“FOR sale — one former European Player of the Year, in ‘clean and fresh’ condition, with one not-so-careful owner.”

That is how Michael Owen’s infamous 32-page brochure might have been boiled down within the pages of The Bolton News’ classified ads, which might well be his public relations department’s next port of call if he fails to find an attractive proposition before the end of the summer.

It is believed Wanderers were one of the eight top-flight clubs to receive a copy of the glossy publication, dreamt up by Owen’s PR advisors as a way of reminding people of his credentials.

Gary Megson will have had a host of DVDs drop through the door at Euxton this summer, but it is a safe bet none were quite so high profile as the prospectus compiled to announce the erstwhile England international’s availability to a carefully selected band of Premier League outfits.

Reams of medical reports, statistical analysis and denials to popularly held beliefs — such as the player’s regular helicopter commutes from training to his stables in Cheshire — are contained within the pages of the document, entitled: Michael Owen Summer 2009.

Hull City have already made public their interest but it seems unlikely that Wanderers will follow suit, as Megson has made other positions in his squad a more pressing priority.

But while flicking through Owen’s glossy catalogue, one wonders to what extent the Whites boss considered taking a gamble on a player who is desperate to prove his best days are not completely behind him.

Owen’s declaration this week that he will leave St James’s Park after four difficult seasons came as no great surprise considering the Magpies will be playing in the Championship next season.

His brochure claims that during his time in the North East he played in 75 per cent of Newcastle’s fixtures, attempting to dispel the myth that he is injury prone.

But that statistic is unlikely to come as much solace to the thousands of fans on Tyneside, who never really felt the club got a satisfactory return on the £16million paid to Real Madrid for his services in 2005.

Owen’s camp carefully set about setting the record straight on any number of topics as if Megson, or indeed any other top flight manager would need any reminder in booklet form or otherwise, of what he is capable of at full pomp.

No transfer fee would be involved but any club who decide to take the plunge would be required to make an outlay of more than £50,000 a week on wages, swelled handsomely by bonuses.

Having worked so hard to trim his wage expenditure in recent seasons, Megson would be most unlikely to undo all that with the casual stroke of a pen.

Owen could emerge from his Newcastle nightmare hungry and ready to prove the doubters wrong — rather like Nicolas Anelka did when he joined Bolton from his exile in Turkey at Fenerbahce.

His marketing team claims he is ‘clean and fresh’ but the records show he has scored just once in the last seven months.

His deft header to win last season’s game against Wanderers at St James’s is a reminder that the 29-year-old is not quite a spent force but with urgent work needed elsewhere in the squad, Megson’s decision to file Owen’s PR book under ‘U for unlikely’ is probably a sensible one indeed.