Michael Owen looks set for a surprise move to Manchester United.

The England international is without a club following the expiry of his contract with Newcastle United and it appeared only Stoke City and Hull City were interested in offering him a contract.

But now it appears Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to snap up a player who is fourth in the all-time goalscorers list for his country.

Owen had a medical on his knee on Thursday and will have a full medical on Friday ahead of signing a pay-as-you-play deal with the Premier League champions.

United have been searching for a new forward since the departure of Carlos Tevez at the end of his loan deal. They had been linked with the likes of Karim Benzema and David Villa, but now it seems Owen will be arriving.

The 29-year-old suffered an injury-ravaged time at St James' Park but still managed to score 10 goals as the Magpies dropped out of the Premier League.

The former Liverpool and Real Madrid striker will be hoping a move to Old Trafford will push him back into the thoughts of England coach Fabio Capello ahead of next summer's World Cup finals.

United, meanwhile, have sent 20-year-old Brazilian-born midfielder Rodrigo Possebon on a season-long loan to Portuguese side Braga.

You can take it as red that Sir Alex Ferguson is now back off his holiday, working hard and probably slightly miffed. He has been tracking Benzema since he was a scratch in his daddy’s pants and would have been furious that the Lyons striker signed for Madrid yesterday.

The age of our squad is very good at the moment but, and it is a big but, you only need to have a peek at Arsenal’s fortunes last season to realise that proven experience needs to be added. I think that United are likely to win the league again in 2011/12 when the team will be something like - Foster, Da Silva x 2, Hargreaves ,Vidic, Nani, Rio, Rooney, Macheda, Wellbeck, Berbatov - in the meantime, we could face a fallow period.

Ferguson wants to bring in some quality to oversee this transition and had his hopes built up high for Benzema. So was Michael Owen Plan B or just a reactionary flutter?

I think a little of both. Owen came up through the ranks in the Northwest so it is pretty safe to say Fergie has known about him since the get-go. At zero pounds and zero pence a proven international goalscorer does represent fairly good value for money.

But there is something about this that could be quite delicious. Owen has been completely written off, barge-pole sales are at an all time low as people will not even touch him with one of those. But he has talent, bags of it, and a big point to prove too.

United have signed players who were seemingly finished before and got the best out of them. This, should it come to pass, will not reshape the future of the club but it can only be a good thing to have Macheda and Wellbeck training with Owen and learning how he makes runs and gets into position.

Once again, Ferguson has surprised us. Can’t wait to see what he does next.