Sometimes it just feels right to be wrong

The former England star can speak eloquently and accurately about “attacking flair” and the game’s finer technicalities, but when it comes to predictions, he’s scoreless. 

Gazing ahead to this month’s World Cup, Owen declared that current England striker Wayne Rooney would shine, that Spain would rout the Netherlands in the first round, and that the tournament to be two-horse race between Argentina and hosts Brazil.

Owen’s 2.8 million followers on Twitter and regular readers of his column in the Telegraph must be wincing at how wrong he was. Indeed, a lot of them went back through the tweets and essays to tally up his misfires. Fortunately no one seems to have taken him at his word at the time and placed bets with the bookies on his predictions.

“I know just how Wayne Rooney is feeling, but if he can recapture how he played as a 17-year-old, he will be a match winner,” Owen forecast ahead of the World Cup.

“In my experience teams from the Far East are super-fit. I expect Japan to qualify from their group and do better than people may think,” he tweeted. Japan were in fact knocked out in the first round in Brazil. 

“Best game of the opening round of matches tonight – I fancy Spain to beat the Dutch,” Owen announced. The Dutch tore defending champion Spain to pieces, a humiliating 5-1 pummelling, we recall at risk of salting Spanish fans’ wounds. 

In another tweet, Owen reckoned Argentina would carry home the cup. Well, at least Argentina got to the final before succumbing to Germany.

It’s all quite comical now that we know what really happened, but poor Owen isn’t going to get far with future predictions. His latest soothsaying about the upcoming English Premier League season has drawn hoots of derision. He’s said Arsenal might now have powerhouse Alexis Sanchez on the roster, but they still won’t finish in the top four. Arsenal fans knew what to do: check the records. They discovered that Owen last year predicted a Manchester United championship. Man U actually finished seventh – and Arsenal were fourth, not fifth as he forecast. 

Maybe Owen should try something other than punditry, the critics sneer. Or, if he insists on being a fortune-teller, he might consider forming a voodoo duo with wealthy Thai businessman Tan Passakornatee, who similarly got the World Cup almost entirely wrong. They could announce their joint guesses and then we could all bet the other way round. Tan guessed wrong so many times during the tournament that his wife finally convinced him to “retire” before the final. 

For his part, Owen seems to be playing it safe in his latest tweet about the Premier League season: “Hard to predict finishing positions until the window is closed. Liverpool, United and Arsenal seem busy in the market.” Well, once the transfers market closes, he’ll probably be at it again. He is nothing if not consistent!