So Michael Owen's gone to Manchester United - and it's good news for Liverpool fans.

Yes, he's still revered on the Kop as the baby-faced teenage terror on the Anfield front line, whose name still stands with Ian Rush and Robbie Fowler in Scouse folklore.

Yes, even in these mercenary times, the sight of Owen in a United shirt is a bone-jarring shock to the system. "I jumped at the chance to join Manchester United", he purrs with no sense of irony. It's tough to take, but here's why Kopites should take a deep breath.

The simple fact is that Owen was not wanted, or needed, at Liverpool. Rafa Benitez had every chance to fashion a Fowler-esque return, but decided, pointedly, that he wasn't interested. In fact, he made it very clear even before the bidding started that he wouldn't be involved.

No doubt much of this was down to Owen's recent well-chartered under-performances (I needn't revisit his spell AWOL in Madrid and his woeful contribution to the Newcastle United debacle). But he might still have been worth a punt - he apparently has taken a massive cut in wages, is happy to be paid on his performances, and he's English.   

But there's more to this. Rafa, and a few others at the club, will not have forgotten how Owen walked out on him before he'd even got a chance to put a team on the park in 2004.

Off to bigger and better things, he thought, and we all know how wrong he turned out to be. From his vantage point on the Madrid bench, he watched Liverpool lift the Champions League.

Again when Owen signalled that he was coming home, Rafa bit his lip and opened his arms, only to be snubbed once more by Owen and his advisers. Newcastle, apparently, were a better option. Who could blame Rafa for not offering a third chance?

Snubbed by Liverpool, courted by Hull, Owen must surely have jumped at the chance when Fergie came calling. And good luck to him.

Owen was a class act and may yet confound the critics and turn out to be a Fergie masterstroke. But he's no Carlos Tevez, no Cristiano Ronaldo, no Karim Benzema and no David Villa. If that's the best United can do with the Madrid millions, then Liverpool can breathe easy.

Rafa's already captured a player whose England career is just lifting off, not winding down, and his urgent priority now is to fend the euro-laden Spanish vultures off his midfield. He does need an able deputy for Nando, but for all sorts of reasons, Michael Owen doesn't fit the bill and it's not all about dodgy hamstrings, either.  

Yes, lads, Owen's grinning love-in with the Auld Enemy is hard to swallow. But what counts is who'll be smiling next May.