As regular readers will no doubt be aware, we cannot be numbered among Wayne Rooney’s greatest fans. With this in mind we had decided, a while ago, not to give him any more press having concluded that he was already one of the most talked about footballers in existence and a lot of what was being said about him was, in our opinion, overrating him far more than was necessary and even more than he was overrating himself!
His latest act of unwarranted petulance has, however, forced us temporarily out of retirement on the subject of the hard-to-like scouser. Just as one of his chapters comes to an end, we begin a new one.
As we have said all along, he has been a good footballer in his two short spells at Everton and his thirteen years at Manchester United, but he never achieved the greatness many misguided people thought he would.
He was fortunate to play in some great teams during the reign of the greatest manager United have ever had and, in fairness, he made his contribution.
He did not have a remarkable goalscoring history despite breaking Sir Bobby Charlton’s record. It took him ELEVEN years as the main striker and two as a midfielder before he surpassed Charlton who played all of his career in midfield.
At the end of his United career he had averaged less than twenty goals per season which is not the sign of a great player.
He was, however, in the main, a good servant to the club and a player on whom Fergie could rely, at least until the last year or so.
As a professional, Rooney leaves a heck of a lot to be desired and is certainly not the role model to be held up for kids as an example of how to behave. From late night drinking sessions in hotels to assignations with a prostitute. From holding United to ransom and threatening to leave to holding United to ransom and threatening to leave, yes he did it twice and should have been sold on both occasions!
His latest action though is the one which really takes some swallowing simply because, by now, he should be old enough to know better.
For the last couple of years at United Rooney was worse than average, a loss of form which seemed to coincide with when he was, wrongly in our view, made captain of both United and England. Whether this had any psychological effect or not is debatable but it looks as though it may have done.
This loss of form eventually resulted in him being dropped by United, although it took until the appointment of José Mourinho for it to happen. Then, of course, England followed suit.
The next we are reading is that he has gone back to Everton to play out his remaining years.
THAT was when he should have announced his retirement from international football. It should have coincided with him returning to his boyhood club and nobody would have blamed him for it.
What he has done is nothing short of selfish and is designed solely to make Gareth Southgate look foolish, when he has been nothing but open and honest with him.
Rooney has, basically, waited until he hit a bit of form, then waited until he got the call from Southgate and then did something he had been deliberately planning to do all along, he stuck two fingers up to England and walked away muttering, “nah, nah, nah-nah, nah! You wouldn’t pick me before, so I’m not picking you now!”
Yet again, Rooney’s overriding disposition was one of arrogance in previously thinking that he should have been selected for England even when he couldn’t get into United’s team.
Whenever he was interviewed, whether the questions were about being dropped by United or England, the impression was always that he was biting his tongue when answering. He tried to say the right things but what he wanted to say was always, “they shouldn’t drop me, I am Wayne Rooney. I am England’s best player!”
So stop with all the praise about what a fantastic player he has been for his country. What have they won when he has been in the team? Nothing! Most of his goals have come in friendlies and against inferior opposition so he certainly hasn’t had the effect on England that, for example, Ronaldo has had on Portugal.
The Portuguese has inspired his teammates and has picked up a major trophy with a team that is, on paper, worse than England. So he can genuinely be regarded as a great player at both club and international level.
He has also conducted himself very professionally throughout his career something which, unfortunately, can never be said about Rooney.
It is now to be hoped that he can keep his head down and get on with his football, which he can be quite good at occasionally. Stop trying to make headlines for all the wrong reasons and get on the back pages of the papers for all the right ones.
If he can achieve that then we would still, although a little begrudgingly, wish him good luck.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 
A terrible article, and I share none of your dislikes for Rooney. I have my own reasons for not admiring him as a player. Rooney is almost as narcissistic as Ronaldo. But United players don’t all come in mold of Beckham.
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Well I do not know when Rooney half as much as I would have loved. But you with this article is exceptionally brainless.. it’s very obvious in your write up that all you have for him is nothing but hate.. if you were been placed in the shoes of Wayne, you wouldn’t do half a good as he has cus your write up has already shown the world the kind of person you are.. if your life is being thoroughly examined now it would definitely show that in your own line of work you’ve done absolutely nothing for your country and yet you seem to have the effrontery to talk rubbish about someones life endeavors cus he probably hasn’t done things the way you would have wished for him to.. to me lad or whoever it was that put up this I have just one word I would like for you to go home and meditate seriously on.. “hypocrisy”.. then in many words you are a big Buffon… You are just a loser in journalism trying to pour out your shameful failure out on another human that has obviously done his best in his own way.. idiot comparing Wayne with Ronaldo, two people with different life and style , difference sence to life as different individuals they obviously are… Go home cus you can never , not even in your next life be valuable half as much as Wayne even when he has no need for the word value.. imbecile!!!!😂
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Although lacking some of the more tedious basics of the English language required to construct a decent narrative, such as grammar and spelling, your comment does have an almost oxymoron-like quality in the way you have actually spelled “imbecile” correctly. Well done.
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Ridiculously ignorant article! Rooney was a phenomenal talent in his day and to measure him on goal totals alone is one sided and Disingenuous. He was a team player that never hesitated to share the ball or his totals could have been much higher.
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That is your opinion and I respect that. Like you say in his day he was a talent starting age 17 , but in my opinion he only managed to beat the reccords because of the amount of years that he is playing. And yes he shared the ball many times most of it to the oposition players.
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Well, it looks like the Rooney lovers, all three of them, are out in force. Viewing their hero through rose-tinted spectacles they have obviously never seen any really good or world class players if they think this mercenary was one!
Fortunately though, they are a very small minority out of the thousands who have read the article.
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You are indeed entitled to your opinion and I have seen worse articles. I guess you went this route to get more publicity and this article does not really reflect what you think of Wayne. You may hate, but this is a man who gave his best when called upon. He held nothing back in serving club and country. He was passionate and unbiased in his job. If you can build these few skills, you stand a chance of achieving your dreams. Rooney has been successful. Worry more about how you would be successful.
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I agree. Rooney has to be one of the most overrated players in history. Yes he had ability but look at some of the players he had around him at United. Any half decent striker would have got bags of goals with the service of Giggs, Ronaldo, Scholes and co. He may well have scored a record number of goals for England but many were penalties or against poor opponents. I struggle to remember one England game of importance where his performance really made the difference.
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