If we were an average Premier League footballer, coming to the end of our playing career but pocketing a massive £250-300k per week, depending upon who you believe, we would probably want to stay where we are as well.
Emitting the occasional “we would like to play more games“, and, “we do everything we can to help the team, on and off the pitch“, we just hope that we are making the right noises in order not to be sold to a club where we will have to take a very large pay cut, particularly if that club is one we supposedly love and support. A clear example of how greed is a much more powerful emotion than love.
Rewind just a few short years and Rooney was behaving like the spoilt brat he has become. He had thrown his toys out of the pram on two occasions, once when suggesting that his teammates were not of sufficient quality to grace the same field as himself and another when he fell out with Sir Alex Ferguson about his role within the team.
This second occasion was exacerbated by Ferguson telling the world that Rooney had asked for a transfer when this was, apparently, unreported news to the man himself.
The sad thing about Fergie’s retirement, (lack of trophies apart), is that Rooney would surely have been sold had the Scotsman remained in charge, even for one more year. This, as we all know, did not transpire and the spoilt brat is still at the club, still collecting far too much money and is now not even good enough for the first team.
It is a ridiculous situation which United have allowed to develop by caving in to his agent’s demands on the two occasions previously mentioned. The highest paid player at the club can’t get into the team!
The big difference now is that Rooney realises he is not going to get a move to Chelsea, or Manchester City, or Real Madrid, or Barcelona. Having been replaced by a 35 year-old Swede, the best he can now hope for is Everton, China or America. The big dilemma for him, which shows how greedy he is, is that he would rather sit on the bench at United than return to his boyhood club, where he would play every game, for less money. He is also too insular a person to adapt to a new lifestyle in the USA, which obviously rules out any chance of him going to China.
So the new Wayne Rooney is now happy to be a squad player at Old Trafford, at least for another season. This is a turnaround in attitude similar to José Mourinho’s new found love for the Europa League, which, once it has been won, will become just “a stepping stone to the Champion’s League“, which is the one Mourinho really cares for.
If his wish is granted and United don’t offer Rooney a new contract, then he can leave for free at the end of next season. This will cost United another 12 months salary of approximately £14.4 million AND a transfer fee which would probably be in the region of £15-20 million, given his age.
So, to use an expression profoundly detested by this publication, it is a no-brainer. Rooney has to be sold this Summer to anybody who will have him if only because his ridiculous salary could finance three new young players.
Bye-bye Wayne, it was fun while it lasted, (some of the time, anyway).
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 