Betfair.net

My girlfriend was reading Chekhov when the phone rang.

"Are you gutted?" said the voice at the other end. "About United?"

"What about them?"

The inquisitor was a Liverpudlian male. It was around 10pm on May 2nd 2007 - the night Manchester United were dumped out of the Champions League by AC Milan - and this dimwit was dialing random 0161 numbers in the hope of taunting United fans. When he clocked that he wasn't talking to a Stretford End diehard, the Liverpudlian male became desperate.

"Is there nobody there who supports United? Does nobody care about United?!" he wailed into the void before slamming down the receiver.

It would be wrong to say of Liverpool supporters what can be said of Leeds fans - that they hate Manchester United more than they love their own club - but Liverpool fans do care an awful lot about Manchester United. And vice versa.

English soccer's fiercest rivalry remains a preoccupation of the less intellectually athletic fans of both clubs. There exists a lively cultural exchange between the cities but that doesn't prevent a moronic minority of Liverpool fans singing Munich air crash songs or, most disgracefully, United knuckleheads chanting about the Hillsborough disaster.

Salfordian Professor Terry Eagleton once wrote that if he was in government he would ban sport - his justification being that sport creates communities while destroying them, that it creates history while destroying it. He might well have been thinking about Manchester United and Liverpool. After all, when United fans taunt their counterparts from up the road about unemployment, do they somehow imagine that their own city emerged from the Thatcher years unscathed?

Michael Owen is rightly untroubled by any of this. After agreeing a two year deal at Old Trafford last Friday, he will become only the second player since Phil Chisnall, who Liverpool bought from United in 1964, to play for the two clubs. Paul Ince was the other and he was, allegedly, barred from the Old Trafford players' bar by Peter Schmeichel when he returned as Liverpool captain.

Sir Alex Ferguson is said to have made inquiries about Steven Gerrard when he was looking for a successor to Roy Keane but later conceded: "We can't get Gerrard. The boy won't come here."

In 2007, Rafael Benitez attempted to sign Gabriel Heinze from United before a resolute Ferguson dispatched the player to Madrid for a smaller fee than he might have got from Anfield.

So the rivalry runs through both clubs - from fans to boardroom via management. The likes of Gerrard and Gary Neville aside, the only people not embroiled in it are perhaps the players. Owen is said to be looking forward to a reunion with his friends in the United squad while last summer, Wayne Rooney's stag party was made up of two Liverpool players and none from United.

And what of Sir Matt Busby? He played for Liverpool before going on to manage Manchester United, making them the first English club to win the European Cup. Things were different then? No, they weren't; Manchester and Liverpool were 25 miles apart then too.

Owen's delight at signing for the Premier League champions at this stage of his career outweighs any lingering loyalty to Liverpool. He is keen to prove a point to Rafael Benitez, the manager who sold him to Real Madrid in 2004.

Relations between United and Liverpool reached new lows last season with Benitez's infamous rant about Ferguson. This transfer certainly adds spice to the rivalry but, though it will be fascinating to see Owen visit Anfield with United in the Premier League on October 24, he will aim to hurt Benitez most by playing a significant part in a fourth consecutive title for United - something which can be backed at [3.1] with Liverpool at [4.3].

Owen's signing represents no financial risk to United and will not affect their ability to make further acquisitions this summer. If he scores over 10 goals this season it will be seen as good business. His price in the Premier League top goalscorer market has plummeted in the last week from [95.0] to [17.0]. He is [5.6] to be the top English goalscorer in the division.

Meanwhile, even if United and Liverpool fans refuse to reach out to each other on the basis of their shared material conditions, they could certinaly bond over their dislike of another of Owen's former-teams: they play in London and wear white.