AFTER a restless single season at Real Madrid, Michael Owen’s £16.5 million transfer to Newcastle United was widely portrayed as a marriage of convenience, yet domestic bliss has swiftly followed.

Happily ensconced in a house in Northumberland, with his daughter attending nursery school and a baby due in February, the England international said yesterday that he has “put roots down” in the region.

Harmony is not a quality often associated with Owen’s new place of employment, yet attempts by Graeme Souness to mould a unified dressing-room — discarding prickly personalities such as Craig Bellamy and Laurent Robert — appear to have succeeded. “There is a good atmosphere here,” the striker said. “It’s not every club where you finish work and then go out with the same lads for a meal or a game of golf.”

It has already led to a subtle change in Owen’s personality. “Michael is everything I thought he would be, both on the pitch and off it,” the manager said, “but he was quiet when he first came here. Now, he’s joining in the banter and it’s taken him time to do that. He is now giving people abuse, which is part and parcel of our way of life. I don’t abuse him, though, and the staff call him Mr Owen.”

The deference shown by Souness, while humorous, is also understandable given the profound impact that the 25-year-old has exerted on Newcastle’s fortunes and mentality. Nineteenth in the Barclays Premiership before his debut, riven by injuries and uncertainty, the team are now regaining confidence and players, sitting in mid-table and hoping to record their fourth victory in succession at home to Birmingham City today.

Owen has scored four goals in his five appearances and, away from St James’ Park, it has not taken him long to become attuned to the raucous vibrancy of life on Tyneside. “This is a city which is very passionate about football, a one-club city where everyone is a Newcastle supporter, which makes it different from Madrid and Liverpool,” he said. “In Spain, I missed that passion.

“If you get this club rolling in the right direction, it will be amazing, a fantastic place to be. There are parallels with England, because once we lose a game it is a crisis and there’s pressure on the manager. If it goes on like that all season, it’ll do our heads in. We need the club to be stable and happy, with everyone pulling in the same direction so hopefully that will all calm down. We need continuity.”

His assimilation into life in the North East — as well as that of Louise, his wife, and Gemma, his two-year-old daughter — has been seamless. “I didn’t know what it would be like here,” Owen said. “I was always a one-club man at Liverpool and then going to Madrid was never going to be the same, where I could hardly speak the language. It was an eye-opener making a move back to an English club and I’ve found it really good. I have settled in better than I thought.

“It took a while at Madrid with hotels and we were dreading the first couple of months here. But we have bought a house and I am matey with a lot of the lads. The little girl is settled — she hasn’t got the accent yet, but it’s only a matter of time — but still has the odd tear going to school.

“I have been getting out and about with her after training and I know where all the parks and farms are.”

Given all the speculation about the presence of get-out clauses in his four-year contract, supporters will be jubilant that Owen is contented, although success on the field would be the only guarantee to securing his future. “We are looking up, not down,” he said. “You can tell in the city there is a buzz again. People have a spring in their steps.” He is one of them.