WHY SAY ANYTHING?

(Sir Bobby is horrified to see his goalscoring record broken by Wayne Rooney, of all people!)

So it’s finally gone. One of the longest standing records in football has been broken. At least it was a decent goal which did the dastardly deed.

Wayne Rooney, thanks to longevity rather than anything else, is now Manchester United’s record goalscorer. This fact will always divide opinion amongst genuine United fans never mind the hangers-on who only discovered the club after they became successful.

There have been several players who would have broken Sir Bobby’s record had they stayed at the club long enough. Cristiano Ronaldo most certainly would be ahead by now. Ruud van Nistelrooy is another who would have eclipsed Charlton’s achievement. Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, (without the injuries and time on the bench) and even “Absolutely” Dwight Yorke may have gone on to score goals in record numbers.

So the fact that Rooney has managed it is more thanks to his length of time at the club, lack of absence due to injury and the weakness of the club when it came to dealing with his misdemeanours.

As everybody is aware he could and should have been sold on at least two occasions in the past. Dallyings with a prostitute and telling the club they needed to buy players was neither his job nor was it in his interest.

Agitating for a move to Manchester City, until dissuaded by a few friendly United fans, and then to Chelsea, further distanced him from true United supporters.

Rooney was always going to struggle gaining acceptance at Manchester United purely because he is from Liverpool. Initially he was tolerated because the fans, like everybody else in England, thought he might turn out to be a bit special. How disappointed we were all to be!

He then managed to turn the diehards completely against him with the aforementioned shenanigans.

Alan Green is an opinionated, self-serving, know-nothing whose irritating commentary can be heard on BBC Sport radio, if anybody is masochistic enough to listen. He has suggested, according to the press, that United build a statue to Rooney. Why? What has he done?

The bottom line is that he is a multi-millionaire who has been paid very well to do less than was expected of him and now, an Irishman wants a statue of a Liverpudlian outside the ground of Manchester United! What is he smoking?

People like Alan Green make me realise what the old saying, “he should be seen and not heard”, actually means, although he is not a pretty sight either and so should be viewed only with extreme caution.

It looks as though Wayne Rooney may see out his playing days in China where he will be paid even more than he is now for doing even less than he is now. Good luck to him if he does make the move as we here at WSA appreciate that the choice to pay him all that money is made by people far more idiotic than even he can be.

The only sad part of this whole episode with the goalscoring record is that Rooney is not fit to take over from somebody like Sir Bobby Charlton and, although he would never admit it, Charlton must be very disappointed to see it go to him.

Never mind, it will no doubt, go to somebody worthy in the future if they can only hang around Old Trafford for the requisite length of time. That will be the difficult bit.