Sam Allardyce was keeping a low profile as the Football Association prepared to name him as the new England boss, with current employers Sunderland fuming.
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Owen was part of the England side that reached the World Cup quarter-finals under Sven Goran Eriksson before a 2-1 defeat by eventual winners Brazil.
As a player, Allardyce started at Bolton in the 1970s before spells at Sunderland, Millwall, Coventry, Huddersfield, West Brom, Irish club Limerick and United States side Tampa Bay Rowdies before ending his career at Preston.
Allardyce beat out a short-list of fellow candidates that included Hull manager Steve Bruce, Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, and USMNT boss Jürgen Klinsmann.
Sunderland expressed their “anger and frustration” over the news that broke on Wednesday evening, but have now turned their attention to finding a successor.
The Premier League side wanted England to act quickly in appointing Allardyce (or not as the case may have been) to give them ample time to prepare for the new season.
“It is your time, you know! We don’t want a short-term solution for a couple of years, we want someone to work alongside the development teams in terms of giving them a ladder”.
Those have been hallmarks of the teams he’s managed across the years in the Premier League and Championship, including stops at Bolton, Newcastle, and West Ham. They are now without a manager and will have to hire their ninth boss in eight years with only a month before the season starts.
David Moyes is favourite for the role, with Frank de Boer and Nigel Pearson also in the frame.
Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce arrives before the pre-season friendly match at Victoria Park, Hartlepool.
Allardyce will face the task of picking up the pieces after a disastrous Euro 2016 finals campaign which saw England dumped out of the competition by Iceland in ignominious fashion.
Many England fans have reacted with horror on social media to the idea of Allardyce being appointed given the style of physical, sometimes long-ball football many of his teams have employed. If we had done it in three days we would rightly have been accused of knee-jerking.
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“We’re taking an appropriate amount of time”. Of course we are concerned about how individual clubs manage. “We aren’t blind to that, we just need to make the right decision”.
