Newcastle United boss Joe Kinnear expects to know by Monday if Michael Owen will be signing a new contract.

The Toon chief said: "I'm not going to say Michael will sign - but I think he will. When I said 'when are you going to make a decision?' he said 'in the next couple of days'. I'm much more optimistic about keeping him.

"I'd say that it's now 60-40 in favour that he signs. This time last week it was probably 30-70 against. He told me with Kevin Keegan he'd only been offered 12 months.

"I didn't really see any value in that so I just said 'what if we can tie you up for the rest of your career, would you be happy with that?' and he said 'yes'."