Chances are that Craxton Wood Hotel and Spa in Ledsham will have had few evenings to match when Michael Owen launches his autobiography in person, in what we can safely say will be very much Thursday’s main event in the west Cheshire area.

Certainly the build-up, that being the monumental Owen-Alan Shearer Twitter row, has claimed some unexpected victims along the way. Spare a thought for former England captain Alistair Cook who also happens to be doing his own autobiography-boosting Craxton Wood gig on Wednesday night but may already be reflecting ruefully on his decision to go easy on Kevin Pietersen. Cook’s book serialisation began on Sunday and in terms of impact might best be described as a knackered 1990s centre-half trying to catch a teenage Owen.

Say what you like about England’s great star of the late 1990s, but Owen has at least got people interested. A personal view is that, rather than PR blandishments, former England greats telling us how much they dislike one another is exactly what we want to hear, the only pity being that it has taken this long to come out. Imagine having to wait another ten years to find out that, say, John Stones and Eric Dier almost came to blows over a fundamental disagreement on the merits of the Madagascar franchise going to a fourth movie. That would be time lost.