Owen sees Rooney as perfect foil for the future

For someone who has started one game for his club since New Year's Day, there are an awful lot of expectations being heaped on the boxer's shoulders of Wayne Rooney.

The same incessant clamour which demanded that Bobby Robson put his faith in Paul Gascoigne before the 1990 World Cup is now being visited on Sven Goran Eriksson. Robson, attacked for his tactical timidity as England limped across the line to qualify for Italia 90, subsequently claimed he knew exactly how glittering a prospect Gascoigne was, but that the boy from the deprived Tyneside suburb of Dunston needed careful handling and careful bedding in.

Eriksson, who has indicated he is likely to stick with Emile Heskey as Michael Owen's partner against Turkey tomorrow, may feel similarly. Curiously, Robson was advising boldness at the weekend, pointing out that the Everton striker, at 17, is the same age Pele was when announcing his greatness in the 1958 World Cup.

Yesterday, as England prepared for what should be their pivotal European Championship qualifier, comparisons were being made with Owen himself, who was slightly older, and considerably more mature than Rooney when launched, however reluctantly, by Glenn Hoddle into the midst of England's 1998 World Cup campaign.

Rooney is more Gascoigne than Owen. The latter's upbringing was not in the grim inner-city district of Croxteth, with its pebble-dash and iron shutters, but in Chester, where his father, Terry, a former professional, was there to guide him. As Owen conceded yesterday, playing in the World Youth Championship a year before his exploits in Toulouse and St-Etienne was a kind of finishing school.

"There are various ways to get to the top, there are no set rules," Owen said. "I'd played a few more games for Liverpool and England before I burst on to the scene but I think he [Rooney] is more physically developed as a man than I was, although I'm catching him up." Anfield's finest has been using intensive weight training to steer himself clear of injury this season.

"There's nothing better than seeing a good prospect coming through into the full England squad and getting right to the top. It's an exciting time and, when he first came to training, the first time he got the ball, you had to have a look and see what you made of him."

Although Owen is publicly supportive of Emile Heskey, who in Liechtenstein created the 20th goal of his England career, there are many who believe that, for all Heskey's work-rate, his goals-per-game ratio is too small to be considered truly international class. Ian Rush, employed by Liverpool to coach Gérard Houllier's strikers, believes that Rooney would be a better foil for Owen. Eleven minutes in a wretchedly disappointing game in Vaduz was not, however, a proper place to judge.

"He plays a different style to me," Owen said. "He didn't have long to make an impression but when he did he got a couple of goalscoring chances, which is a good sign. I have spoken to him to make him feel welcome but not specifically about his football."

The one Premiership goal Rooney has scored in 2003 was fashioned spectacularly against Arsenal, whose defence gave him too much room at Highbury and paid with a drilled shot into the left-hand corner. Despite this Sol Campbell is cautious about throwing in Rooney too soon.

"You have got to look at his age, you can't keep thrusting a young lad in there all the time. You put him in the squad and improve his confidence. He is the perfect prospect, don't kill him. He is learning all the time, don't overrun him," Campbell said.

"Wayne has got time, he can only get better," the Arsenal defender added. "He's a fantastic prospect, but Wayne has got his best seasons ahead." The trouble is, England need his talent now.