OWEN TO SIGN FOR £16m!

The 25-year-old England striker is understood to have agreed a four-year contract with the Magpies AFTER talking to Liverpool, so the deal looks to be cast in stone.

On Monday Alan Shearer stepped up the campaign to bring Owen to Newcastle when he proclaimed: "You would be a hero here".

The pair played together for England and Shearer admitted he talked to Owen in a bid to convince him he should make a fresh start at Newcastle rather than go back to already trodden ground at Anfield.

"It doesn't take a genius to work out who we want," Shearer told BBC Radio Five Live. "We have three days left to try to convince him to come here. We're still in there fighting for him. I know if he came here he would be loved. They love their goalscorers up here and he would be a hero."

Shearer joked that he was "spending a fortune in telephone calls to Madrid" talking to the former Anfield hero, adding: "I know better than anyone what reception he would get here. I've had several phone conversations with him but I don't have to tell him what passionate supporters we are. In the end he'll make his own mind up and will do what is best for himself."

This, more than anything, makes it obvious who will be the next Newcastle manager. It was Shearer who made the right noises that convinced Owen to sign, and who knows - perhaps THAT was what swayed the deal.