Michael Owen on His Way to Manchester United?

File this one away under something that nobody, I mean nobody, saw coming. Michael Owen was at Manchester United's training ground for medical tests and could sign with the Premier League champions before Friday is over.

It's not too often that a transfer is actually shocking, but if this one goes down it's a Grade A stunner. After losing Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez it's hard to fathom that Sir Alex Ferguson is chasing down a player who could barely stay on the field during his star-crossed tenure at Newcastle United. In fact, I read somewhere that Ronaldo and Tevez scored more goals the last two seasons than Owen made appearances.

Perhaps the most surreal part of this possible transfer was until Owen showed up at United's training ground the two clubs he was most linked with, following Newcastle United's relegation in May, were Stoke City and Hull City. Since tearing his ACL in the 2006 World Cup against Sweden Owen has never been the same player and is but a shadow of the former wunderkind at Liverpool who scored over 20 goals in a season five times. In his four injury plagued seasons at Newcastle, Owen scored just 26 Premier League goals.

Assuming he passes the medical -- which is no sure thing -- what exactly can Owen bring to Manchester United?

Obviously he's not a straight replacement for Ronaldo or Tevez's goals like Karim Benzema or David Villa would have been. This is clearly not United's end game in terms of replacing its lost firepower as more moves should be on the way. To count on Owen as anything other than a spare part or bench player would probably be unrealistic, too. It's not 1998 anymore.

It would be easy to take a swipe at Ferguson, who's had his stumbles in the transfer market (Kleberson, Diego Forlan) for chasing a player who's 29-years-old, can't stay healthy and finished with fewer Premier League goals last season than Ricardo Fuller and Djibril Cisse. There's almost nothing from a logic standpoint to dictate Owen can recapture his long-lost form and help United either in the league or Europe since about he seems to have left is his name.

That all said, if you buy into the meta-physical aspect of sport and or sentimentality, there's probably no other place for a faded star to regain his glory than the Theater of Dreams that is Old Trafford. (And to a certain segment of the population Owen will always be No. 1.)