Michael Owen joins Stoke after agreeing a 12-month deal

Owen has accepted a pay-as-you-play contract loaded with significant incentives to extend his career in the Premier League, with Stoke optimistic they had beaten Tuesday’s 5pm deadline to name him in their 25-man squad.

The Premier League are yet to approve the transfer and named the 19 other club’s 25-man squad lists on Wednesday night. Stoke are facing a delay because they have more than 25 players but the deal should be signed off in the next 48 hours.

The former England international had been in talks for most of yesterday and the deal appeared off early in the afternoon until a final offer – which was tweaked to bump up more money for each goal he scores – was agreed by Owen and his advisers.

The deal, believed to be worth around a basic £25,000 a week to Owen, will also include bonuses on appearances and whether Stoke successfully avoid relegation.

Owen has been promised another year on top if he passes a set number of appearances this season, a similar deal to the one offered to Jonathan Woodgate last summer.

His signing represents the end of a long pursuit by Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, since Owen’s release from Manchester United at the end of last season.

The 32 year-old first met Stoke in June to discuss a move and has been considering his options, with offers understood to have been received from clubs in the Far East and in the Championship, but he opted to sign after a whirlwind day of talks.

Stoke were determined to protect themselves with a structured deal because of Owen’s poor injury record – he made only four appearances in his final campaign at Old Trafford and has not played competitively since United’s Champions League clash with Otelul Galati in November.

But Owen, whose last Premier League appearance for United was, curiously, against Stoke almost a year ago, has always maintained that he failed to play because of Sir Alex Ferguson’s team selection rather than his injuries, and will be on a mission to prove his critics wrong at the fifth club of his career.

The former Real Madrid striker tweeted: “Delighted to have signed for Stoke subject to Premier League approval. We have been in talks for a while and it was a club I was always keen to join. I’m particularly excited at the prospect of working under Tony Pulis. He has assembled a great squad that I look forward to joining.

“I’m now looking forward to contributing as much as possible to the club and can’t wait to play in front of a great set of supporters.”

Owen is expected to make his Stoke debut against Premier League champions Manchester City a week on Saturday.

The move ensures he will be signing for a club near his home in the North West, with his horse racing stables just a few miles away from the Britannia Stadium at Malpas. He will be reunited with former England team-mate Peter Crouch, with Pulis hopeful of the pair repeating the partnership that impressed at the 2006 World Cup under Sven Goran Eriksson.

Stoke have successfully survived four seasons running but they have only scored 39 goals in their last 41 Premier League games and Pulis has been battling to complete a deal all summer to boost his attacking options.

Peter Coates, the Stoke chairman, is convinced the deal is a no-brainer. He said: “We are very pleased. Michael is a good guy and a natural goalscorer. He is also a very proud guy. He might feel he’s been written off and I think he might have a point to prove.

“He’s always got goals, it’s natural to him. It’s a one year deal we have agreed and then we will look at it. We had talks on Tuesday and then Michael and his people came back to us and we agreed the deal. We sent the forms off at 4pm and the deadline was 5pm so it was a bit of a rush.”

Owen is Stoke’s seventh signing of the summer following the arrivals of Charlie Adam, Steven N’Zonzi, Maurice Edu, Geoff Cameron, Jamie Ness and Michael Kightly.