Michael Owen is expecting a rough ride at Anfield next weekend, but makes no apology for joining Manchester United.

Owen wrote his name in Liverpool folklore during eight seasons with the Merseyside giants, the high point of which was the 2001 season in which they secured the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup.

However, such success is likely to be forgotten on Sunday when the 29-year-old turns up wearing the colours of Liverpool's bitter enemies and hoping to inflict what could be a fatal wound to Liverpool's title challenge.

"I am human," Owen said. "I would prefer people to sit down and recognise what you did for them and for the team in years gone past.

"But I am pretty realistic as well and now that I am playing for their arch rivals....I am not holding my breath, put it that way."

Many Liverpool fans simply do not understand how Owen could bring himself to sign for United.

And although Owen understands how football can rouse great passions, to him it is just a job.

"People talk about loyalty in football," he added in the Mail on Sunday's magazine. "It is easy for a football supporter to preach about that.

"As a father, brother and son, there is no-one more loyal than me. But when you are a player, you are not a fan. I have got to earn a living, provide for my family.

"It is a job opportunity, just like anyone else's work."

Owen was hoping his unexpected career move would get him back into the England squad.

That may still be the case but with only two goals so far - one of them a last-gasp winner against Manchester City - Fabio Capello has remained resolutely impervious to Owen's qualities.

Not that England's fourth highest goalscorer has abandoned all hope of making his fourth World Cup.

"There are no secrets with me," he said. "I have played 89 times and I have scored 40 goals.

"Everyone knows if I play then I am likely to score every other game. Playing in a World Cup wouldn't bother me. In fact, I would raise my game, as happened before in big games.

"Naturally I would like to be in the squad but the last thing I want to be is campaigning."