It's difficult to pinpoint exactly where Michael Owen's legacy sits with Liverpool fans.
To some, he was the boy-wonder who burst on the scene in his teens, becoming the Reds' main man almost overnight before establishing himself as one of the very best strikers to turn out at Anfield.
He is the man who single-handedly dragged them back from the brink of FA Cup heartache to win them the trophy in 2001 and someone who was Liverpool's great hope during his seven years in the first team.
To others, he was the player who left the club for a pittance during what should have been his peak years before later joining Manchester United, evaporating the last few droplets of goodwill that existed following his Anfield exit in 2004.
The truth, as is often the case, is probably found somewhere in the middle. Owen's is a story that defies convention; he was a striker who scored 158 times and won five major honours, but he is also the player who left for just £8m at the age of 24 to join Real Madrid before later winning the Premier League as a United man.
A true definition of his standing is more complex than simply assigning him to either role as hero or villain. The shades of grey are splattered all over his Liverpool years.
Three years ago, Owen opened up his home in north Wales to the ECHO to announce the forthcoming arrival of his new book entitled Reboot. The work was done, in part, to reset the perceptions and preconceived notions he felt had been established in the public's general consensus when he was a fresh-faced teen that had been moulded by the PR gurus to present the squeakiest of clean images.
As his 40th birthday neared, Owen felt that it was the right time to challenge those views and an explosive book did just that upon its release in September 2019. Sitting down with writer Mark Eglington, the former England international's memoirs later led to a spat with Alan Shearer as he accused Newcastle fans of "blind delusion" over the size of their football club.
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Owen also hit out at the online trolls he is frequently confronted by on social media sites while dismissing the "fan-centric" nonsense over criticism of his ambassadorial role at Liverpool. It was biting stuff, the kind not usually associated with an apparently ordinary man with the extraordinary talent.
For those reared on the image of Owen as a media doyen devoid of any real personality beyond his sporting prowess, Reboot opened some eyes. But three years on from sitting down to try and achieve just that, does the 2001 Ballon d'Or winner feel he succeeded?
"Well I don't know," he admits in an exclusive chat with the ECHO. "I think when I was asked to do the book I was in two minds. And then once I agreed to it and started sitting down and talking about life and everything else, it was almost quite therapeutic to just get it all out.
"Because in football you can't say what you want to say all of the time and of course my career was such that I didn't plan anything. You know I didn't plan to do what I did at 17 or 18 or 30 or 33 for that matter.
"You just try your nuts off to get to the top of your profession and to score a goal every time you play and that is just your way. But it is not like in business where you can plan ahead with a five-year plan. You're doing your best for the here and now and I just felt that the book was therapeutic."
Owen's rise from Liverpool Academy hopeful to England World Cup hero came fast for the Chester-born striker. He was only 18 when he shot to prominence on the world stage against Argentina in 1998.
That goal - one that has been replayed hundreds of times since - came on the back of a first full season at senior level where he scored 23 times for Roy Evans' side. In 10 months, Owen went from someone making just his third professional appearance to performing at a World Cup with the hopes of a nation on his young shoulders.
"This is not a normal life," he admits as a matter of fact. "The life I have lived is not a normal life being thrust in front of billions of people worldwide at 17 or 18 and being Liverpool's top scorer and a Golden Boot winner at 17, going to a World Cup at 18 and scoring THAT goal.
"People know your name, and sitting there all night signing things for your fans, that is not a normal thing. So, you know, it's normal to me because I don't know any differently.
"I have lived that life and I have just lived it as best as I can. But now I am retired, I have a semi-normal life, it's almost like that was...not a different person, but look at it in a different way."
Now in his early 40s, Owen is left to reflect on the change in his outlook that arrived through the maturity of fatherhood and family life. There is almost a relief in his voice when he speaks of no longer having to concern himself with the pressure - or 'anger' as he refers to it - of being an elite sportsman every day of his life.
"I am a totally, totally different person to the wired, determined type of person I was. I am much more mellow now," he says in a Zoom call from his car ahead of a morning spent playing 18 holes.
"I love spending time with my family, I love business, I love watching, observing and it's just a more chilled out existence now as opposed to every single day, opening your eyes and being angry about where your next goal is coming from.
"My waking thought was 'how am I going to score?' I've got to train, I've got to do this, I've got to eat this...that was my life for years and years.
"But now I am a different person, I've got a different life and a different outlook and everything else. So I hope I've changed.
"I don't think I was a bad person, I just needed to be a certain type of person and now, I don't know, I am just very much at ease with life.
"But when you are living that life, everything that comes around you, whether it's family or your wife...everything that surrounds you; to get to where you want to get to, everything else takes a backseat.
"You've got to be so driven and everyone has almost got to fit around you rather than you giving way to certain things and now it's totally the opposite.
"I am much more comfortable and generous with my time, so it is a nice place to be, but I certainly wouldn't go back and apologise for it.
"That was me and I wanted to be the best. But now I am in a different phase of life, obviously."
The debates over the career of Michael Owen will seemingly always be prevalent and after living something of a nomadic existence for a player of his rare quality. And perhaps there is an argument to be made that he never truly established an identity at Anfield or anywhere else.
For the man himself, however, he is clearly at peace with it all.
