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Michael Owen admits he was left asking himself 'what the hell am I doing here?’ during his final season as a footballer... at Stoke City.

He believes he could have made an impact had he been thrown into the side after joining, but his match fitness suffered thereafter and he retired at the end of the 2012/13 season with just eight sub appearances in the Premier League and one FA Cup start to his name.

Recalling that last season in professional football in his autobiography, the former England, Liverpool and Real Madrid striker says: “‘From the start, it was really hard to read Tony Pulis in terms of how he wanted to use me. Of some encouragement to me was the fact that, during the negotiations to sign me, they had also signed Charlie Adam, an undeniably gifted footballer, from Liverpool for around four million.

“Not only did his signing represent some degree of ambition in a financial sense, but from a footballing perspective it led me to believe that maybe Tony Pulis was of a mind to play more football than he had previously. I thought, maybe they want to be less direct?

“This theory was further reinforced during my first conversations with Tony in person. Not only were there words, there was also action in the form of signings to back them up. I even felt reassured to be part of a new-look Stoke City that was perhaps committed to a new style of play – all of which would have suited me far more than being part of a team playing one dimensional and direct.

“One day we did bleep tests to gauge our fitness. Fortunately I’d been doing loads of running up and down my driveway at home and I was pretty fit. I got really good results and could tell that Tony Pulis was surprised – to the extent that I think he was considering putting me straight into the first team.

“On the Thursday before the next league game against Manchester City – my first at the club – we did a team shape. I was in it. I was thinking, oh my God, I’m starting here. ‘You’re fine to start aren’t you?’ Tony said, ‘you’re fit enough, yeah?’

“‘Yeah, of course,’ I replied, ‘absolutely fine.’

“The next day we did another team shape. This time I wasn’t in it. I was scratching my head when he approached me. At this point I could detect hesitancy in his eyes. ‘What do you think?’ he asked me, ‘should we just bring you off the bench?

’“To this day I have no idea what changed his mind. It was such a significant moment that would inform the rest of my time at the club. He opted to leave me on the bench against City. Had I started, and done well, who knows? I could well have got in the groove and gone on to play five, ten or even twenty games that season.

(Image: Getty)

“But it didn’t happen. The team drew the game – always something of a result for a side like Stoke City against one of the big clubs – and hadn’t played too badly in the process.”

The first-team door was therefore shut for Owen as Stoke enjoyed a successful first half to that 2012/13 season.

He continues: “Thereafter, Tony Pulis didn’t change the team much. Before I knew it, ten or fifteen games had gone by and I’d barely kicked a ball in earnest. In that situation, at the age I was at, the body starts seizing up a bit.

“Looking back on these events, I don’t blame Tony and I actually liked him as a fella. It was, after all, his prerogative to pick whatever team he wanted. I thought I’d done well enough in training to warrant more of a chance. However, with retrospect, Tony’s training sessions didn’t exactly offer a player much in the way of chances to shine.

“Pulis was certainly from Sam Allardyce’s school of coaching ideology when it came to training sessions. There was a lot of standing around while he talked tactics.

“Every time anyone got the ball, Pulis would be telling the lads what to do and where to play it. I felt that his approach created robotic players more than it did free spirits. Furthermore, it seemed to me that the only way to force yourself into the team was by your performance on the pitch.

“Beyond this, as much as Tony had been a successful manager and perhaps did want to try and improve the way they played, the harsh reality is that you just can’t do it with a couple of players in a squad.

“To really achieve change, not only does everyone have to be on board with the thinking, but also every player has to be technically capable of putting the plan into practice.

“One weak link – a right back that can’t pass the ball or a centre half who can’t control it – and the whole thing just breaks down. Thereafter, the team inevitably reverts to what it knows best. It was nobody’s fault – but I think this is what often happens at places like Stoke City.”

Owen, meanwhile, was still kicking his heels as the season, the last for Pulis at Stoke, wore on.

“As time passed, I found myself in a vicious circle of strange bemusement. I wasn’t training enough and so, by extension, whenever I did come on as a sub for a few minutes, as I did on just four occasions before Christmas of 2012, I had less and less sharpness.

“The strangest thing was – and as much as it was hard to shine in training – I still felt several steps ahead of the players around me in terms of understanding the game.

“Some of them might have equally felt the same way about my being at the club. As we sat in the dressing room after training one day, one of the older lads looked over and said with what felt like a degree of reverence: ‘What the hell is Michael Owen even doing in here?’ He was joking and being semi-serious at the same time.

“Regardless of what anyone thought, as weeks passed, I just sat on the bench while Peter Crouch and Jon Walters started up front. For some reason, Pulis just wouldn’t bring me on, even in obvious situations when we were 1-0 down and needing a goal.

“I kept asking myself the same question over and over again; how the hell can I not get into this team?”

* Michael Owen: Reboot – My Life, My Time, published by Reach Sport, is on sale Thursday 5th September in hardback, ebook and audiobook. www.reachsportshop.com

Online link: Michael Owen - Reboot

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