Age: 24
Bought for: £30 million
Status: England's best hope for World Cup glory, and Manchester United's chouchou.
You’ll like: His wife, Coleen. Born and raised in Liverpool, she loves living close to her family. You hear that, Real Madrid? If you want Rooney, you’ll have to transport his in-laws and all of Merseyside as well.
You won’t like: His accent. We pretend to know what he’s saying, but really… we don’t.
Everything I do, I want to win, whether that’s playing PlayStation or playing at Old Trafford.”
-Rooney
“I have always said that Wayne Rooney is an amazing player, the kind of striker any team in the world would like to have.”
-Thierry Henry
“I have always said that Wayne Rooney is an amazing player, the kind of striker any team in the world would like to have.”
-Thierry Henry
Now allow me to introduce - Wayne Rooney. Remember that name, because he's a legend in the making (don’t listen to the Brits and their usual hype, he’s not a legend...YET). But he's well on his way. You might have heard of him as "the boy wonder," but I like to refer to him affectionately as Wayney. And yes... I said Wayney.
And as if to signal my love for him to come; his debut goal came during a game for his old club, Everton, against (wait for it….) Arsenal. Premiership history was made, as he became the youngest goal-scorer at the time. All this while ending Arsenal’s unbeaten run that season. We should have known, right then and there, he’d one day be a Red Devil.
Fast forward to 2009: the summer which brought to an end months (ok, fine, YEARS) of speculation. Cristiano Ronaldo finally made the move south to Spain (we’ll broach this very sour subject… later… ). And, surprise surprise, the world wasted no time in plotting Manchester’s “inevitable” downfall. Chants of “There’s no United without Ronaldo” gleefully rang, much to my amusement. The argument was simple: Manchester United will fail to win anything this season, for United was a one-man show. Well, it gives me great pleasure to know that our former Evertonian stepped up to the plate. 30+ goals later, leading scorer in the Premier League, 2nd leading scorer in the Champions League before his injury, Rooney finally became the selfish and controlled player we’ve all wanted him to be.
Imagine being told one of the negative aspects of your approach to what you do is you work too hard?? Well, that was his problem. Running up and down the field is great, yes, but NOT when you need to sprint back to score a goal. And unless you rock a cape that says SuperMan on it; you have to learn you can’t do it all. Ronaldo had that selfish streak in him that sometimes, in life, you just need to succeed (I must have screamed “PASS THE FREAKIN BALL YOU DEUCHE” at least 10x per match at Ronaldo). However, his selfish streak was justified, because with every 5 shots on target he'd have? Two would be goals. Rooney, on the other hand, would presumably have been gallivanting somewhere else on the field, helping the defense out.
The new Rooney has evolved, and though he hasn’t lost the work rate that has gained him much respect, he has curbed his need to do 360 ° tours all over the bloody pitch. And credit to Ferguson, we’ve seen it time and time again, players maturing under his guidance. We saw it with a young & untamed Ronaldo, whose exuberant flair and unnecessary stepovers left me wanting to commit homicide. Once matured away from that; Ronaldo flourished. We're now seeing that growth in Rooney, who is miles away from the hot headed teen who came to Man Utd six years ago. Now, at 24, his maturity is blending with his love for the game. And regardless of what team you support, it's there for you to see; in his runs, his movement, and his understanding of the game - he has begun to position himself better, all the while creating better opportunities to score score score. And score he has. More impressively, he is defying the critics who solemnly swore no one would fill the gap left by our dear Cristiano.
He has done so, simply, by not failing to capitalize on his own talent.
So during a week when we lost him to injury, and people are parading about, insisting Man United are nothing without Rooney? I thought this would be a most appropriate topic. Yes, it's hard to win when an integral part of your team goes missing. But the point being made here is not solely that we have a gem in Wayne Rooney, no. That much's a given.
This is instead a friendly reminder. A memo of sorts. The boy wonder represents Sir Alex Ferguson's winning approach. He's the perfect example of why Ferguson has, during his lovely 23-year reign, won trophy after trophy, becoming the most successful manager in British football - history - along the way. Because when Manchester United loose one star?
My dears. Cometh the hour, Cometh another man. Always.
Fast forward to 2009: the summer which brought to an end months (ok, fine, YEARS) of speculation. Cristiano Ronaldo finally made the move south to Spain (we’ll broach this very sour subject… later… ). And, surprise surprise, the world wasted no time in plotting Manchester’s “inevitable” downfall. Chants of “There’s no United without Ronaldo” gleefully rang, much to my amusement. The argument was simple: Manchester United will fail to win anything this season, for United was a one-man show. Well, it gives me great pleasure to know that our former Evertonian stepped up to the plate. 30+ goals later, leading scorer in the Premier League, 2nd leading scorer in the Champions League before his injury, Rooney finally became the selfish and controlled player we’ve all wanted him to be.
Imagine being told one of the negative aspects of your approach to what you do is you work too hard?? Well, that was his problem. Running up and down the field is great, yes, but NOT when you need to sprint back to score a goal. And unless you rock a cape that says SuperMan on it; you have to learn you can’t do it all. Ronaldo had that selfish streak in him that sometimes, in life, you just need to succeed (I must have screamed “PASS THE FREAKIN BALL YOU DEUCHE” at least 10x per match at Ronaldo). However, his selfish streak was justified, because with every 5 shots on target he'd have? Two would be goals. Rooney, on the other hand, would presumably have been gallivanting somewhere else on the field, helping the defense out.
The new Rooney has evolved, and though he hasn’t lost the work rate that has gained him much respect, he has curbed his need to do 360 ° tours all over the bloody pitch. And credit to Ferguson, we’ve seen it time and time again, players maturing under his guidance. We saw it with a young & untamed Ronaldo, whose exuberant flair and unnecessary stepovers left me wanting to commit homicide. Once matured away from that; Ronaldo flourished. We're now seeing that growth in Rooney, who is miles away from the hot headed teen who came to Man Utd six years ago. Now, at 24, his maturity is blending with his love for the game. And regardless of what team you support, it's there for you to see; in his runs, his movement, and his understanding of the game - he has begun to position himself better, all the while creating better opportunities to score score score. And score he has. More impressively, he is defying the critics who solemnly swore no one would fill the gap left by our dear Cristiano.
He has done so, simply, by not failing to capitalize on his own talent.
So during a week when we lost him to injury, and people are parading about, insisting Man United are nothing without Rooney? I thought this would be a most appropriate topic. Yes, it's hard to win when an integral part of your team goes missing. But the point being made here is not solely that we have a gem in Wayne Rooney, no. That much's a given.
This is instead a friendly reminder. A memo of sorts. The boy wonder represents Sir Alex Ferguson's winning approach. He's the perfect example of why Ferguson has, during his lovely 23-year reign, won trophy after trophy, becoming the most successful manager in British football - history - along the way. Because when Manchester United loose one star?
My dears. Cometh the hour, Cometh another man. Always.
