Wenger kept faith with young gunners

ARSENE WENGER admits he was “tempted” to try to sign England striker Michael Owen in the summer, but instead opted to keep faith in Arsenal’s talented youngsters.

However, Wenger is unlikely to come up against the 26-year-old when Arsenal head to Newcastle today as the centre-forward has a hamstring problem which has hampered him since playing for England against Argentina last month.

He has been included in the squad after missing the last four games but Newcastle boss Graeme Souness will not gamble on his fitness.

Although Souness is desperate to get Owen back he insists he will not take a risk which could backfire.

“No, we wouldn’t,” he said. “It was three weeks today that we felt he had just tweaked his groin. It was obviously far more than just a tweak.”

Owen returned to the Barclays Premiership from Real Madrid at the end of August in a 23.7 million deal, with Liverpool also said to have been keen on bringing their former favourite home, but not at the Spaniard’s asking price.

Wenger admits he had thought about making a move for the striker, but felt it would have proven to be at the expense of rising talents such as Robin van Persie, who is set to sign an extended deal with the north London club.

“I was tempted,” the Arsenal boss said. “But I knew I had Van Persie, I had Jose Antonio Reyes, I had Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, players who can come out and score goals.

“At some stage you have to make room for your young players or they never play. If I bring Michael Owen, Van Persie today would not play.”

Wenger added: “For me, it was not a money question. It was really ‘Do I stick to what I started or do I change direction completely?’

“I decided to give a chance to my young players because I felt if I had to do it, I had to this year.

“When you are a young player there is a moment where you have to come in; if you miss that moment you lose the player. When you feel a player has enough quality you have to stick to that and put them in.”

Wenger, though, did not follow up his thoughts with any sort of enquiry about Owen, as he instead tracked other transfer targets.

“You go completely in for it or you don’t go in at all. When you go in for a player you put 100% effort in,” he said.

“At that time we were on the Julio Baptista case where we lost out. I wanted him more because I felt he could play more middle of the park as well because Patrick Vieira went.

“I wanted a multi-functional striker more than an out-and-out striker because I knew that Thierry Henry could give us goals, I hoped van Persie and Reyes could give us goals.”

Despite not adding Owen to his Highbury arsenal, the Gunners manager remains an admirer.

He said: “Michael Owen’s career has only been stopped in patches by his injuries.

“Apart from that you can only respect Michael Owen because he is a guy who plays with enthusiasm. The minutes he plays and the goals he scores... it is fantastic what he has done.”

Arsenal head to St James’ Park tomorrow looking to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat at Bolton last weekend, which saw the Gunners slip down the table to fifth, 14 points behind leaders Chelsea.

With both Reyes and Dennis Bergkamp out injured, Van Persie is likely to come back into the side after starting the midweek goalless draw with Ajax on the bench.