When Michael Owen signed for Newcastle four years ago he believed he was joining a club going places.

"You only have to look at the club, the support they have and the players currently here to realise it is a very big club, and an even bigger club waiting to happen," he said at the time.

History proves he was wrong to think that way.

Four years on and the Magpies are preparing for life in the second tier of English football following a disastrous season when not even club greats Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer could save them from the drop.

Perhaps most humiliating of all though was that the club's favourite son, Shearer, should suffer the indignity of leading them to relegation after he was unable to turn around their fortunes during an eight-game spell in charge.

Following that car crash of a campaign it must be with some relief, albeit ruefully tinged, that Owen should find himself not only leaving the St James' Park, but joining a club of Manchester United's stature.

If he was misguided in thinking Newcastle were on the brink of something big, then certainly such a statement about the Red Devils could not be confused as hyperbole.

Where Newcastle have not won a major trophy in 54 years, the Red Devils are the three-time reigning Premier League champions - a feat that has moved them level with Liverpool's record of 18 league titles.

They have also reached the final of the Champions League in the past two seasons, lifting Europe's most prestigious trophy in 2008.

During his injury nightmare at Newcastle, Owen could not have dreamed he could again join a club to rank alongside his previous employers Liverpool and Real Madrid.

Indeed, he would have been the most optimistic of thinkers to have imagined Sir Alex Ferguson would come knocking when his Magpies contract expired on July 1.

Only Hull and Stoke had shown any interest and an injury-blighted career in the north-east had seen him fall down the pecking order in England coach Fabio Capello's plans.

It is, therefore, without question a gamble that Manchester United should seek to sign Owen, despite him being available on a free transfer.

Certainly when he joined Newcastle, then chairman Freddy Shepherd took something of a risk in investing a club record £17million - and around £20million more in wages over the length of his four-year deal - to bring England's top marksman back to the Premier League from Real Madrid.

After all, the £15million the Magpies had spent on strike-partner Alan Shearer nine years earlier had been handsomely repaid in the hard currency of goals.

If Owen did the same, Shepherd reasoned, it would be money well spent, while the former Liverpool man would also be in the right place at the right time to prove his ability to lead his country's bid for World Cup glory in Germany during the summer of 2006.

The record books show that the now 29-year-old found the back of the net at a creditable rate during his time in the north-east.

Unfortunately for Newcastle, that amounted to 30 goals in just 79 appearances, a statistic which says as much about the fitness nightmare he has endured on Tyneside as it does about his enduring potency.

It took him just two games to open his account when he struck in a 3-0 win at Blackburn with Shearer also on the scoresheet, and a winner at home to Manchester City a week later had the Toon Army purring.

Niggling injuries then interrupted his progress, but a double in a 3-0 win at West Brom at the end of October and a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory at West Ham in December fully justified the faith invested in him.

But within a fortnight, his season was effectively over and although he may not have realised it at the time, his career was about to hit the buffers.

A collision with international team-mate Paul Robinson in a 2-0 defeat at Tottenham left Owen with a fractured metatarsal which was to sideline him until the end of April, and he would later admit his desperation to return in time for the World Cup finals contributed in part to the knee injury which would effectively rule him out of the 2006-07 campaign.

England's group stage clash with Sweden was just minutes old when Owen caught his studs in the turf and collapsed in agony, with tests later revealing a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament as well as cartilage damage, which ruled him out until the end of April 2007.

Indeed, it was not until the following year that Owen, who had seen the man who signed him, Graeme Souness, his successor Glenn Roeder and Sam Allardyce all depart since his arrival on Tyneside, put together an extended run of games.

He started the final 20 matches of the 2007-08 campaign and scored 10 goals, a major contribution to the revival instigated by new boss Kevin Keegan.

Keegan immediately set about the task of trying to persuade owner Mike Ashley, who had inherited the former Liverpool striker when he bought the club in May 2007, to tie him up on an extended deal, although it was under Joe Kinnear that the offer was finally made in the wake of yet another managerial departure.

With hindsight, Owen was perhaps well advised to put his future on hold until the end of the campaign as the developing chaos behind the scenes came to a head.

In the end, his impending departure was football's worst-kept secret as the disintegration of a club which he had joined hoping to win trophies gathered pace and sent it hurtling through the new Premier League trapdoor.

Owen's move to Newcastle ultimately failed to live up to expectations with his major injuries, through the fault of no-one, severely limiting his impact to leave the Magpies counting the cost, both figurative and literal, of his stay.

Manchester United will hope the next step in his career will prove far more successful for all involved.