Transfer news: Freddy Shepherd told Newcastle fans not so long ago they would be "astounded" by the players he and his manager Graeme Souness were enticing to St James's Park this summer. Yesterday, in announcing Michael Owen is a £16 million Newcastle player, the chairman made good his promise.

Shepherd and Souness have the considerable clout of Alan Shearer to thank for the transfer, which is likely to be part-funded by the sale of Jermaine Jenas to Tottenham Hotspur for £7.5 million. Jenas was in London last night for talks and should sign today, before the transfer window closes.

On another day Jenas leaving the club would have been quite a story in itself. The midfielder had said he found the "goldfish bowl" mentality on Tyneside difficult to bear and he for one can imagine the attention Owen will receive on arrival.

That occurs this lunchtime, when Newcastle will open St James's Park to thousands of fans. Their obsession will soon become apparent to Owen, who in signing a four-year contract yesterday morning possibly astounded himself as well as his friends and family.

Only last Thursday, after all, Owen repeated that he had no intention of making a long-term move to Tyneside and was not overly keen on spending a year there on loan. A return to Liverpool remained his motivation for leaving Madrid.

To that end, Owen made one final phone call to the Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry yesterday morning. Parry could not give the reassurance Owen was seeking, so Owen pledged himself to Newcastle.

He has signed until 2009 but whether he is still at St James's then only time will tell. If Shearer is the manager then, it might be that Owen does see out his contract.

That contract became the subject of intense speculation after the 10am declaration that Owen is a Newcastle employee. On Merseyside it was reported quickly that if another club offers £12 million for Owen next summer, and Owen is minded to leave, then he can. The implication is that Liverpool is that club.

No top-flight signing is made today without guarantees being sought about league position and European football and in leaving Real Madrid and turning down the European champions for a club that has just been knocked out of the Intertoto Cup Owen has forsaken European competition for the next nine months.

He will regard it as a gap year from Europe, one in which he can prepare for the World Cup in Germany. But next season Owen will want to be competing in the Champions League again.

Newcastle still have the time to make up for their dreadful start of one Premiership point from 12 and, without the distraction of the Uefa Cup, Souness always believed they could challenge for a top-four finish again.

But if they continue to under-achieve, then it is understood Owen is contractually entitled to review his situation next summer. No party was willing to clarify such a sensitive detail yesterday.

Newcastle, understandably, wanted to celebrate their coup. In modern times only the arrival of Kevin Keegan, first as a player then as a manager, and then the £15 million purchase of Shearer himself have caused such happy astonishment.

Shearer and Souness were among the Newcastle party that departed for Malaga yesterday morning on a flight for a friendly game on Friday.

At 6am they were still unaware of Owen's intentions but, speaking from Spain a few hours later, Souness said: "I am absolutely thrilled at the prospect of Michael Owen joining us here at Newcastle United because we have signed the current England centre-forward. It is fantastic news for the club because he's one of the best strikers in the world. His goal-scoring record backs that up.

"We always knew that Liverpool was his first choice because he had an emotional bond to Anfield that went back to when he joined the club when he was 12 years old. That was what we were competing against.

"It's been an eventful 24 hours. Michael met Alan Shearer yesterday and that clearly helped our cause. He has obviously been phoning Michael a lot and he has been able to paint a very attractive picture of Newcastle United for Michael. But we all have."

Over a period of five hours in the Northumberland countryside on Monday afternoon Newcastle's board, manager and captain sold the club to the man they have now bought.

Owen had just been to see Rafael Benitez at Liverpool but Shepherd, Souness and Shearer were all apparently able to say one thing that the members of Liverpool's hierarchy were unable to: each of us wants you.

It is a message that will be reinforced by thousands at St James's Park today. And this time it is Owen who should prepare to be astounded.