anfield at the end of the season, presumably for a knockdown fee, if things do not improve in Spain.

Owen was unquestionably proud at being asked to pull on the white shirt of Real but how clever he has been is open to question and Eriksson's loyalty to one of his established England stars is being tested as never before.

"I don't have a precise timetable for when I start to worry about Michael," said Eriksson. "But he has said he is concerned already and, if he is concerned, then I am concerned. I have seen a lot of Jermain Defoe and Wayne Rooney but I have not seen a lot of Owen - one game on television when Raúl was injured and he came on as a sub.

"I have said to other players in the past: if they don't play football at the highest level, it is difficult to see how they can be ready for England. It is not my opinion, it is the truth. It is difficult to play one game every second month and still play well."

Eriksson's decision and Owen's chances of remaining an automatic first-choice England striker have been complicated by Rooney's awesome performance for Manchester United in Europe last week and the impressive early-season form Defoe has been showing for Tottenham. It is unthinkable that Rooney will not play against Wales and, after Defoe's brilliant goal against Poland, when he looked every inch an international footballer, it would be harsh indeed were he to be omitted by Eriksson.

So it is left to Owen to look razor-sharp in practice when the England squad gathers at Manchester United's Carrington training ground tomorrow, or there must be a possibility that he will be brushed aside by a bright new generation, unless - and herein lies one chance of salvation for Owen - Eriksson reverts to the diamond midfield with which he flirted before abandoning the plan at the instigation of his captain David Beckham and others during Euro 2004.

The assumption has been that Eriksson's preferred central defenders Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell will return on Saturday at the expense of the unlucky John Terry and Ledley King, and that Nicky Butt would come into the midfield to replace the injured Steven Gerrard. But the news that his preferred left-sided player, Wayne Bridge, looks like being ruled out should give Eriksson the ideal opportunity to go back to his diamond if he has the courage of his convictions.

Beckham will continue alongside Frank Lampard, giving Eriksson the chance to play the combative Butt in front of the back four - perhaps with Rooney dropping into the space behind a front two of Defoe and Owen. If Owen then has a shocker, Joe Cole could come off the bench as his replacement, enabling Rooney and Defoe to operate as a front pairing.

Whatever is going on in Madrid, Owen has not suddenly become a mediocre player overnight. It is one of sport's over-used truisms that while form is temporary, class is permanent. And Owen has done enough to prove he is a class act.

Government is right to ignore grand prix pleas

Sir Jackie Stewart was one of the finest racing drivers Britain ever produced before his retirement more than three decades ago. A brilliant career on the track has been followed by a similarly successful business life.

But he is spectacularly misjudging the mood of the country if he seriously believes the government should be pumping public money into the British grand prix to stop it being ditched from next year's calendar. Yes, many other governments - perhaps misguidedly - do throw money at their grands prix. But that does not make it right to do so in this case.

Money from the lottery has been used to improve Britain's sporting facilities and to fund elite performers and those who have shown promise. But the government should have nothing to do with this hollow plea for funds from a sport that has made motorcycle racing, rallying, speedway - in fact, just about every other conceivable form of motorised sport - look positively enthralling when set alongside the fortnightly tedium of formula one.

Stewart, the president of the British Racing Drivers' Club which owns Silverstone, has been joined by Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and others speaking of the "disgrace" that Britain might be losing its grand prix. They speak of the traditions and great moments in more than half a century of grand prix racing. But they forget that such glam our was born out of an era when races were exciting and drivers held the key to success rather than the constructors, buoyed by the millions pumped in by automotive giants.

Bernie Ecclestone, hard-working everyday billionaire that he is, is not one of sport's more appealing figures. Like his pet red chow Brulee, which has allegedly bitten two residents near its master's Chelsea home, he is unlikely to win a popularity contest.

Perhaps I am wrong, but he appears a man more motivated by the millions he makes from his travelling circus than any sense of sporting values or the upholding of tradition.

The government should not be held to ransom by him. Perhaps Stewart would be better advised to spend his time considering that formula one would have been an altogether more acceptable show if so much power and influence had not been invested in one megalomaniac figure in the first place.

Afterthought

If Tanni Grey-Thompson has competed in her last Paralympics, she leaves a formidable legacy as the person who has done more than anyone else to raise the profile of disabled sportsmen and women in Britain.

Her achievements have been extraordinary and have done much to make a sometimes uncaring and prejudiced society more aware of those who have to live with disability. Her wins in the 100 and 400 metres wheelchair races were unforgettable highlights of the Athens games.