Wayne Rooney has come in for an enormous amount of criticism recently from Manchester United fans. He is perceived as selfish. disloyal, lazy and most of all not the same player that he once was. But how fair an appraisal of the Wayne Rooney of 2013 is that and how does the Rooney of today compare to the one that was integral part of Manchester United's victorious Champions League of 2008?
Well lets look at the first three points first of all. Much of this viewpoint comes from Rooney's original transfer request made in 2010 when rumour had it he was angling for a move to Manchester City. He publicly questioned the ambition of the club's owners, the Glazer family and whether they would be willing to invest the kind of money required to rebuild a team that was a little past it's peak with players of the calibre his talent deserved.
Unlike when both Ronaldo and Tevez were allowed to leave the club, where excuses could be found for their departure that the Manchester United fans would at least partially accept, with Rooney it was clear that if he were allowed to leave and join the club's rivals and neighbours that this would be perceived as the footballing equivalent of having their credit rating downgraded. It would signify that United were no longer in the top bracket of European teams and were now a selling club.
Sir Alex Ferguson refused to allow the sale under any circumstances and Rooney came out of the deal with his weekly wage more than doubled and his relationship with Ferguson supposedly still intact. Since that incident however there has definitely been a cooling of the things between the two. In some quarters people (and that seemed to include Sir Alex) were starting to view Rooney as becoming complacent.
He was on an enormous wage and playing during a period when United, burdened by severe financial difficulties were not bringing in the sort of players who could threaten his place in the starting line up. For a time he had become indispensable to the club.
The effect of this alleged complacency on his form was made worse by a string of injuries. After breaking his metatarsal right before the 2006 World Cup, he then damaged his ankle in United's Champions League quarter final against Bayern Munich during the 2009-10 season. As the saga around his transfer request was being handled Rooney was then shipped out to Nike's training complex in Portland, Oregan to recover his fitness and missed a sizable chunk of the season as a result.
Then more recently Rooney has been dropped on occasion due to distractions in his personal life as well as missing a number of games last season after sustaining a nasty gash on his thigh that was serious enough to risk permanent damage to his leg. Even before that happened, during United's first game of the 2012-13 season away against Everton he looked short of fitness and questions were asked by the fans as to what he had been up to all summer to look so out of shape. That campaign was definitely Rooney's worst for United to date and his omission from the starting line up of the Champions League tie against Real Madrid just about summed up how far his stock had fallen. Van Persie was now the main man and Rooney had the hump about it.
Since that time the whole issue of his future does not seem to have been handled well. Ferguson made life very difficult for the striker during one of his last interviews as manager by stating that Rooney's fall from grace was down to a lack of effort on his part.
To an outsider looking in, the best thing Rooney could have done at that point was admit that Ferguson was right about him not having a great season then get his head down and get on with things. Instead he very publicly tried to manoeuvre for a transfer Chelsea which he should have been smart enough to realise was never going to happen.
On his return to the side against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford yesterday after another injury (this time to the head) he seemed to be a little more at ease with playing for United again, perhaps sensing that more of the crowd were on his side than not. It seems likely that he will now remain a United player for the next 12 months or so at least.
But what about the last allegation, that Rooney is no longer the player he once was? Well there may well be some truth in this. The explosive pace he once had is no longer a part of his game. However neither are the succession of petty yellow and red cards he accumulated during his earlier career as on the football pitch at least he is now much calmer and wiser than he was in the past.
Rooney's best position these days is as a link man between the midfield and Van Persie. Here is physical presence, willingness to put his foot in and fantastic range and vision of passing still makes him an asset most teams would rather have than face. His lack of pace is less exposed when playing as a link man and he is protected from the ravages of playing as a lone target man, a role that natural athletes like Ronaldo and Van Persie seem to manage with ease, but appeared to take a lot more out of Rooney....
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