Michael Owen has admitted that he is in no rush to follow in the footsteps of former team-mate Paul Ince and make a move into management.
Owen hung up his boots last month at the end of a playing career that included spells with Liverpool, Real Madrid, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Stoke City.
The ex-England international scored over 200 goals for club and country, staking a claim as one of the finest players of his generation.
While many of Owen’s erstwhile playing partners, including Blackpool manager Ince, have made the move into coaching after retiring, the 33-year-old has vowed to bide his time as he prepares to instead concentrate on launching his own management company aimed at representing young players.
“I would never say never to management and I have taken my first couple of coaching badges already,” said Owen on FIFA.com. “But it’s one of these things you can’t go into half-hearted.
“It’s a job that takes over your life and at this stage I want to do other things.
“With the agency work, I get a real kick out of giving young players advice, watching them develop and hopefully sharing some of my experiences and guiding them through what can be a very tough career.
“It’s something I always thought I could do and hopefully change the opinion some people have of agents.
“It’s a profession that doesn’t always have a great reputation, but I want to do things properly and do everything I can to help young players get the very most out of their careers.”
In a week in which the 2013-14 fixtures in English football are due to be released, Owen confessed that it will be a strange feeling to watch from the sidelines when the new season gets under way.
He added: “I think I’ll get a little bit of emotion in August when the season kicks off again; that’s when I expect it will really hit home.
“But mentally I feel I’ve been preparing for this for a while now, so it’s been quite a simple and painless transition so far.”
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