On the face of it, Owen Hargreaves ticks all the boxes for NOT being a Manchester City player. He has played seven minutes of first-team football in two seasons, has been written off as a crock, and is already the wrong side of 30.

Plus, he has the taint of being a former United player, of course.

And yet, Hargreaves has defied the odds and come back to the big time, in what will go down as one of the most sensational signings of recent times.

City have nothing to lose if, as seems likely, he has joined the Blues on a pay-per-play basis.

If Hargreaves’ insistence that he is fit – backed up by a series of bizarre Youtube videos of him on a personal training regime – are correct, City have snapped up a bargain.

This is a player who was England’s best player at the 2006 World Cup and was voted as the England team’s player of the year, and who Fabio Capello sincerely hopes can fight back to full fitness before Euro 2012.

Few people scoffed when United paid £17million for him after he had helped Bayern Munich to four Bundesliga titles and a Champions League success, although no-one knew at that time that a broken leg he suffered in Germany would be the root of the tendonitis problem which has plagued his career.

Hargreaves was a regular in 2007-08 as the Reds won the Premier League and Champions League, and was in the starting XI as they beat Barcelona over a two-legged Euro semi-final and then edged out Chelsea on penalties in the final.

In terms of honours and European experience, no-one at City can match him, now that Patrick Vieira has stepped back into the shadows.

And that ‘Vieira factor’ is in City’s thoughts as they prepare to conclude the biggest shock of the transfer window.

No-one should underestimate what Vieira lent to the dressing room at Eastlands last season, in terms of leadership, advice, compassion and inspiration.

He had seen it all before, and when the crunch came at the end of the season, his influence was crucial, especially to younger players who needed someone to look up to, and to lean on.

People had a good laugh at the videos Hargreaves put out, in which he looked faintly ludicrous in lycra shorts, cap-sleeved T-shirt and green bootees.

There was also an element of pathos about it. Here was a man desperate to resurrect a football career which was at its peak when he was struck down, and prepared to go to any length to do so.

Hargreaves is a decent man and a committed and dedicated professional as well as a talented player.

It won’t be easy for him. It is one thing darting around cones and working out on running machines, something else playing in the cauldron of the Premier League and Champions League.

Abyss

The last time he started at the top level, he lasted five minutes and limped out of United’s match with Wolves in November last year. He looked like a man whose career was sliding into the abyss.

Two-and-a-half years earlier, he had been on top of the football world, a first-choice in Sir Alex Ferguson’s team and a key man for England.

It all came crashing down the following season as the knees which had already started to trouble him in his Bayern days began to deteriorate.

It did not seem like the end of the world – it is a common complaint among athletes, with a tendon in the knee getting inflamed by repeated use, and can usually be treated and managed.

But it proved debilitating for the Bolton-born naturalised Canadian who had made his name in German football.

Trips to see specialists in London and Sweden did not help, and the troubled midfielder ended up flying out to Colorado to see the famous knee surgeon Dr Richard Steadman.

He had an operation on the right knee in November 2008, and followed that with a similar op on the left knee two months later, ruling him out for the remainder of that season.

After extensive rehabilitation in the US, he returned to Manchester but his problems were only just beginning.

He struggled to get back to full fitness and was left out of United’s Champions League squad and even had to pull out of a reserve comeback in March 2010 – ironically against City.

He finally came back in added time of the penultimate game of the season, but a setback in the summer meant he missed the start of last season and had to return to the US for more work.

When he finally returned, in November 2010, Old Trafford saw the last of him in a red shirt as he walked gingerly down the touchline, touching his hamstring, just five minutes into his comeback against Wolves.

He admits that he sat in the United dressing room and wept openly as two years of hard work had ended with an unrelated injury.

Three months later he was training with the United kids, and dislocated a shoulder, an injury which kept him out for the rest of the season.

Hargreaves failed to return that season, and Ferguson did not offer him a new contract, leading to speculation that his career may be over, even though he had offered to play for nothing.

The United manager claimed he did not share the view that Hargreaves was finished, saying: "This has been a difficult decision knowing how hard the lad has worked to win back his fitness, but we have made it in the hope he will be able to resurrect his career elsewhere."

Little did Fergie realise that Hargreaves, who still lives in Cheshire, would end up moving in with the noisy neighbours.

After trying acupuncture and even faith healing, Hargreaves finally turned to trainer Alex McKechnie, the man credited with rebuilding basketball ace Shaquille O’Neal’s career.

This summer he was ready to start his comeback, with West Brom heading the list of interested clubs – he passed a medical and was offered terms by Roy Hodgson, before City stepped in.

Hargreaves said, just last week: "I’m going to blow people away. I’m coming back believing I can return to the level I was at before.

"My body feels great and my knees are perfect. I’ve just got this huge chip on my shoulder because I’ve been out for three years and people think I’m dead and buried.

"I can understand why. I can see why people would be sceptical. When I walked off the pitch after five minutes in that game against Wolves last season, people must have thought, ‘What is it with this guy? Is he made of glass? Is he kidding?

"It was my first game in two years."

Hargreaves believes he could play 40 games this season and is targeting a place in the England squad for next summer’s European Championships.

Dr Steadman has also given him a clean bill of health, claiming his knees are strong enough to withstand a ‘jump from the Eiffel Tower’.

City are giving him a clean slate – and if their gamble pays off, they have a top-class midfielder for nothing.

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